By Monitoring desk
ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar summoned details of the Memogate case on Monday while hearing a case related to the right to vote for overseas Pakistanis.
The Memogate scandal erupted in 2011 when Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz claimed to have received an 'anti-army' memo from Pakistan's ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani for the then-US joint chiefs chairman Admiral Mike Mullen.
The scandal, taken to the Supreme Court by then opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, led to Haqqani's resignation.
During Monday's hearing, the chief justice remarked that the purpose of the proceedings is to give the right of vote to overseas Pakistanis.
He added that there are some Pakistanis who promised the court to show up but did not return.
Inquiring into the whereabouts of Haqqani, the chief justice asked if he will also be given a right to cast a vote.
"Why don’t we issue him a notice and summon him to face the Memogate case," the chief justice remarked. He then directed the registrar office to take out the Memogate case file and submit it in the court.
The CJ, while heading a three-member bench, heard petitions, filed by members of civil society, praying that the government should set up appropriate infrastructure in order to enable the overseas Pakistanis to cast their vote in the forthcoming general elections of the country. The court granted 10 weeks to Navid software so that Overseas Pakistanis could cast their votes in upcoming general elections. During the course of hearing, Justice Umar Ata Bandyal, a member of the bench when observed that overseas Pakistanis should be enabled to cast their vote as, he said, the hearts of overseas Pakistanis beat for Pakistan.
Earlier, at the outset of hearing, chief justice inquired from the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) chairman when he was giving good news to the overseas Pakistanis about right of vote in the upcoming elections. He said there is law but how the system has to be developed to make this operational.
Nadra Chairman Usman Yousaf Mobin informed the court that they have taken drastic measures if three months are given to them then they would be able to prepare the software.
Appearing on notice, Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan Babar Fateh Yaqoob said the software would be ready in the first week of March. At this, the Nadra chairman said then they would conduct mock exercise and the software would be ready in two months and that would be done probably in April. The CJ told Nadra that they could ask the IT experts from abroad or within Pakistan. He said some overseas Pakistanis had phoned him and said they have volunteered and were ready to even give funds for preparing system for right to vote to them.
Usman Yousaf told the court that in April the Election Commission of Pakistan had called a meeting of all stakeholders. He said work on software had been started but there were issues of secrecy and it should be user friendly.
The ECP secretary said that they had set this question to incorporate in the software. He said the government was ready to pay the cost of the software and placing system so that overseas Pakistan cast vote in the election.
He submitted that the Commission was bound that the process for voting right of overseas Pakistan is not compromised so that no one can raise the finger at ECP.
The chief justice asked Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MNA Arif Alvi where his party was when the Election Act was passed. He said the PTI was claimant of a big chunk of overseas Pakistani votes; therefore, it should have made efforts for enacting a law in the parliament to seek their votes.
Arif Alvi, however, said that in 2011 he had raised the issue of right to vote for overseas Pakistanis in the National Assembly sub-committee. It was totally decided that voting right will be given to expatriates.
Meanwhile, the chef justice appreciated the work done both by the ECP as well as Nadra for developing a software that will enable the overseas Pakistanis to use their right to vote in the forthcoming general elections in the country.
The hearing was then adjourned for a month when a progress report on the software’s development would be submitted by Nadra.
