The government has decided to allow dual-national Pakistanis to contest elections in the country.
A meeting of the federal cabinet, presided over by Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday, also decided to bring five major regulatory bodies under the cabinet and approved a proposal for removing the column of profession from the national passport.
The prime minister briefed the cabinet members on his US visit and termed it a successful one in which he had presented the country’s case in a befitting manner. About the opposition’s ‘black day’ protest across the country on the occasion of the first anniversary of the general election, he said the government had no policy to block opposition’s public meetings.
The Special Assistant to the PM on Information, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, said PM Khan wants dual national Pakistanis to become part of the country’s political system.
Briefing reporters soon after her arrival at Karachi airport about the 10-point agenda taken up by the cabinet, she said the prime minister had set up a high-powered committee comprising officials from the ministries concerned to suggest ways for making overseas Pakistanis legislators so that they could contribute to the country’s economy.
Cabinet decides to bring five major regulatory bodies under its purview; PM briefs meeting on his US visit
Dr Awan said two of those points were solely about overseas Pakistanis — their voting rights and the mechanism to allow them to become members of parliament.
PM Khan had a vision to utilise the talent and resources of overseas Pakistanis and dual nationals, she said. Therefore, she added, he had set up a committee representing ministries of foreign affairs, interior, parliamentary affairs and overseas Pakistanis to suggest a mechanism to remove hurdles in the way of dual nationals becoming legislators.
Ms Awan said the PM had issued directives to the relevant ministries as well as the Election Commission of Pakistan to come up with a comprehensive programme for giving voting rights to overseas Pakistanis. The decision, if implemented, will require an amendment to the Constitution as its Article 63 (c) reads: “A person shall be disqualified from being elected or chosen as, and from being, a member of the Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament), if he ceases to be a citizen of Pakistan, or acquires the citizenship of a foreign state.”
Ms Awan pointed out that the ECP had started the process of registration of overseas Pakistanis as voters, but it stopped for some reasons. “Now the PM has directed the ECP and other relevant departments to restart the process of registration of overseas Pakistanis on a war footing.”
