Women Disfranchised: Why EC is silent on stopping women to vote

by Tauqeer Abbas
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SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)-women disfrenchise

Pakistan is a democratic country and its constitution clearly indicates the right of adult franchise for every citizen but unfortunately women especially from Northern area are not included in it. Women’s rights are always negotiable, at the altar of expediency, and on the pretext of tradition.In Gilgit-Baltistan, attempts are being made to exclude them from the democratic exercise of electing their representatives to the GB legislative assembly. A jirga comprising 40 religious scholars and five local elders held in Deral valley on Thursday decided that women registered in that constituency will not be allowed to vote in the elections scheduled for June 8.

The Jirga’s decision is likely to disenfranchise more than 12,550 female voters of the GBLA-17, Diamer 3, constituency. Even during the 2009 elections a large number of women had been deprived of the voting right by powerful circles, who had signed an agreement among themselves to disallow the women to vote. It is a violation of the basic rights of the women, who are equal citizens of the country, entitled to vote under the constitution. According to statistics released by the Chief Election Commissioner last week, women account for around 46 % of the total registered voters in the Gilgit-Baltistan region.Hidebound traditions, particularly those that control decision-making by the female half of the population, do not disappear quietly and there is no shortage of self-serving politicians whose party manifestos may claim to champion women’s rights, but who demonstrate supine acquiescence in the face of local right-wing pressure groups.

Election commission must take notice and implement its code of conduct by hook or crook and also it should ban all those political parties which favored the Jirga decision to stop women from voting.

pakistan.shafaqna.com