Former Express Tribune staffer wins CEJ Humanitarian Reporting Award 2019

Story focuses on people who were unable to cast votes in General Elections 2018

A former staffer from the Express Tribune won the Centre for Excellence in Journalism’s (CEJ) Humanitarian Reporting Award 2019.

The story, reported by Kaukab Tahir Shairani, covered the marginalised citizens of Karachi who were unable to vote in the general elections of 2018.

“I was interested in reporting about those who could not vote. I looked at a few angles such as minorities, people in Gilgit-Baltistan, the transgender community and others. I settled on refugees.”

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“My story focused on the Bengalis and Rohingyas living in Karachi who could not vote either because they did not have a Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC), their cards were expired or they were unregistered voters – to highlight the discrepancies that kept them away from the ballot box.”

“It was one of my most amazing experiences as it allowed me to research constituencies with the highest populations of refugees living in Karachi,” said Kaukab. “They felt it was their right to vote.”

She thanked her editors, CEJ and the Red Cross for the acknowledgement.

Read the story here.