Dir UC results held over women vote bar

Petitioners claim only two women voted in their constituency

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday directed the Election Commission of Pakistan to not notify the local government by-election results for Shahi Khel Union Council in Lower Dir.

The PHC single bench of Justice Syed Arshad Ali issued directives in the case filed by Hidayatullah, Bakht Meena, and other candidates of the union council through Advocate Muzamil Khan.

The petitioners urged the court that women voters had been stopped from casting their votes by candidates of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), which is unconstitutional, and thus, the ECP should be directed to not notify the election results. “The JI candidates were directed by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Finance Minister Syed Muzaffar Syed to stop women from voting,” the petitioner alleged.



The main argument of the petitioners was based on the Election Bill, 2016, which provides that if the turnout of female voters is less than 10 percent of the total number of women voters in the same constituency, the ECP would not notify results as it can be presumed that women voters had been restrained from casting their votes.

“From the whole union council, only two women’s votes were polled,” the petitioners told the court.

They asked the PHC to stop the ECP from issuing a notification of the winning candidate and direct the ECP and the Jamaat-e-Islami to submit replies in court explaining “why women were not allowed to cast votes”.



The court issued directives to the ECP and JI candidate to submit responses.

In the past, general elections on PK-95 – the provincial assembly seat for the area – the ECP dismissed results and ordered re-polling due to the absence of women voters.

On December 21, Local government by-elections were held in 108 union councils in Upper Dir and Lower Dir.

According to unofficial results, Gul Hakim of JI won the by-election.