KARACHI, Feb 28: Speakers at a meeting here on Saturday urged women to actively participate in the upcoming by-elections for union councils. Out of the total 9,794 seats, for which by-elections are being held on March 28, 4,861 are reserved for women.
The meeting was organized by the Aurat Foundation.
The speakers said their organization intended to set up camps in the province to provide assistance to the women candidates. The camps would be established only in those districts where there were at least 25 vacant women seats.
The participants were apprised of a province-wise break up of the total vacant seats, according to which 3,535 seats were vacant in Punjab, 1,573 in Sindh, 2,892 in the NWFP and 1,794 were vacant in Balochistan.
The speakers pointed out that the number of vacant seats for women in the NWFP (1,953) and Balochistan (786) was remarkably very high.
One of the major reasons for such a large number of women seats lying vacant is that at many places in the NWFP and Balochistan, women were not allowed to contest elections, they said, adding that at some place, women were not allowed even to cast their votes.
They pointed out that Kohistan district, where more than 228 women seats were lying vacant, topped the list, followed by Lower Dir (196), Mardan (186), Swabi (174), Upper Dir (148), Peshawar (129), Bannu (126) and Batgaram (120).
Now, with the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) ruling the NWFP and and sharing power in Balochistan, the situation has changed, they speakers observed, and added that the foundation had approached the MMA and informed them that if they did not facilitate the election process involving women contestants and voters, it might send a wrong signal to the international donors.
They urged the government to ensure that nobody was allowed to interfere in the election process and work against women participation.
Referring to agreements signed on the eve of the previous local government elections by district level leadership of almost all political parties that no women would participate in the elections, the speakers urged all the political parties to ensure that their local leadership did not indulge in any such activities this time.
Referring to the election process in Sindh, where 757 seats for women and 419 seats for minorities are vacant, they said that the Foundation had urged the election commission to allow candidates and voters to use their old identity cards as a large number of people, particularly women, had not yet obtained the computerized identity cards.
They also urged the government to give maximum publicity to the ensuing elections in order to mobilize the entire population, including women.
Salman Abid and Aslam Brohi were among those spoke at the meeting which was participated by the representatives from different organizations working with the Aurat Foundation in 16 district of Sindh.