ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Sunday announced its decision to challenge the Election (Amendment) Bill, 2022, which was passed by the National Assembly recently and deprived overseas Pakistanis from voting in general elections.

Last year, President Arif Alvi signed the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2021, after it was endorsed by a joint parliamentary sitting, granting members of Pakistani diaspora community voting rights.

The development was viewed as a strategic move by ex-PM Khan, who is said to have a massive following among Pakistanis living abroad, to increase the PTI vote bank in coming elections.

However, the National Assembly on Thursday passed the Election (Amendment) Bill, 2022, to disallow these nationals from voting while also preventing the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in general elections.

Pakistan’s former foreign minister and a senior PTI leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi told a news conference on Sunday that an “overwhelming majority” of overseas Pakistanis wanted to vote for his party, forcing the government to deprive them of voting rights.

“The government has even snatched this right from those who were tilting toward the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan Peoples Party [two main components of the ruling coalition],” he continued. “Although they were in a minority, they still had a presence.

So, we will ... challenge this [amendment in court].”

Qureshi said the PTI-led government had granted overseas Pakistanis the right to vote since they contributed a great deal to the national economy.

“Pakistan runs on their remittances,” he added. “Last year, they sent $32 billion.”

The former foreign minister said another reason the PTI decided to grant voting rights to overseas Pakistanis was that they were highly skilled professionals in most cases who were in a position to provide significant policy input.

Pakistan’s law minister Azam Nazeer Tarar told the National Assembly after the amendment was passed that the government did not want to disenfranchise Pakistani nationals living abroad but wanted to test the new voting system for them that relied on technology.

“Overseas Pakistanis are precious asset of the country and the government does not believe in snatching their right to vote,” he said during his speech.