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| July 15, 2005 | Friday | Jumadi-us-Sani 7, 1426 |
Tribal women not to be allowed to take part in LB polls: Local political leaders reach consensus
PESHAWAR, July 14: Some liberal and religio-political parties in Lower Dir district have entered into an agreement to bar women from exercising their right to participate in local body elections. The announcement to stop women from contesting or casting vote in the upcoming elections was made by all the party heads on Wednesday. They termed such activities of women against their local customs and traditions.
According to women rights groups, women are also likely to be deprived of these democratic rights in Malakand Agency, Upper Dir, Shangla, Kohistan, Batagram and parts of Mardan, Swabi and Peshawar.
Akbar Khan, head of the District Coordination Committee Dir formed under the Citizens’ Campaign for Women Representation (CCWR), told Dawn on phone that the meeting was held behind closed door in which local leaders hailing from eight political parties were unanimous that they would not allow women to participate in the local government elections.
He said that former district naib nazim and now a candidate, Mohammad Rasool Khan, announced to the local press at a briefing that all the major parties had decided not to allow women to contest election or cast vote.
Local leadership including district ameer of Jamaat-i-Islami Maulvi Mohammad Gulaab, General Secretary of JI Haji Mohammad Rasool Khan, district president of Awami National Party (ANP) Haji Bahadur Khan, district president of PML (N) Malik Mohammad Rashid former MPA Malik Jehanzeb Khan, Sahibzada Sikandar of PML-Q, district ameer of JUI Fazlullah, district president of PPP Malik Azmat Hayat and Khursheed Khan and Bakht Baidar Khan of PPP-Sherpao held a meeting at a local hotel of Lower Dir district and took the said decision.
PPP’s spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar, when asked to comment on the situation, firmly said: “PPP is not a party to this agreement and local leadership is not allowed to do this”.
He said that PPP had nothing to do with such agreements and PPP believed in women’s representation in politics. The party would take disciplinary action against those local leaders who entered into such agreement.
“If women do not want to come out and cast their vote, nobody can force them but it is not the party’s policy to stop them from casting vote or contesting elections”, Mr Babar said.
Representation of women in Lower Dir had remained low even in the previous local government elections. Out of total 204 union council seats, 196 seats had remained vacant in this district.
“Very few women voters turned up in the last elections”, Akbar Khan said and added that during their campaign to motivate women, NGO workers and their family members were harassed and pressurised to stop the campaign.
“These liberal and religious political parties deprive women of their right in the name of local customs”, observed Aftab Ahmed of Aurat Foundation, which has launched a countrywide campaign, CCWR, for ensuring women’s full representation in the LG system.
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