Notices issued: Women denied voting rights head to court

Petitioners demanded SHC tell election commission to hold re-polls at 14 stations.


Our Correspondent June 26, 2013
Right denied: 6,000 is the approximate number of female voters at the 14 polling stations who were not allowed to vote, according to the petitioners. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: Several women have gone to the Sindh High Court to complain that several male polling agents denied them the right to cast their votes during the May 11 general elections in Thatta.

Aaman and a group of over a dozen female residents of PS-85 Mirpur Sakro constituency demanded the court order the election commission to hold re-elections on 14 polling stations. They cited the Election Commission of Pakistan, the Thatta-II DRO, the returning officer for PS-85 Mirpur Sakro and Syed Ameer Haider Shah Shirazi - the winning candidate from this seat who defeated Pakistan Peoples Party’s Sassui Palijo - as respondents.

Their lawyer, Rashid A Razvi, submitted that these women are registered voters of the area and enjoyed their fundamental right to choose a parliament representative of their own choice, which cannot be denied. Initially, these women faced strict restrictions by their clan elders to step outside their homes to cast their votes, the lawyer said. Many of them, who succeeded in reaching the polling stations, were restricted by the male poling agents and the police from casting their votes, he alleged. According to Razvi, more than 6,000 voters registered at 14 polling stations were barred from casting their votes.



The lawyer argued that the results of the election on PS-85 cannot be termed free and fair when the petitioners are not even allowed to vote. On Tuesday, a high court bench - headed by Justice Ahmed Ali M Sheikh - issued notices to the respondents to file their comments by the next date of hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 26th, 2013.

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