Should Overseas Pakistanis get reserve seats?
So basically anyone that invests in Pakistan should have voting rights. A lot of Overseas Pakistani people also have investments in Pakistan and probably don’t want criminals to eat it all up for which their special constituents/representatives could be held answerable. Some of them although not actively residing in Pakistan still have ties and business to attend to, and thus the choice of Govt. there makes a huge difference. Think of Land Grabbing as the most common complaint.
Constituency Seats for Pakistanis can be an ephemeral solution as discussed by Ishaq Dar, and Abid Sher Ali. For the Halqa Bandi, we then will have to look into the local country or regional laws. You may say that Europe has two constituencies and then the Americas have one and Gulf has four and the Pakistanis reside in the Scandanavian Nations. But what shall be their mandate? How would they be held accountable and according to which law?
Online Voting and Rigging
Currently, enough work hasn’t been done to have electronic voting or overseas vote in the next general elections. We all know when Donald Trump won, some named it glitches and some said that Russian hackers had changed the polls. The then Opposition and now the government may spin online voting under operational difficulties. But, the Election reforms by PTI were insincere. There were so many by-poll elections if the PTI was so keen. The election commission may have used Step by step implementation; should have done experimentation and identified loopholes.
The absurd case of EVM
EVM incorporation by PTI Government was a merely cheap publicity stunt. In rural Pakistan, there aren’t any Automated Teller Machines. People do not have basic training. First, ensure better than 50% turnover with ballot votes. If local elections get rigged free then think of implementing it abroad. I think more emphasis is needed to ensure electronic voting machines in Pakistan and the infrastructure needed to support them. If the right system is there, then we can move in direction of having an actual democracy where large-scale rigging can’t occur, which is a fundamental problem we’ve had historically. Forget pre-polled rigging of luring winning candidates into the King’s party.
i-Voting Rights Case Study
The Election Commission of Pakistan in collaboration with NADRA has developed an Online Voting System for Overseas Pakistanis. Using this system, Overseas Pakistanis would cast their vote in their home constituencies as per the Voter’s List from the comfort of their homes using any internet-connected device like a PC, Laptop, SmartPhone, or Tablet.
An Overseas Voter who wishes to use the system must have:-
– A National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistani
– A Machine Readable Passport
– A valid Email Address
