PESHAWAR: Though all political parties are bound to award party tickets to women for at least five per cent of the general seats of the National Assembly and provincial assemblies contested by them, majority of them are yet to make up mind to comply with the law.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan are perhaps the provinces where direct election for female candidates is quite a new thing. The general elections are fast approaching, but virtually none of the political parties have so far made a decision to allot tickets to female candidates. It is also on record that in some parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the political parties, even those claiming to be liberals, also avoid bringing women to the polling stations for casting vote.

When contacted by this correspondent, a number of political leaders said that they were unable to find suitable female candidates in different districts. The main reason cited by them for this was the particular environment where women were discouraged to come out of their houses in connection with elections.

All political parties bound to award 5pc of tickets for general seats to women

They said that running the election campaign in the male-dominated society and the huge spending on it were also among the major issues faced by the political parties. Perhaps, PPP is so far the only party which has allowed one candidate, Asma Alamgir, to launch her campaign from NA-27, Peshawar.

Awami National Party provincial general secretary Sardar Hussain Babak said that the party had so far not awarded tickets to candidates, but the issue was discussed in their meetings. He said that ANP had so far not invited applications from female candidates. He said that the peculiar situation in the Pakhtun society might impede the process to campaign for female candidates.

Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl’s provincial secretary information Maulana Abdul Jalil Jan said that implementation of the ECP’s decision seemed to be very difficult because in many areas of KP the people were not allowing women even to cast votes. He said that the decision to nominate female candidates or not would be taken by his party’s central executive committee as well as by Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal. He said that so far the applications had not been invited from the female members.

“Currently, we have focused on training of the workers, including women, so that they could play their role during the election campaign and as polling agents,” he said.

Jamaat-i-Islami provincial chief Senator Mushtaq Ahmed Khan said that his party’s parliamentary board was holding meetings to finalise names of the candidates from different constituencies. About the party’s procedure to select candidates, he said that no one could make a request for ticket, but it was the party’s prerogative to nominate any suitable person for a seat. He said that female candidates would also be nominated as per the decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan, but after finalisation of the male candidates.

PPP provincial vice-president Syed Ayub Shah said that the decision had been taken by the ECP, but political parties were still indecisive about it as it was not approved by the National Assembly and Senate.

PPP provincial deputy secretary information Gohar Khan Inqilabi said that his party had sought applications from the candidates till May 3 and the top leadership would take the decision to award tickets to candidates.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf MPA Shaukat Yousufzai said that his party had started work on the issue to field suitable female candidates. He said that scores of women had submitted applications which would be finalised by the parliamentary board soon.

Qaumi Watan Party’s provincial secretary information claimed that his party had always tried to encourage women for taking part in the elections. He said that the main issue pertained to lack of resources. However, he said that his party would fulfil the legal requirement to award tickets to female candidates.

PML-N women wing provincial spokesperson Farah Khan said that her party had extended the date for applications and now the aspiring candidates could file applications till Monday (today). She said that the decision about award of tickets would be taken by the party’s parliamentary board.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2018