Sheikh Rasheed to move SC for voting rights to overseas Pakistanis

RAWALPINDI: Former interior minister and Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rasheed has announced to move SC for the provision of the rights to vote to overseas Pakistanis, ARY News reported. 

“Country is running with the foreign remittances sent by 10 million overseas Pakistanis, will move to court if they are deprived of voting right,” Sheikh Rasheed said in his statement.

Rasheed said he will ensure the provision of voting rights to overseas Pakistanis. The Pakistani diaspora will protest if they are not allowed to exercise their right to vote.

Criticising the decision of doing trade with India, Sheikh Rasheed said the move is like accepting the Modi’s steps of August 5 in the occupied Kashmir.

Kashmiris will never accept this move of the Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz-led federal government.

Read more: Overseas Pakistanis protest outside ECP, demand right to vote

Earlier, Minister for Law and Justice Senator Azam Nazir Tarar Wednesday said that present government’s top agenda to introduce electoral reforms in the country would ensure transparency in the democratic process and level playing field for all political parties.

Talking to PTV News, he said the government was ready to hear opposition regarding the issue of reforms as it is a matter of the “future of Pakistan’s democracy”.

He said right of vote to overseas Pakistanis cannot be given till the required legislation is done by the parliament regarding various practical legal aspects, adding, proper dialogue and debate would be the best way to tackle the issue.