ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Dr Babar Awan on Monday said that vote was a fundamental right of Pakistanis residing anywhere in the world and the government would do utmost to make them part of the electoral process.

“The Constitution gives overseas Pakistanis the right to vote and present government is committed to facilitating them while the opposition is still trying to keep them away from voting,” he said this while speaking at a joint press conference with Minister of State on Information and Broad­casting Farrukh Habib here.

Dr Awan claimed that Prime Minister Imran Khan and his coalition partners believed in the supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law while Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly, Shehbaz Sharif, wanted to deprive overseas Pakistanis of their right to vote.

He asked the Opposition leader to focus on the supremacy of parliament for legislation and respect its sanctity.

He said the opposition leader had denied supremacy of parliament while the government desired to carry forward all matters through legislation. The electoral and judicial reforms were top priority of the government, he added.

Farrukh says by sitting in London Nawaz can only become Altaf 2

The adviser further asserted the government had always shown seriousness to bring transparency in election through the use of Electronic Voting Mach­ines (EVMs) but it was quite unfortunate that the Opposition parties were not in favour of a transparent electoral system.

He said the opposition parties should not do mockery with the Constitution and avoid disrespecting the sacred document and questioned how can Shahbaz Sharif deprive 10 million Pakis­tani expatriates of their right to vote?

In reply to a question about Nawaz Sharif, Dr Awan said that Nawaz Sharif must surrender himself before law as he had been convicted.

“He is an absconder and on return to Pakistan he will face jail.”

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Habib said that Shehbaz Sharif had lost moral ground to continue as opposition leader in the National Assembly (NA) after his failure to bring his absconding brother (Nawaz) back to the country from London.

Shehbaz Sharif, who submitted a stamp paper in the court to guarantee his brother’s return, should not bother the lawmakers with his hours-long lectures on the rule of law in the National Assembly as the court had dismissed Nawaz Sharif’s appeals for being fugitive of justice in the Avenfield and Al-Azizia references, he said.

The minister asked the PML-N to accept and implement the verdict of the court which had dismissed Nawaz Sharif’s appeals and restored his conviction in the Avenfield and Al-Azizia references.

He reminded the PML-N that this was the same court that had allowed Nawaz Sharif to go abroad on medical grounds for eight weeks and suspended his conviction in the case.

“The entire nation knows that Nawaz Sharif was convicted after his free and fair trial, but in return what came to the fore were Qatari letter and a fake trust deed,” he said, regretting that the Sharif family, actually, even did not have any kind of record for the palaces where Nawaz Sharif was currently living in London.

Mr Habib said Nawaz Sharif must keep in mind that by sitting in London, he could only become Altaf Hussain who did not obey the law and respect institutions. “You cannot become Nelson Mandela by doing politics from London,” he added.

“It is up to you now that whe­ther you become Altaf Hussain 2 or come back to the country and return the looted money to the public,” he said.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2021