ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered its office to fix the case relating to the grant of right of vote to 7.9 million overseas Pakistanis after the July 25 general elections when it was informed that the idea could not be materialised due to paucity of time and want of multiple testing of the specially designed software.

A three-judge SC bench had taken up a set of petitions moved by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan and a group of citizens on behalf of Solicitor Muhammad Dawood Ghazanvi, Farhat Javed and others pleading that the denial of right to participate in the democratic process by the overseas Pakistanis would mean refusal by the government to carry out its constitutional obligation.

Senior counsel Chaudhry Faisal Hussain, representing the PTI chief, regretted that due to lethargic approach of the institutions the entire purpose of granting the right of vote to the expatriates had been defeated. Since the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had issued the election schedule, the voters list could not be amended or updated now, he said.

CJP says apex court will not intervene in delimitation exercise

The chief justice said the court had tried its best to grant this right to the overseas Pakistanis, but due to the brevity of time it seemed the objective was not possible.

Meanwhile, the chief justice, while hearing petitions challenging the delimitation of different constituencies, said the apex court would not intervene in the delimitation exercise.

Declaring the delimitations conducted by the ECP as correct, the court disposed of a plea challenging the delimitation in Haripur district and dismissed petitions questioning the delimitation in Jhal Magsi and Kachi districts of Balochistan.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2018