MANSEHRA: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has fielded women as its candidates for the Feb 8 general elections in the highly conservative Kohistan and Torghar districts.

All these nominees have been cleared by the respective returning officers.

Among them is divisional general secretary of PTI Women’s Wing Shakeela Rabbani, who will contest election in Torghar’s NA-41 constituency.

The wing’s divisional president and former MPA, Uzma Riaz, is an election candidate in PK-31, Upper Kohistan.

Two other women leaders of the PTI, including Tehmina Faheem and Rina Anwar, have also filed nominations from the constituency.

Member of the PTI’s central governing body Momina Basit is also in the running for KP-33 seat in Kolai-Palas area of Kohistan region.

Ms Rabbani told Dawn on Sunday that the PTI had proved its claim of championing women’s rights by its actions.

“Our leader Imran Khan asked us [women] to file nomination papers in Kohistan and Torghar,” she said.

The PTI leader said her party would continue highlighting and working for the issues facing women in remote parts of the province.

She said until women contested elections for general seats of assemblies, the dream of bringing about real change

in the political arena in the country would be elusive.

POLICE CRACKDOWN: The traffic police on Sunday began a crackdown on underage drivers and motorcyclists doing a wheelie in Mansehra and its suburbs.

Traffic wardens seized over a dozen motorcycles and fined many motorcyclists for violating traffic rules.

District police officer Zahoor Babar Afridi told reporters that he had ordered the crackdown on underage drivers and motorcyclists doing a wheelie.

He said traffic police were ensuring strict action against law violators.

The DPO said underage drivers and those doing a wheelie were to blame for most road accidents in the country.

He urged parents to ensure their children follow law rules for the safety of their and others’ lives.

Meanwhile, the police have deployed personnel in large numbers on the court’s premises here following a recent clash between the PTI and PTI-P workers.

Published in Dawn, january 1st, 2024