Adiala Jail inmates request right to vote

Rawalpindi: The Constitution of Pakistan provides every citizen with the right to vote, and in order to exercise that right, 145 inmates of Adiala Jail have requested to vote by postal ballot.

Any prisoner who is a Pakistani and aged 18 years or above can cast his vote by postal ballot.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) captive leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that he and PTI founder Imran Khan have applied for postal ballot.

According to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), applications of 145 prisoners have been received from Adiala Jail.

To cast a vote, the inmate first sends an application for his vote to the Returning Officer (RO), after which the RO verifies the name through the voting list of the area and then sends two envelopes to the jail authorities.

One envelope contains RO’s address and the other contains ballot paper and a small envelope.

The prisoner casts his vote and puts it in this envelope and gives it to the jailer who is obliged to send this envelope to RO.

It is pertinent to note that in Sindh, no imprisoned woman has cast her vote for 24 years. Even during the 2018 general elections, not a single vote could be cast from male prisoners in various jails of Sindh. While in the 2008 elections, the votes of only 10 prisoners were cast in Sindh.