Political participation: 20% of assembly seats demanded for women

Participants of seminar say it will help them raise issues at government level.

PESHAWAR: People from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) on Tuesday demanded allocating 20% of the national and provincial assembly seats to women.

Representatives of several NGOs told participants at a seminar that increased seats for women would enable them to properly raise their issues at the government level.

“Women have proven that they can better represent their demands on all levels. But the current number of seats is not enough and we want to increase representation in Fata, which is backwards compared to other areas,” said Rakhshanda Naz of the Aurat Foundation.

The members jointly demanded the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to hold upcoming general elections on time. They urged the ECP to prevent political parties from buying votes, using weapons on election day, or forcing women to vote for certain parties. They also demanded that women be provided full security from their homes to polling stations.



Participants stressed on the need to initiate special programmes to educate women on the importance of voting and to help them understand manifestoes of all parties contesting elections so that they are able to elect better leaders.

“Political parties need to allot party tickets to educated and young politicians because they will run the government better and make policies that are beneficial to all. They also need to give top priority to addressing unemployment,” said Aurat Foundation’s Irfan Ullah.

Another member of the Aurat Foundation, Samina said parties need to make women wings in Fata as they have made in other districts of the country so that young women are more informed regarding political participation.

Similar seminars have also been held in other parts of the country including, Abbotabad, Mansehra, Kohat, DI Khan, Lahore, Multan, Bhakkar, Hyderabad, Karachi, Mithi, Quetta, Loralai and Kharan under the banner of Aman Ittehad.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 2^nd, 2013.