Fewer party tickets for women candidates resented

PESHAWAR: South Asia Partnership and Jazba Forum members along with women political workers have expressed concern over the allocation of fewer tickets by political parties to women candidates.

Speaking at the press club here on Thursday, Nusrat Ara, Aysha and others said the political parties had agreed to award 33 percent of total tickets to make women political workers more empowered.

They said political parties had made commitments that women workers would be included in the mainstream political activities in a more empowered manner. But these parties, they added, backtracked on their own commitments by not awarding sufficient tickets to women workers for the upcoming general elections.

The civil society workers said the applications submitted and tickets awarded to candidates had exposed the non-seriousness of the political parties as hardly 11 percent of the candidates for general seats were women.

They said women were almost half of the country’s population therefore, their representation in politics and assemblies should also be in accordance with their population.

The activists demanded a decrease in the election expenses so that women should take part in political activities.