LAHORE (HRNW) – Although the Constitution of Pakistan ensure right to franchise to incarcerated, more than 100,00 inmates of 116 prisons across the country will be deprived of their fundamental right in the general election on February 8.
Section 93 (d) of the Elections Act, 2017, provides that a person detained or in prison can vote by postal ballot. Moreover, Section 26 of the Act also ensures that every person, who fulfills certain criteria, is entitled to be registered as a voter and Article 51 of the Constitution constitutionally entitled him to vote.
Every civilised society around the world allows its citizens, prisoners and immigrants the right to vote under certain conditions.
According to the statistics compiled by Dunya News on the basis of data received from the prisons authorities of the four provinces of Pakistan, there are more than 100,000 prisoners languishing in 116 jails of the country, of which about 1,500 are women. These prisoners include juveniles who have reached the age of 18 years in prison and are entitled to get an identity card.
Of the 71 percent of the incarcerated are those with pending cases, many of whom are incarcerated for minor crimes and have no one to follow up on their cases.
Ghulam Ali, Shahzad, Mansha, Rustam, who are serving life imprisonment in Central Jail of Lahore, said on the occasion of their appearance before courts that the past and present governments have not prepared any plan of action for the prisoners enable them to vote.
Allah Dino, Lakhu and others, inmates of Sukkur District Jail of Sindh, said that they have applied to the authorities concerned to exercise the right to vote in the local elections as well, but they were not lent an ear.
Iftikhar Makrani, a prisoner in Huda Jail in Quetta, Balochistan, said that if a polling station is established in every prison, thousands of prisoners will cast their votes.
According to jail rules, in order to cast his vote, a prisoner has to write an application to the presiding officer concerned to send him ballot paper. On receiving the ballot paper, the prisoner marks it in the presence of prisons officials. And the jail authorities send these ballot papers to the Election Commission.
However, due to the complex system, the prisoners are discouraged to vote, as they have to get permission from the Home Department, DIG Jails and other government officials.