With the government’s success in Wednesday’s joint session on electoral reforms,

ruling party leaders will be delighted that they took a significant step in
reforming the electoral process a major campaign promise. Party stalwarts will
argue that we are one step closer to a more universal franchise.
But now that the government has brought this issue to the fore, it is important to
assess the claims of greater transparency in conjunction with whether voting has
been made more accessible as well.
For the Pakistani diaspora, it is clear that exercising the right to vote has been
made much easier, thereby including a whole new demographic to the electorate.
Whether this is positive or negative depends on who you ask, as the detractors of
online voting will argue that living somewhere other than in the constituency one
will be voting for only means that the voter will be out of touch with reality.
Alongside this, this type of voter would have less of a stake in the outcome, and
is thus more likely to make a choice based on other interests.
The argument is not unsound, especially if you look at the participation rates of
voters for each seat, and also account for the many marginalised sections of the
populace (living in Pakistan) that do not get to exercise their right, even though
the constitution allows for them to vote.
For instance, participation rates of women in erstwhile FATA and the tribal regions
remain problematically low. Societal and familial restrictions remain a significant
stumbling block, but there is nothing being done to counteract this. If anything,
the use of EVMs might create problems in such regions, where technological
knowledge is low.
Similarly, marginalised segments of the population such as the Ahmadiyya community
cannot exercise their rights due to the insecurity that comes as a result of being
on a separate voter list. These are crucial sections of the public—if the
government is indeed serious about granting every Pakistani with the right to vote,
it must look to target this discrimination as well. At least grant the right to
vote to all those in Pakistan as well, especially if overseas citizens are being
included in the process.