ISLAMABAD: Former interior minister and Awami Muslim League Chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmad on Wednesday submitted an application to the Supreme Court challenging amendments to the Election Act and seeking voting rights for overseas Pakistanis.

The petition pleaded with the court to declare the amendment to Clause 94 of the Election Act unconstitutional. The petitioner also requested the court to order the government to take steps to grant voting rights to the overseas Pakistanis.

The petition made federation, ministry of parliamentary affairs and law, cabinet and election commission as respondents to the case. While talking to media outside the court building, Sh Rashid said that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf was actually a synonym for Imran. He said that his party would be with Imran wherever he went.

He was of the view that the current government was using delaying tactics in granting voting rights to overseas Pakistanis. He held that the political instability was giving birth to the economic disaster. The former interior minister maintained that there was no solution to the problems of country except general elections in October or November.

Sh Rashid also said that PML-Q leader Ch Pervaiz Elahi would be the PTI candidate for Punjab chief ministership. He predicted that PML-Q senior leader Shujaat Hussain would be standing with Ch Pervaiz Elahi. He said he was going to Lahore in the evening today and would hold a meeting with the Chaudhrys. He also alleged that wherever the sale of votes was going on, Asif Ali Zardari would be behind it.