Poll ‘ban’ defied by NWFP women
In the last local body elections, only 18 women had filed papers in 34 union councils of Lower Dir where 196 seats had remained vacant. Local leaders of the Jamaat-i-Islami said the agreement to keep women out of the polls had been violated by the People’s Party Parliamentarians and the PML. They said the JI filed papers on behalf of women after dissociating itself from the accord.
Ms Bakhtiar, who was accompanied by a number of women in the district courts at the time of filing papers, told journalists that in the present era nobody could deprive women of their constitutional rights. She congratulated the women who had filed their papers and said they had shown great courage against usurpers of their rights.
Meanwhile, NGOs and social activists of Lower Dir termed the filing of nomination papers by 60 women a great success. They said it was a fundamental right of women to participate in elections.
DATE EXTENDED: Acting Chief Election Commissioner Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar on Wednesday extended the time for filing nomination papers by a day to allow women wishing to contest local body polls in the districts of Battagram, Upper Dir, Lower Dir and Kohistan to file their papers, our staff reporter adds from Islamabad.
In a late-night order issued in Islamabad, the CEC said the women could now file their nomination papers till 8pm on July 28. The CEC has already warned of cancelling elections in areas where women are being discouraged to contest polls.
ELECTION SYMBOLS: Acting Chief Election Commissioner Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar on Wednesday directed returning officers in four provinces not to allot election symbols of major political parties having representation in parliament to candidates contesting the local body elections.
“To ensure that the Local Government Elections are held in a free, fair and transparent manner, the acting CEC has been pleased to direct that symbols allotted to major political parties, who have representation in parliament, may not be allotted to any contesting candidate for LG polls by the returning officer concerned,” an official announcement issued here said.
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in a written complaint and during a meeting with the CEC had drawn the latter’s attention to inclusion of election symbols like bicycle and kite, earlier allotted to PML-Q and MQM in the general election, in the list of symbols.
The CEC had assured the PPP delegation that he would take necessary action in this regard.
Meanwhile, Secretary of the Election Commission Kanwar Dilshad has said that section 152 (1)(s) of the Local Government Ordinance-2001 disqualified a person to be an elected member of a local government body if he used, directly or indirectly, in the election the platform, flag, symbol, affiliation and financial or material resources or support of a political, religious, ethnic or sectarian party, formation or organization.
APP adds: Election Commission Secretary Kanwar Dilshad has said that arrangements for both phases of local government elections have been finalized. Speaking in a PTV programme on Wednesday, he said about 150,000 candidates had filed nomination papers for the first phase and scrutiny of their papers had been completed.
He said printing of ballot papers and appointment of polling personnel had also been completed. In reply to a question, Mr Dilshad said the voters’ list had been updated with around 1.6 million new voters registered.
Responding to another question, he said the Chief Election Commissioner had issued a statement that the election would be suspended in areas where women would be barred from contesting or casting votes. He said it was for the first time that the CEC had issued such a statement and hoped that there would be no obstacle for women in participating in the poll process in any area.
The EC secretary said that rigging charges had become a slogan and whenever elections were held, charges about rigging were levelled, but rarely such charges were proved. Mr Dilshad said that Pakistan was perhaps the only country in the world where election results were announced within a few hours after the close of polling, adding that in other countries, including India, results were announced seven to 15 days after the polling.