President Dr Arif Alvi on Sunday refused to sign the electoral reforms bill and returned it unsigned after recording his observations.

“The President has not signed the bill on EVMs and Overseas Pakistanis voting that was returned to parliament, which met recently and passed it again,” the President Secretariat said in a statement.

The president said that he had been pursuing the issue of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and Overseas Pakistanis Voting with all the governments, in the parliament, as well as at the Supreme Court of Pakistan for more than a decade, said the statement.

It said that the president observed that he had not signed the bill despite the fact, that the Constitution that he upheld, would make it into law.

Referring to Article 75 (2) of the Constitution of Pakistan, President Alvi said that it was very painful for him as the head of state to not sign a bill passed by Majlis Shoora.

The president, while recording his reason for posterity, said that besides the proposed law’s regressive nature that he pointed out in detail when he referred the bill back to Parliament, he strongly believed that technology, especially with EVMs when used judiciously contains many solutions that reduce the impact of confusion, discord and accusations in our ‘ever-marred’ and challenged election processes.

“The present and future Governments and Parliaments will be facing two choices, whether to allow the past to drag Pakistan down or allow the lessons from the past and technologies of today to boost us into the bright progressive and dynamic future of Pakistan that has been our dream.”

On June 9, the joint session of Parliament approved the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2022 to conduct pilot projects in by-elections before using I-Voting and Electronic Voting Machines in general elections.

The president in his letter to the prime minister had claimed that Article 46 of the Constitution had been violated as he was not informed about the legislative proposal before the bill was brought to the parliament.

The electoral reforms bill along with NAB (Amendment) Bill had been sent again to the president for approval.