Election result suspended over lack of women’s votes in Nankana Sahib

Petitioner says Rana Mujeeb Afzal Khan, the winning candidate, had stopped some of the women at gun point


Rana Tanveer November 30, 2015
PHOTO: ONLINE

LAHORE:


Last week, Lahore High Court suspended the notification of election results in a union council in Nankana Sahib where women were not allowed to vote.


The decision was widely hailed by the legal community as a necessary measure for discouraging the practice of disallowing women to vote.

Justice Farrukh Irfan Khan heard the petition filed by Rukhsana Abbas, a voter in the union council, and issued the stay order. The judge also sought a reply from the provincial election commissioner.

Underrepresented: Male, female voter disparity rising at alarming rate

The petitioner said there were 296 women voters in Ward-I of Union Council 51 of Nankana Sahib. She said women voters in the constituency were not allowed to vote n the first phase of local government polls on October 31. She said Rana Mujeeb Afzal Khan, the winning candidate, had stopped some of the women at gun point.

The petitioner said she was a resident of Kot Bini Daas. She said she and many other women had complained about this to the presiding officer but their complaint was not addressed.

She said they had written to the district returning officer, the presiding officer and the returning officer of the UC on November 1 but they had not entertained their applications. She said not a single woman had voted in this UC.

She asked the court to order re-election in the UC. She also asked the court to restrain the election commissioner from issuing the final notification of the election result.

Construction of grid station station stayed

The LHC stayed the construction of a grid station in Journalist Colony and issued notices to Punjab government, the LESCO and others last week. Muhammad Shahid Attari, a resident of the colony, had challenged the construction, saying it would cause pollution in the area. He said the construction violated the housing colony laws under which residential land could not be acquired for such projects. The petitioner said the Punjab government had acquired 35 kanals for the grid station. He asked the court to declare the construction illegal.

Women’s participation: Re-polling sought over poor turnout of women

‘Misleading’ books

LHC Chief Justice Ijazul Ahsan stopped publication of certain text books over complaints of misleading content. He said the Punjab Textbook Board was functioning irresponsibly. The court was hearing a petition against the board over the publication of an incorrect map of Pakistan.

Advocate Saad Rasool, counsel for the petitioner, said the board had ignored rules for presentation of final scripts in the case of 41 books.

He said the board had published an incorrect map of Pakistan in a geography book for grade 8. He said the map showed Seraikastan and Hazara provinces in Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30th,  2015.

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