Sectors H, I: Women voters share anticipations

Demand separate community and health centres, playgrounds for kids

ISLAMABAD:

Many women voters in the H and I sectors of the city may have voted for candidates of different political parties or even independents, but their main desire and wish was almost identical --- easy admission to their kids in a good government school, separate health and community centre and a safe playground for their children in close proximity.

Fouzia Qayyum, who was supporting her brother contesting for the chairman slot on a ticket of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in Union Council-30, said students from Sector H-8 often have to go to G or F sectors for admission to a school or a college and face increasing difficulty in admissions.

“Even getting admission in morning sessions in colleges in these sectors is not an easy task and I am hoping we’ll have a new school and a college in our sector if my brother wins,” Qayyum said while talking to The Express Tribune.

Shazia Abbasi, who was casting her vote at a polling station at the Allama Iqbal Open University in Sector H-8, said she was expecting that the new setup and representatives will also focus on building a separate and exclusive park for women and children in the sector.

Dr Asma Iqbal, contesting as a woman member in H-8 and I-8 (UC-30) on a ticket of the Jamaat-e-Islami, looked forward to establishing a community centre exclusively for women from underprivileged backgrounds to polish their skills through vocational training camps.

“One of my main agenda is to ensure a mechanism for effective waste collection and to attend to sanitation issues by involving local communities especially the youth. I look forward to achieving that incase I win,” Iqbal said.

Raheel Akhtar, who was contesting on a general counsellor seat in the same locality, said the capital has only two public hospitals which were established when its population consisted of 0.5 million people.

“Now with a population of 2.2 million people, these two hospitals are not enough to cater to the public anymore and therefore one of my objectives will be to ensure an effective health service in the sector”

Fatimah Bibi, who was contesting on a lady counselor seat in UC-40 on a ticket of the ruling party, said she intended to set up a women complaint cell to facilitate and offer legal guide against incidents of domestic violence or public harassment.

Rabeen Ghafoor, a supporter of the Paksitan Tehreek-e-Insaf at a polling station at I-8 Markaz, complained that the government’s decision to not give a day off for employees affected the voting process as, according to her, a lot of women were relying on their male members to bring them there for voting.

According to Ghafoor, by 3pm they were only able to get 200 women to cast their votes.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st, 2015.