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| July 28, 2005 | Thursday | Jumadi-us-Sani 20, 1426 |
60 women to contest polls despite ‘ban’
TIMERGARAH (Lower Dir), July 27: The hopes of political parties intending to keep women out of the local government elections were shattered on Wednesday when about 60 women filed their nomination papers for different seats.
In the last local government elections, in the 34 union councils of Lower Dir only eight women had filed papers and 196 seats had remained vacant.
Except for Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazal), women belonging to major political parties filed nomination papers. Adviser to the PM on Women Affairs Ms Nelofer Bukhtiar visited the district and filed nomination papers on behalf of some women candidates of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League.
Local leaders of Jamaat-i-Islami said that the agreement to keep women out of the polls was violated by the Peoples Party Parliamentarians and PML. They said the JI filed papers on behalf of women after disociating themselves from the agreement.
Ms Bukhtiar was accompanied by a number of women to the district courts at the time of filing nomination papers. She stated that in this modern era nobody could deprive women of their constitutional rights. She congratulated the women who filed their papers and said that they had shown great courage against usurpers of their rights.
Meanwhile all the NGOs and social activists of Lower Dir have said the filing of nomination papers by 60 women was a great success of women. They said it was a fundamental right of women to participate in elections.
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