The postal ballot polling at Central Jail Adiala in Rawalpindi concluded on Wednesday, with notable inmates such as the imprisoned founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan, exercising their voting rights through postal ballots. In total, fifteen prisoners, including Imran Khan and former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, participated in the postal ballot voting process.
Despite efforts from former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and former interior minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, the prison administration was unable to secure postal ballots for all eligible prisoners. Imran Khan, currently facing four criminal convictions, including three recent ones, is legally barred from participating in elections or holding public office.
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Imran Khan’s sentences, which include terms ranging from three to 14 years to be served concurrently, have left him ineligible for electoral participation. Additionally, he faces over 150 pending legal cases. Despite his incarceration, Imran Khan managed to cast his vote via postal ballot along with other high-profile inmates.
Out of the 145 prisoners who applied to vote via postal ballots, only fifteen, including Imran Khan and Pervaiz Ellahi, received the necessary materials to cast their votes. A designated polling station within the jail facilitated the postal ballot voting process.
Given the high-profile status of certain inmates, including Imran Khan and Elahi, postal ballots and voting materials were delivered directly to their cells, where they marked and submitted their votes. However, approximately 130 prisoners, including Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Sheikh Rasheed, were unable to participate due to the failure to receive postal ballots.
The cast votes have been dispatched to the District Returning Officer (DRO) at the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) according to the prescribed procedure. Despite challenges, efforts were made to ensure that eligible prisoners could exercise their right to vote through the postal ballot system.
