HARIPUR: As political parties are bound by the Election Act, 2017, to award five per cent of tickets for general seats of assemblies to women, 10 female candidates are set to contest the Feb 8 general elections here.

The presence of these women in the electoral arena shows the womenfolk’s growing political participation in Haripur founded by Sikh general Hari Singh Nalwa in 1822, according to observers.

They said 61.08 per cent of women and 83.07 per cent of men in the district were literate.

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There are a total of 55 candidates for one National Assembly and three provincial assembly general seats.

Noted among women contestants are Dr Faiza Bibi Rasheedand Irum Fatima.

District has one NA, three PA seats

Dr Faiza, a gynecologist by profession, is the provincial vice-president of Qaumi Watan Party.

For the fourth time since 2008, she is contesting general elections.

Ms Irum, who is also testing her luck in the electoral arena for the fourth consecutivetime from PK-47 Haripur II, is the central vice-president of the ANP. She is a noted social activist and has set up a nongovernmental organisation.

Another woman candidate is Dr Shaista Khan, a nominee of the PML-N for PK-46 Haripur I and an office-bearer of the Muslim Doctors Association. She has a private hospital in an urban area as well.

Fifteen women filed nomination papers for a single NA and three PA seats but five of them, including the wife of beleaguered PTI leader Omar Ayub Khan, have opted out of the electoral race. They’re covering candidates

Dr Faiza Bibi Rasheed is the only woman contender on the QWP’s ticket for NA-18. She is also contesting election in PK-46 Haripur-I, where Dr Shaista Khan of the PML-N, a debutante, and ANP’s Frazia Shaheen, a second-time contender, are also in the field.

In PK-47 Haripur II, ANP’s Irum Fatima is contesting election for the fourth time but Rukhsana Shaheen of the QWP and Sadia Nadeem of the Rahe Haq Party are in the running for the first time.

For PK-48 Haripur III seat, Shaista Naz of the PPP is contesting election for the third time, and Saira Bibi, an independent candidate, and Ruqaya Bibi of the JUI-F for the first time.

Eleven women contested for Haripur general seats in the 2018 elections and three in the 2013 polls.

In the 2008 polls, Dr Faiza Bibi Rasheed contested election as a PPP nominee from PK-50 (now PK-46 Haripur-I) but lost it. She later became her party’s MPA on a reserved seat.

The first woman trailblazer in local politics was Begum Balquis Nasruminallah, mother of Supreme Court Justice Athar Minallah. She contested election on a general seat against Gohar Ayub Khan and Raja Sikandar Zaman in 1985 but lost. She was notified as a MNA on reserved seats and served as a lawmaker until 1988. In the 1988 elections, she was the PPP’s candidate but lost to the IJI’s Raja Sikandar Zaman.

Later until 2008, no woman got election ticket from political parties for general seats.

Begum Zeb Gohar Ayub Khan of the district served as a PML-Q MNA from 2002 to 2008 on one of the reserved seats.

Irum Fatima told Dawn that in the past, well-off women with good contacts in political parties used to get election tickets and reserved seats instead of their political work just like men with the same background, but that trend was changing fast.

She said as MPA (2008-2013), she had to her credit the University of Haripur, two women colleges, Women and Children Hospital and gas supply to over six villages and that was enough to prove that she could deliver like male lawmakers.

Dr Shaista Khan, a PML-N candidate from PK-46, is also on the top of her party’s priority list of women candidates for NA and PA reserved seats. She said she was confident of winning polls on the basis of her massive social work in the district.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2024