PESHAWAR, July 18: The Pakistan People’s Party has denied that it is opposed to women voting in local body polls in the Upper and Lower Dir districts or that it has entered with any such accord with other political parties. PPP provincial president Rahimdad Khan, in a statement here on Monday, strongly rejected the undemocratic move by some political groups, involved in the disenfranchisement of women in the northern hilly districts of the province. The PPP, Mr Khan said, believed in equal political, social and economic rights for the womenfolk.

He said a woman was the chairperson of the PPP which was the major political force of the country. He said how an organization like the PPP could afford to exclude women voters from the local body elections. The PPP had encouraged the participation of the women in the socio-economic affairs of the country and installed them on decision-making positions, he added.

Mr Khan said the PPP had established women banks and women police stations to give them equal role in the nation building process. He said the PPP not only condemned the exclusion of women from the local body polls, but demanded that the NWFP government should take notice of this undemocratic move by the extremists.