Islamabad: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday announced Pakistanis based overseas will be able to vote in the forthcoming by-elections.
The decision was made in a meeting chaired by ECP secretary Babar Yaqoob, held to discuss the whether to allow Pakistanis abroad to cast their votes in the by-elections.
The meeting finalised the strategy to allow all overseas Pakistanis to cast vote in the by-elections, in light of orders by the Supreme Court of Pakistan regarding the issue, and special instructions have been issued to National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) in this regard.
The meeting directed the Nadra to demonstrate the developed software before the ECP by the start of September.
The meeting decided that during September 1 to September 15, all those overseas Pakistanis will be registered, who will have National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis (NOCOP) or Machine Readable Passport (MRP).
It was decided that after registration process all registered overseas Pakistanis will be allowed to cast their vote in bye-elections, which will be held in different constituencies of the country.
The meeting also decided to start voters’ awareness drive to ensure registration of maximum overseas Pakistanis as voters.
In this regard the ECP will get support of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NADRA and Pakistani embassies in different countries.
