Prime Minister Imran Khan Thursday launched an initiative for automation of power of attorney for overseas Pakistanis, saying it would help the diaspora in acquiring legal documents.

The prime minister said that they decided to launch the initiative in 2019 after an overseas Pakistani shared on PM portal that how they faced difficulty in getting their legal documents.

“From there we got a plan to digitalize the PM portal, making it easy for the overseas Pakistanis to access various facilities via an online platform,” he said while lauding the services of the overseas Pakistanis for the country and terming them as one of the biggest assets of the country.

He said that it was owing to the confidence of the diaspora in them that a record US$30 billion has been remitted to Pakistan during their tenure. We have owned the overseas Pakistanis and after giving them the right to vote, now every government will have to facilitate them in order to get their 9 million votes, he said.

Imran Khan further lamented a delayed use of technology in Pakistan and said that it has eased things globally and denying its use is nothing but foolishness. “In 2008, the ECP supported the use of EVM in the polls,” he said adding that last year, 1.5 million votes were discarded and if technology was used then it could have been managed.

He shared how the use of technology at utility stores and in FBR through track and trace systems has hit the snags owing to legal hurdles created by none other than their employees.

“Efforts are underway to bring track and trace system for the last 15 years and after recent efforts, it will be launched in the next week,” he said adding the corrupt elements do not want transparency in the system.

He said that the PTI demanded Senate elections via open ballot however, PPP and PML-N opposed the move as they are the beneficiaries of the corrupt system and wanted to safeguard it at any cost.