27 January 2005	Thursday	16 Zilhaj 1425

KARACHI, Jan 26: The Pakistan People's Party has vowed to continue struggle for the marginalized and dis empowered people following the government's reported decision of reducing the number of union council seats for the upcoming local bodies elections.

The party has claimed that the decision reflects the regime's clear intention to use both the electoral process and structure as a political tool.

The President of the PPP's central policy planning, MNA Sherry Rehman, said here on Wednesday that the decision to reduce the number of UC seats from 21 to 13 was a severe blow to women, labour, peasant and minorities candidates in particularly as this would translate into a huge cut in their representation at the grassroots level.

Elaborating, she said that the total number of UC councillors would come down from 114,418 to 66,220; peasant and labour seats would be reduced from 24,088 to 12,044; and the minorities at present having one reserved seat in every UC might be deprived of representation altogether in most councils.

She observed that women councillors, who had been undergoing training from political parties and NGOs and were now asking for remuneration for their offices and an end to tribal justice system, posed a challenge to the male-domination of the district councils. She said political activists, NGOs and unions believed that the proposed cut in women seats would bring down their representation from 36,132 to 18,066.

After a few years of chaotic tenure of local government, where only a handful of councillors could have understood their role and responsibilities, many of the representatives having been elected for the first time, particularly on reserved seats, were posing a threat to the local Establishment through a shift in their articulated interests.

"The first signs of democratic organization involving such marginalized groups at a local level has challenged the entrenched interests and elites who were finding it increasingly difficult to manipulate a class that is beginning to slowly articulate its needs and demand its entitlements,'' she said in a statement issued through the party's media cell at Bilawal House.

Ms Rehman was of the view that groups of women and labour networks had been indicating their intention to contest the next local bodies polls on an organized party-affiliation standard, which gave them political protection, even if the regime insisted on non-party polls. She pointed out that candidates' applications had been pouring into the PPP's district offices across the country in this regard.