Pakistan’s Former Prime Minister Imran Khan and other prominent incarcerated political figures have cast their votes through postal ballot from jail, according to a media report on Thursday.

However, Bushra Bibi, Khan’s wife, was unable to participate in the voting as she was convicted and arrested after the completion of the postal voting process, Dawn News reported.

Political leaders who have managed to vote by mail included former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid, and former information minister Fawad Chaudhry, the report quoted Adiala Jail sources.

Overall, fewer than 100 prisoners of Adiala Jail were able to vote, constituting only about one per cent of the prison’s 7,000 inmates.

Sources said the jail administration allowed only those inmates to cast their votes who had valid computerised national identity cards (CNICs), and the reason for a low turnout was that an overwhelming majority of the prisoners did not have the original CNIC.

“There are criminals, dacoits, thieves, convicts in the heinous crimes and under-trial prisoners detained in the jail,” a senior official said. He said most criminals did not carry the CNIC to avoid their identity.