Women barred from casting ballot in LG polls

HARIPUR:

Hundreds of women voters were barred to exercise their fundamental rights in the Nara Amazai area of Ghazi during the local government (LG) elections in Khyber-Pakhtunkwa.

A total of 12 polling stations had been set up in the Nara Amazai area, however, no women turned up to cast the ballot.

At the polling stations Nara, Chadwai, Shankari, Chaduna, Kapri, Parba, Khari Shah Mohammad and Kali Lar, no female voter was allowed to cast the vote, sources said. According to locals, no woman had polled a vote in the Nara Amazai area of Ghazi in the past as well.

In Nara Amazai, a remote area of Ghazi Tehsil, women often remain confined to their homes and they have no say in the politics of the traditionally male-dominated society.

Meanwhile, police have registered a case against former female MPA Dr Faiza Rashid for disrupting the polling process and indecent behaviour with the polling staff.

According to sources, Dr Faiza was contesting the election on the PPP Sherpao ticket as a candidate for Tehsil Nazim Haripur. A case was registered against her on a written complaint of female presiding officer Kausar Sultana after the former allegedly disrupted the polling at a polling station in the Kaag area.

Read More: Expats seek participation in LG polls

According to police, senior officers have been informed about the incident prior to her arrest. According to Dr Faiza Rasheed, she went to the Kaag polling station on a complaint of rigging in favour of the PTI election symbol bat.

She said that the case has been registered against her after she stopped the rigging.

PTI lose all three tehsils of Haripur

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz won two seats and an independent candidate won one seat in Haripur tehsil during the LG polls.

Samiullah Khan, an independent candidate from Haripur Tehsil, defeated Akhtar Nawaz Khan, a PTI candidate by a margin of 13,000 votes. Raja Haroon defeated PTI candidate Raja Shehab by a margin of 1,700 votes.

Qasim Shah, the younger brother of Senator Pir Sabir Shah from Ghazi Tehsil, won by an overwhelming majority against Malik Naveed Iqbal, a PTI candidate.

PML-N’s Raja Haroon Sikandar clinched the Khanpur tehsil chairman seat by securing 33,762 votes against PTI’s candidate Raja Sahab Sikandar, who bagged 30,209 votes. The voters’ turn up remained 59.08 per cent in the tehsil.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was badly defeated in all the three tehsils.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 21^st, 2021.