National Assembly rolls back electronic voting.

ISLAMABAD -- The National Assembly on Thursday passed the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2022, reversing a law which allowed electronic vote counting and enabled Pakistan nationals living abroad to cast their ballot online.

The bill was presented by Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Murtaza Javed Abbasi of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and adopted with a majority vote, with only members of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) - a former coalition partner of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) - opposing it.

The laws were introduced in November last year with the intent to ensure transparency in elections. Pakistan has a history of parties alleging vote-rigging after every election. But furious opposition at the time, now in the government, said it was pushed through to rig the next election.

'I believe that this is the blackest day of our parliamentary history. We condemn it,' then-National Assembly opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif, now prime minister, said.

Before presenting the bill, Abbasi presented a motion for allowing the bill to be sent directly to the Senate for its approval, bypassing the relevant standing committee. The motion was also passed by the House with a majority vote.

The bill is expected to be sent to the Senate Friday.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar dismissed the impression that the amendment is aimed at depriving overseas Pakistanis of their right to vote.

He said Pakistanis living abroad are a precious asset of the country and the government does not believe in snatching their right to vote.

Commenting on disallowing the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs), the minister insisted his PML-N party was not against the use of technology in polls, 'but we have concerns about its misuse'.

During the 2018 elections, the 'Results Transmission System (RTS) mysteriously stopped working at night to favour a certain political party'.

Tarar said the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) also expressed its inability to hold elections through i-voting and machines in a short span of time and without sufficient homework.

He said two amendments are being introduced to...