*The National Assembly on Thursday has passed the bill to amend theElections Act 2017. *The amendments made to the law during the previousPakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government to used electronic votingmachines (EVM) for polling and granting voting rights to overseasPakistanis have been removed.
On December 2, the PTI-led government passed the changes during a jointsitting of the parliament.
Since coming into the power, the parties in the current coalitiongovernment proclaimed to amend the act and remove the changes.
The Election Commission has been asked to conduct pilot projects to assesthe feasibility of the use of EVMs and overseas Pakistanis voting.
Read Top Stories
While presenting the amendments in the assembly, Law Minister Azam NazirTarrar said the government was not against the voting rights for overseasPakistan. However, the way these changes were made part of the law by theprevious government was being rectified.
