Walking out: Naeema Nisar likely to resign from PPP

Aides say the women’s rights activist is being sidelined.

ABBOTABAD: Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly lawmaker and renowned women’s rights activist from Abbottabad, Naeema Nisar is likely to resign from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

She is expected to announce her decision at a press conference in the next few days, sources informed The Express Tribune.

Naeema Nisar is the wife of Sheikh Nisar, who is the President of Peoples Labour Bureau Abbottabad. She was chosen as Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) on the seats reserved for women in 2008. During her time as a lawmaker, she upheld the rights of women in several areas of the province and strengthened the women’s wing of the party simultaneously.

However, according to her close aides, she was neglected by the provincial chapter of the party and was not given a slot in the cabinet despite demands from PPP’s local chapter.



The introduction of several development schemes accredited to her won Nisar the support of PPP’s K-P chapter, which demanded she contest the upcoming elections for the general seat of KP-44, Abbottabad.

According to sources in the party, she applied for the ticket, but was repeatedly discouraged as it was going to be allotted to Shamroz Khan Jadoon.

Sources also said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) have offered her reserved seats for the elections, but she has not decided which party she will join in the future.

Other members of the party, however, snubbed these reports, saying Nisar was an old PPP worker who could not even think of leaving. When approached for comments, she did not attend her cell phone.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2013.