Middle East OSPs 100% deserve the ability to vote and are always going to return to the country, not to mention the fact all their money goes back to Pakistan so they should most definitely have a say in Pakistan. They should definitely get the ability to vote even if all the others don’t get the ability to do so. Maybe a policy that dual nationals don’t get to vote?
The main case is for a large number of Pakistanis in Arab/Gulf countries who will have to return to Pakistan at some time and have no other passport. Now what will be the procedure for them to vote is core complicated. Our overseas brothers give their sweat and blood. They send their hard-earned money back home. First of all, we have to see at the local Laws. Does the host country allow this activity or not. Middle Eastern and Gulf countries are entirely undemocratic.
About 4-5 Million Overseas Pakistanis are working in the UAE and there is a huge Labour populace in Saudi Arabia. Most of the time each individual is the sole bread earner of their family. How could the Kingdoms afford it? The Gulf countries are an interesting point as they do not grant citizenship to outsiders. Pakistan exercising its citizen’s voting in Kingdoms/Emirates will cause a local stir.
Actually, if you look at it in a different way, the people in the gulf mostly have no other citizenship. For most of them, their families and all loved ones live in Pak as well and they will themselves return to Pakistan. I think dual citizen overseas Pakistanis shouldn’t be allowed to vote. But OSPs in Gulf countries (the vast majority) have no backup plan and Pakistan is still their only home country. So I think they do have a vested interest in Pakistan and their life does depend on it.
As far as one having input on how others are governed. The idea of democracy is if you and others agree to form a democratic society or live in one, then we will live by a majority of decisions. Where I have the opportunity to convince you to vote a certain way and you do the same towards me. So it is possible that you may be governed in a way that you do not agree with, but it is due to a system that we agreed on.
Of course, you can say that is not how it is in reality in Pakistan, but we are discussing what should be or is better, etc.
Free and Fair Elections
Today, Overseas Pakistanis can’t even order passport printing online. Can Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) be adopted outside Pakistan while they are not used here in Pakistan? The cost of holding elections with EVM adoption is 56 Billion Pakistani Rupees. But more concerningly, the transponder prints form-45 that is connected with the machine anybody can cut its cord. That becomes equivalent to aliens taking away the vote box as they did in Daska.
Lack of Resources
Currently, the registered overseas voters are about 90 Lac. However, according to the logistics viability, if only five thousand people in a day go to the consulate, it gets choked. Even then, depending on their domicile and where they used to live they can vote for certain MNA and MPA candidates as we are a parliamentary democracy and don’t vote directly for a leader. So to say they will all vote for any one party doesn’t make sense to me. There has to be a lot of printing.
