Jirga decision: 6,500 tribal women get back their right to vote

Paaikhel women were disenfranchised 46 years ago by a jirga.

KALABAGH: It took 6,500 disenfranchised women of Paaikhel tribe 46 years to get back their right to vote – thanks to a tribal jirga.

The jirga was convened by Ayla Malik, daughter of Nawab Malik Allah Yar Khan, the Nawab of Kalabagh, and central leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), at the residence of Razaul Mustafa Paaikhel in Kalabagh area of Mianwali district on Sunday.

Interestingly, a tribal jirga, presided over by Razaul Mustafa’s father Attaulllah Khan Paaikhel had disenfranchised their women in 1956. And no woman from the tribe had ever voted in elections since.



Sunday’s jirga unanimously decided to return to women the legal and constitutional right to vote.

“Today, we have corrected a wrong of the history,” Ayla Malik told Paaikhel women after the jirga. She called it “a historic achievement”.

“Women are more than half of the country’s population. Today, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has served the women with retrieval of their basic right even prior to coming to power,” said Ayla.



It’s the duty of the government and state institutions to ensure the women get their basic human rights which they have failed to do, Ayla added. “Now the Paaikhel women would be able to cast their vote which is their basic human right.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 3^rd, 2012.