Overseas Pakistanis to get right of vote

[LahoreEstate]

By: Nisar Mehdi | Published: March 31, 2009
KARACHI - Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistanis and Deputy Convenor MQM, Dr Farooq Sattar, has said that President Asif Ali Zardari has accepted a proposal from his department to give the right of vote to the Pakistani people living aboard.
He was addressing the launching ceremony of “Marhaba Musafar” of Western Union at a local hotel here on Monday.
The Minister said that his ministry had also proposed to reserve seats in the National Assembly for overseas Pakistanis. He hoped that other political parties would support the bill moved by the overseas Pakistanis ministry in this regard.
Referring to the current political situation in the country, Dr Sattar said that time had come for the masses to decide whether they want a liberal, enlightened and welfare state of Pakistan as dreamt by Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah or the extremist one of Hameed Gul and Ziaul Haq. He added that silent majority of the country wanted the Pakistan of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. He urged the people to play their role to develop Pakistan as per dream of Quaid-e-Azam.
“MQM has been playing its leading role to make Pakistan an enlightened, liberal and welfare state,” he said.
Commenting on his party’s support to the privatisation of KESC, Federal Minister said that MQM was not against the privatisation process in the country and added “We have witnessed successful results of the privatisation of PTCL.
We believe in the privatisation process in country and underlined the need of government role to support and promote the private sector in the country”, he added.
Dr Sattar alleged that the company had wilfully ignored its responsibility to provide electricity to Karachiites, adding that KESC administration did not fulfil the privatisation agreement. He pointed out that the KESC administration has not invested even a single penny in the country to enhance production of electricity.
“The company is only concerning about recovery of dues through over-billing and hike in power tariff.”
He alleged that to extort money from the citizens, the KESC administration had installed faulty metres. He urged NEPRA to take the notice of the miserable condition of the citizens due the apathetic attitude of KESC administration.
He warned that people have the right to protest against unannounced power outages in the metropolis.

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