Voice Of Overseas Pakistanis

DUBAI: Pakistani embassy in Abu Dhabi has started a series of meetings to evolve a voting mechanism for the eligible voters from nearly 1.2 million Pakistanis living across the UAE, Jamil Ahmed Khan, Pakistan Ambassador to the UAE, said.

The Election Commission of Pakistan on February 14 decided to grant voting rights to overseas Pakistanis. The decision will allow 3.7 million Pakistanis living abroad to vote.

The ambassador said that the recommendations of the first meeting at the embassy were forwarded to the government in Islamabad. They will be considered by the Election Commission at its meeting. He said that all political parties have to agree on the mechanism.

There could be early hiccups if polling stations are set up at the missions because voters living in far flung areas might find it difficult to reach the missions, thus more polling stations will be needed across the UAE, Khan said.

If voting is held by postal ballot, the result of several constituencies could be delayed if the ballot is delayed in post, he said.

The third option, he said, was to allocate a separate quota for overseas Pakistanis in the national and provincial assemblies and in the Senate so that overseas Pakistanis could be elected by direct voting. Continue reading »

* All Pakistanis who possess National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis will be registered in electoral rolls

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has allowed all overseas Pakistanis the right to vote in general elections, given they have their National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis (NICOP).
The decision was made at a meeting held in the ECP Secretariat on Tuesday.
The meeting, chaired by ECP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmad Khan, decided that all Pakistanis having NICOP would get registered in the electoral rolls and be allowed to exercise the right of franchise.
Ishtiak Khan requested the participants of the meeting to give serious consideration to the process by which overseas Pakistanis could properly be involved in the political process of the country. Continue reading »

By Ahmad Ahmadani-The Nation

The Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Dr Muhammad Farooq Sattar is ostensibly hell bent to get blue-eyed appointed against all vacant posts in OPF on priority basis and has desired to initiate the recruitment process, it has reliably been learnt.

Sources privy to the matter informed The Nation that government guru apparently in connivance with Secretary Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis Nadeem Ashraf are all out to initiate a process of recruitment against vacant posts though the financial health of the organization does not permit to put extra burden on it. They were of the opinion that in a bid to meet the agenda, minister has gotten rid of Israr Khan Jamali and Manzoor Ahmad, a BS-21 officer of the Police Group has now been appointed as MD on deputation basis with the recommendations of Farooq Sattar (The Minister) in the OPF that might lead to an economic jerk to the organisation because it is comprised of recruitment against the posts which were advertised in 2010 and interviews were done in last year. Again, the minister is desperate to award a contract worth Rs 42 crore of removing surplus soil from OPF housing Scheme Zone-V, Islamabad without the consent of ‘allotees’ (overseas Pakistanis). Continue reading »

She has charm and conviction. Our correspondent sat down with the 28 years old Bushra Zulfiqar, the extremely beautiful human development activist whose memoir A Daughter’s Heart has just been released.

 Q: – A lot of media attention is coming your way since your book has been released. What is the most absurd thing you have heard about it? Continue reading »

Pakistani Ambassador to the UAE Jamil Ahmed Khan met with community members at the consular section in the embassy here recently to listen to their grievances, if any, regarding document transactions.

During his regular visit to the section, he interacted with people visiting the embassy to renew their passports and national identity cards.

“We are committed towards providing the best possible consular services to the Pakistani community living in the UAE,” said Khan. Continue reading »

The overseas Pakistanis in many Western and Gulf countries are facing problems due to non-issuance of machine readable passport by the foreign missions abroad, says a press release received from a group of Pakistanis working abroad here on Tuesday.

The Pakistani embassies in other countries issue manual passports, which are not acceptable to the host country if they desire to visit any country, especially for performance of Hajj or Umra, the statement further added. Continue reading »

LONDON: A number of well-respected Pakistani business community figures in Europe are joining Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in the hope that he will bring to Pakistan the promised and much-needed change.

Imran Khan has been always popular in Europe for his cricketing exploits, especially for winning the World Cup and building the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital, but his “Tsunami” is reverberating outside of Pakistan too. The European Pakistani businesses joining Khan’s party are being led by Germany-based Syed Khurram Raza Kazmi, who chairs Pakistan Overseas Association Forum (POAF). Kazmi, who owns multiple businesses, claims that the POAF has over 200000 registered members and most of them are supporters of Imran Khan. He said overseas Pakistanis loved Pakistan but all the major parties had let them down badly and there was no trust left in them.
Continue reading »