Zardari bats for parliament seats for Pakistanis abroad
Holding dialogue with political stakeholders is key, says former president
Former president and Pakistan People’s Party leader Asif Ali Zardari has suggested reserving seats for proper representation of overseas Pakistanis in parliament.
Addressing a press conference here at Chief Minister House, the former president, flanked by Sindh CM Syed Murad Ali Shah, said the problem concerning the representation of overseas Pakistanis could easily be resolved by holding dialogue with the political stakeholders concerned.
He said a specific number of
seats in the parliament could be reserved for the overseas Pakistanis, as is the case with the representation of religious minorities and women in the elected assemblies.
Zardari said the political parties would be allotted the proposed seats in the parliament on a proportionate basis,
as each party would get its share based on the votes it had secured in the general elections.
Afterwards, each of party would be free to allocate these seats to overseas Pakistanis from any part of the world, he said, adding that a fair number of these seats could be allotted to expatriate Pakistanis in Britain as the UK was home to the largest overseas Pakistani community.
He said the issue related to voting rights of overseas Pakistanis had been unduly politicised by certain quarters.
Electoral reforms
He further maintained that the next general elections would only be held after electoral reforms were instituted, no matter whether the exercise could take another three months or four.
The former president said he had talked to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and also conveyed to him that elections would be held after introduction of electoral reforms and after steps are taken to stabilise the economy.
Once the reform process was completed, the parliament could decide on holding early elections.