Recent efforts by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and jail authorities have failed to enable a significant number of prisoners to vote in the upcoming elections. This is because delayed campaigns and last-minute arrangements, including many inmates lacking valid identity cards, are major impediments.
Legally, inmates can vote via postal ballots per sections 26 and 96-D of the Elections Act 2017. The process involves sending a request to the relevant returning officer (RO), who then verifies and provides the necessary envelopes for voting. Despite these provisions, an official from Karachi’s Central Prison revealed this is the first formal communication from the ECP to guide inmates on voting procedures.
Obstacles and Solutions
The ECP acknowledged their recent initiative to inform Karachi Central Jail’s inmates about postal ballot voting. However, this was executed just a week before the application deadline. An awareness session was conducted in the women’s section of the prison, but only days before the deadline. Only a fraction of the 449,287 national postal ballot applications came from inmates.
Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail saw 145 inmate applications, while Karachi’s Central Jail, housing over 6,800 inmates, reported only ‘hundreds’ of applications. A major hurdle is the absence or expiry of valid CNICs, making voting unattainable for many.
The inmates expressed frustration over the lack of serious efforts to facilitate their voting rights. Despite acquiring IT and language skills, their right to vote remains unfulfilled. Nadra’s stringent documentation requirements for CNICs exacerbate this issue.
Haya Emaan Zahid of the Legal Aid Society (LAS) and the Sindh Committee for the Welfare of Prisoners (CWP) suggested that the lengthy postal ballot procedure is challenging, especially for illiterate prisoners. She proposed using literate inmates trained in paralegal courses to assist others. A past inmate’s experience of an unresponded postal ballot application in 2013 and the European Union Election Observation Mission’s report on the 2018 elections underscore the ongoing challenges in prisoner voting rights.
Collaborations with Nadra have resolved some CNIC issues, but recent prisoner verification efforts have been minimal.
