Winning general seat a difficult task for women in KP

PESHAWAR: Though contesting election on a general seat is a difficult task for women candidates in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, they have accepted the challenge in the past and would face their male colleagues in the coming general election too.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has 35 National Assembly seats while another eight are reserved for women. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly has 99 general seats plus 22 reserved for women.

The political parties fill the reserved seats according to their numerical strength.

Former MPAs Shazia Aurangzeb and Syeda Nasira Batool and MNA Khursheed Begum, who were elected on reserved seats in the past, ran for general seats in the 2013 general election.

Shazia Aurangzeb, the former PML-N dissident MPA from Mardan, contested the 2013 general election on Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) ticket from NA-9 Mardan against strong candidates, including Awami National Party (ANP) candidate former chief minister Ameer Haider Hoti and PML-N’s Khwaja Mohammad Khan Hoti, who was a former federal minister. She got 7,002 votes only.

The seat was won by Ameer Haider Hoti by about 2,000 votes after a neck-to-neck contest with PTI’s Nasir Khan.

In the 2013 election, other women candidates also tried their luck on general seats.

The PML-N awarded ticket for constituency PK-68 Dera Ismail Khan to Syeda Nasira Batool, who was an MPA of the JUI-F on the reserved seat in the previous assembly.

She had joined the PML-N and contested for a general seat. It was a difficult constituency where she faced strong opponents, including the three-time winner Syed Mureed Kazim. She received 1,234 votes only and fared poorly in the contest.

Khursheed Begum, a lawyer by profession, was earlier an MNA for the ANP on the reserved seat for women. Later she quit the party and decided to contest as an independent candidate on a general seat from NA-14 Kohat. She received 7,192 votes only and lagged far behind the winner, PTI’s Shehryar Afridi, runner-up Gohar Khan Bangash and a few other candidates.

Another independent female candidate Nazia Zulfiqar could get 254 votes in the same constituency. 

Aneela Shaheen, a journalist from Peshawar, had contested the May 2013 election from constituency NA-4 Peshawar as an independent candidate against strong candidates of the PML-N, ANP, PTI and PPP. She received 1,852 votes only. The seat was won by PTI’s Gulzar Khan while PML-N’s Nasir Khan Musazai was placed second. 

The others female candidates in 2013 on general seats included Dilbara Yousafzai, who contested election on the ticket of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) from PK-15 Nowshera and received 178 votes only.

Gulana Bibi from PK-69 Tank was also an independent candidate and received 37 votes only.

Asma Mehmud was an independent candidate from both NA-32 and PK-89 Chitral in 2013 polls. She got 587 votes in the contest for the National assembly seat.

Farah Khan, a Peshawar High Court lawyer, contested for PK-41 Karak, against PML-N’s Malik Zafar Azam, PPP’s Jehanzeb Khan, JUI-F’s Malik Qasim and ANP’s Mohsin Ali Khan who is a former senior minister and has now joined the PTI. Farah Khan polled a mere 94 votes.

Nusrat Begum, who was the district vice-president of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, filed papers as an independent candidate for NA-34 Lower Dir and polled 185 votes only despite good media coverage.

Badam Zari was the first woman to file nomination papers from the tribal areas.  She contested for constituency NA-44, Bajaur Agency as an independent candidate and obtained 142 votes only.