Reserved seats: PPP women workers protest against reduced quota

Sindh ECP chief says they are following court order

KARACHI: A number of women workers of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) protested in front of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) office on Thursday demanding a restoration of the 33% quota for women in the local bodies.

The ECP recently reduced the reserved quota for women from 33% to 22% in light of a recent court decision. Holding placards and banners inscribed with various slogans, the party's Karachi division workers demanded the chief election commissioner to stop victimisation of women.

"Women are already [treated as] lesser mortals in our society. Given that, the assembly had passed a law to enhance their quota in all councils including the union council/committee, district councils, municipal corporations and Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, but this has now been de-notified. We demand to restore the quota," said Naseema Baloch, the secretary-general of PPP Karachi division.



Explaining the ECP's decision, she said "Earlier, there were only two seats for women in a union committee but the Sindh government enhanced it to four. Many women belonging to all political parties had applied for the reserved seats, but the decision [to curtail the number of seats] has left us baffled," she said.

The protesting women and children then staged a sit-in for about 30 minutes causing a traffic jam in the area.

PPP MPA Shamim Mumtaz said not only have the women's seats been reduced, but the seat of youth in local bodies has also been abolished.  "It was an excellent idea to give an opportunity to youth in the local government, but ECP has deprived them of that chance," she deplored.

Despite the protest, no ECP official approached the demonstrators to listen to their concerns, following which the workers dispersed peacefully.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Sindh election commissioner Tanveer Zaki said they have not reduced the quota for women's seats on their own, but have just followed the court order.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19^th,  2016.