No punitive law to compel women to cast votes: PHC

Bench issues detailed judgment in PK-95 by-polls case

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has said there is no punitive law that compels female voters to cast their votes by all means and the Election Commission of Pakistan cannot order re-poll of an election on the basis of mere presumptions.

“There is no provision in the Representation of Peoples Act 1976 that the election staff would at all costs compel a voter, whether male or female, to come to the polling station and cast his/her vote,” stated the detailed judgment given by a division bench comprising of Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan. They gave the verdict in a petition against the ECP decision that had declared the by-election in the provincial assembly constituency, PK-95 Lower Dir, as void because of women’s disenfranchisement. 

The judgment stated, “In view of the dictum laid down by Supreme Court in such cases, we are clear in our minds that the Election Commission of Pakistan under section 103AA of Representation of People’s Act 1976 can declare the election as void and can also ask for re-poll in some of the polling stations, but in the present case of PK-95 Lower Dir, the said power has been exercised on a hearsay evidence.” It may be added that the women’s rights groups have termed the Peshawar High Court decision a great setback for the struggle to ensure that females are able to vote in the elections.

Earlier on Thursday, the Peshawar High Court set aside the judgment of the Election Commission to cancel the by-election in the Lower Dir constituency due to the disenfranchisement of women. The court restored the Jamaat-i-Islami MPA Aizazul Mulk Afkari and ordered the ECP to issue his notification as the returned candidate.

The ECP had taken suo motu notice of media reports that not a single woman cast her vote out of the 53,817 female voters in the constituency in the May 7 by-election. The civil society activists had campaigned to have the election declared null and void as the women were unable to vote in the by-polls. These activists had also approached the court to prevent Aizazul Mulk Afkari from taking oath as the MPA from the constituency. The PK-95 seat had fallen vacant after Jamaat-i-Islami head Sirajul Haq resigned to work fulltime as the new leader of the party. He was later elected member of the Senate.