Barring women from voting: PHC stops ECP from notifying JI candidate’s victory in by-poll

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday stopped the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) from notifying Jamaat-e-Islami returned candidate in Local Government by-election after female voters and contesting candidates challenged the ban on female voters in the by-poll.

A single bench of Justice Syed Arshad Ali restrained the ECP from notifying the winning candidate Gul Hakim Khan, who was declared winning candidate in by-election Union Council Shahikhel tehsil, Timergara district, Dir Lower, till next order of the court.

The writ petition was filed by female voters of the union council, including Bakht Mina Begum, Baitul Miraj Bibi and Khaesta Begum through their lawyer Muzammil Khan.

The candidates, who had contested the by-poll, including Syed Inayatur Rehman, Dilawar Khan Manzoor Ahmad and Fazal Wahab, were also among the petitioners.

The court put on notice the respondents, including ECP, winning candidate Gul Hakim Khan, Provincial Finance Minister from JI, Muzaffar Said, and others. They were directed to submit reply before the next hearing into the petition.

During hearing, the lawyer submitted that the petitioners, female voters, had been aggrieved for the reason that they were not allowed to cast votes along with other female voters in the union council. He said the doors of the polling stations were closed allegedly by the respondents, including winning candidate Gul Hakim, Fazal Qadir, Nazim UC Shahikhel tehsil and provincial Minister Muzaffar Said with the help of local administration.

It was alleged in the writ petition that prior to by-election, the finance minister started pre-election rigging for his candidate Gul Hakim Khan and Rs300 million developmental works, which were yet to be tendered, were executed.

Cash payment was made to the voters in the locality and as such the entire election was manipulated with the connivance of the contesting candidate, it was further alleged.

The petitioners claimed on the day of the by-election, December 21, some women folk came to the polling station no 2. Some succeeded in entering the polling station and cast votes while the remaining were not allowed to the polling station.

They alleged the doors of the polling stations were closed by Nazim Fazal Qadir UC Shahikhel along with Gul Hakim Khan.

The voters alleged that two women, who had entered the polling station, were detained there for some time and later set free through the back door. They said other female voters were not allowed to enter the polling station.

The petitioners claimed that they had requested the ECP, Provincial Election Commission, Returning Officer, Gul Hakim, winning candidate, and local administration as well as private respondents time and again to allow them for voting, but to no avail.

In the grounds to the petition, they said the women were half of the total population. The Shahikhel UC has 15,000 voters out of which half are male voters who were allowed to cast votes, while the remaining half was restrained from voting.

The petitioners prayed to the court to declare the election null and void as the respondents had violated the law and barred female voters from the election.