ISLAMABAD: Overseas Pakistanis have the right to vote, it is only the procedure that is yet to be decided, clarified Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Athar Minallah.

The recent changes to the Constitution had not actually stripped them of the right to vote, he said during a hearing Wednesday.

Justice Minallah was hearing a case filed against depriving overseas Pakistanis of their right to vote which was granted by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government.

The National Assembly and Senate recently passed the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2022 that seeks to stop the use of electronic voting machines for general elections and bar overseas Pakistanis from voting.

The chief justice added that the current and previous amendments to the Constitution granting expatriates the right to vote were the same except that the new one had been elaborated on.

Neither of the amendments deprives them of their right to vote, he remarked.

The petitioner’s lawyer, Arif Chaudhry, argued that the process to grant them the right to vote had been ongoing for the last 30 years. However, it was successful during the previous government.

No one could claim that expatriates had no right to vote, he added.

The court adjourned hearing of the case till June 3 (Friday).