From Hong Kong to US, expat Pakistanis wanted to vote. Now they Khan
Money isn’t the only thing overseas workers can send home if they want to help change Pakistan. In October, under an internet pilot scheme, they can send electronic ballots too
Yasir Naveed was just 16 when he arrived in Hong Kong in 2006 with his parents and sister, after his father landed a job in the city.
“The sorrow of leaving your own country was there,” he says.
Naveed often recalls taking a bus to the northern part of Pakistan and looking at the hills up in Gilgit-Baltistan, known as the “Switzerland of the East”. He also misses celebrating the local festivals and the flavours of the food in Karachi, his home city and the largest in the country.
Although Hong Kong is now also home, his mind often drifts back to Pakistan. So much so that the environmental engineer took time off from work and flew to Karachi to cast his vote for Imran Khan, the newly elected prime minister, in the July 25 polls.
It is from Hong Kong – where there are about 35,000 Pakistanis – that Naveed started taking a greater interest in his country’s politics. And now, he and thousands of others spread across the world will be able to get closer to Pakistan’s politics, without taking an aeroplane.
