Preventing women from voting to lead to imprisonment

Those found guilty may be incarcerated for up to five years, says K-P government.

PESHAWAR:

Adamant to ensure the participation of women in the upcoming general elections, the provincial government on Friday said inhibiting women from voting could lead to imprisonment for up to five years.

In a meeting of the Provincial Commission on the Status of Women, K-P on Friday, Information Minister Mossarat Qadeem said all commissioners across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) have been directed to take stern action against those trying to pressurise or prevent women from voting.

Qadeem said the government is well aware of the problems confronted by females in mainstream politics on the national level. “For this purpose, the government will utilise all resources to deal with anti-women voting elements and strict punishment, including fines, will also be advertised.”

Qadeem added the culprits may also be incarcerated for three to five years.

She stressed on the need for an awareness drive across the province to apprise political parties, religious scholars, elders and civil society representatives about the importance of women voting in the elections.



Talking about some of the troubled districts, Qadeem said the issue surfaced in Shangla, Swat and Dir in the previous elections, adding security forces will be deployed in the areas to prevent a repetition of the scenario. “Law enforcement officials will let the security forces know regarding any such issue and the quick response unit will rush to the spot for immediate action,” she said.

Qadeem went on to add it is the democratic right of every woman to cast their vote and that they would not be deprived of this right at any cost. She informed a monitoring network had also been established to address such complaints, saying the system is linked with the election commission.

Provincial Commission on the Status of Women Chairperson Khawar Mumtaz said they have reached an accord for dealing with any kind of complaints under the new monitoring system. “The complaint cell will monitor the voting process of women from across the country,” she added.

Earlier, the provincial election commission’s director administration Farid Khan said: “We have decided to deploy a two-member monitoring team in all constituencies. The team is tasked with reporting any problem in this connection to the election commission.”

Khan said 53 single booths for women have been established in the polling stations for the first time. He added the government had imparted special training to security officials for this purpose in order to ensure women vote and do not pay heed to the propaganda of certain unscrupulous elements.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 27^th, 2013.