21 February 2004	Saturday	29 Zilhaj 1424

PESHAWAR, Feb 20: The women's rights groups are facing a challenging task of filling about 2,000 vacant seats of women councillors during by-elections in NWFP.

In all, 34 per cent of the councillors' seats reserved for general women, peasants and workers are vacant.

In 957 union councils of 23 districts and one agency of NWFP, 1,953 seats out of 5,742 are vacant. Under the NWFP Local Government Ordinance, 2001, six seats are reserved for women in each of the union councils - four seats for general women and two seats for peasants and workers.

According to the election schedule announced by the Election Commission on Jan 28, 1,188 seats of general woman councillors and 765 seats of women peasants and workers are vacant.

The nomination papers for the by-elections will be filed on March 3 and 4, whereas polling will be held on March 28. In some of the backward districts, where religio-political parties dominate the polls, almost all the women councillors seats are vacant.

One of the women's rights organizations, Aurat Foundation, announced on Thursday starting a campaign for motivating women to contest these by-elections. "We have launched a Citizens Campaign for Women's Representation (CCWR) across the country including NWFP and will set up camps in all the districts for motivating women during the by-elections," said Asim Mali, provincial coordinator, information resource centres of Aurat Foundation.

He said that last time they faced various handicaps as political parties had entered into agreements for keeping the women out of polls and even they were not allowed to cast their votes.

"We will try to convince influential groups in the concerned districts for allowing women to contest the by-elections," said Mr Malik. The campaign is aimed at ensuring maximum participation of women in the electoral exercise, creating conducive environment for them to cast votes and contest elections and developing and providing legal support structure for women candidates.