In K-P and Gilgit-Baltistan: Senators decry curbs on women voters

PML-N senator says will move a bill to ensure women’s participation in polls

ISLAMABAD:

Members of the upper house of parliament on Friday criticised the sidelining of women from the voting process in parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B), regretting that this had happened with the full consent of political parties.

Some senators, including one representing the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, later recommended that legislation be adopted to end this unacceptable practice. “I’m going to move a bill in the Senate in a bid to ensure the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) does not declare the election results when women are kept out of the election process,” said Senator Kalsoom Parveen of the PML-N.



She lamented that women, who make up over 50% of the country’s total population, were willfully kept out of the recently held by-election in PK-95 Lower Dir district where Jamaat-e-Islami and Awami National Party contested the poll.

Rubina, a woman senator from Balochsitan, said men are allowed to perform pilgrimage and so on and so forth while women are not allowed to cast ballots.

Leader of the house in Senate Raja Zafarul Haq, who had been directed by Senate chairman Raza Rabbani to get report from the concerned authorities about barring women from casting vote in Darel area of G-B, informed the house that women were temporarily stopped from casting their ballots as there were no separate polling booths for women as well as female polling staff.

G-B authorities, according to Haq. had arranged both women staff and separate polling booths for the areas, recalling how at least five people were killed there due to absence of women polling staff in the area.

Rape cases

During the question hour senators were informed that 4,360 cases of rape were registered since June 2013 to date, of which only 219 were convicted in the country.

In a written reply to a question submitted by MQM Senator Col (retd) Syed Tahir Hussain Mashhadi, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said 6,632 accused were arrested of which 4,960 cases were registered. The minister claimed that a proper challan had been submitted by the police against 3,645 accused but despite that only 219 were convicted by different courts.

According to a district-wise breakup placed before the house by the interior ministry, Punjab topped the list as a total of 4,322 rape cases were registered in different districts of the province while only 209 accused were brought to book.

Sindh followed in second place as a total of 328 rape cases were registered by police in the last two years.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2015.