Can overseas Pakistanis decide the future of the country? Netizens share different views
Lahore, 11th June: A new debate has started up on social media on how a person who has never been to Pakistan decides the future of the country?
According to reports, the bill to give the right to vote to Pakistanis living abroad has been passed in the National Assembly. The bill will now be presented in the Senate.
However, overseas Pakistanis have different views on this right.
A user named Agha Qasim Raza thinks that those who live outside Pakistan, how can they decide the future of this country. They should come back to Pakistan and play a role here.
Saqib Khan says that the right to vote should be only when I live in my country and take measures for its betterment, otherwise you will prove to be like the elite who sit outside but can manipulate the local policy.
Asad Wasti says that the overseas Mochi Brigade thinks that Pakistanis are not ready for democracy here, that they are out of the game and that they are sitting abroad in the misguided West celebrating social freedoms.
Sarah Abid wrote that I am an overseas Pakistani and I should not have the right to vote until I return to my homeland. I have no right to influence decision-making until I return to my homeland, when I prefer to live in my homeland, I will have to lose every right.
In this regard, Federal Minister Murad Saeed in his statement on the social networking website Twitter said that the right to vote for Pakistanis abroad has been approved by the National Assembly, the bill will be presented in the Senate, Pakistanis abroad will now be able to vote.
بیرون ملک پاکستانیوں کو ووٹ کا حق دینے کا بل قومی اسمبلی سے منظور اب سینٹ میں پیش ہوگا ۔ اپوزیشن نے بل کی شدید مخالفت کی ۔ حکومتی اراکین کو مبارکباد جنہوں نے شفاف الیکشن اور بیرون ملک پاکستانیوں کو ووٹ کے حق کے بل کو منظور کرایا
— Murad Saeed (@MuradSaeedPTI) June 10, 2021
In his Twitter statement, Dr. Babar Awan, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs, said, “Congratulations to Pakistanis abroad. 73 years later, the Overseas Pakistanis Right to Vote Bill was passed by the National Assembly of Pakistan. The opposition boycotted the vote and opposed the bill. The bill will now be introduced in the Senate of Pakistan.
21 bills passed by the National Assembly in a single day. Including the bill for granting the right of vote to overseas Pakistanis.
From the office of @BabarAwanPK. pic.twitter.com/FJL4lUyrDj— Abdullah Babar Awan (@AbdullahBabarPK) June 11, 2021
In this regard, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said that the government wants to give the right to vote to overseas Pakistanis but this is a very important bill, its consequences can be anything.
No right to read the bill, no right to debate the bill, no right to have our vote counted and our opposition recorded. Completely undermine the role of parliament in legislation. Highly condemnable. Bulldozing of Election rigging bill, Kulbhushan NRO bill, PMDC, NEPRA bill. https://t.co/v5rQpkcxTW
— BilawalBhuttoZardari (@BBhuttoZardari) June 10, 2021
He warned the government that in this case, the government will have to take the opinion of the opposition, there can be no coercion.
Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain has said that giving the right to vote to Pakistanis abroad is a core part of the PTI’s manifesto, the opposition must play its role in the electoral reform process, all technology for the electronic voting machine is complete.