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Notices issued in petition seeking seats for Fata women in NA

By Bureau report
March 22, 2018

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday issued notices to the president and prime minister in a writ petition seeking directive for the government to allocate reserved seats for women from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) in the National Assembly and Senate.

A PHC division bench comprising Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Syed Afsar Shah asked Assistant Attorney General of Pakistan, Tariq Mansoor, to ensure reply from respondents over the legal question raised by the Fata women in the petition.

The petition was filed jointly by Fata Youth Empowerment and Development Association Chairperson Mehreen Afridi, its Director Operations Nadia Khan and Director Programmes Wali Mohammad.

The court was requested to declare illegal and unconstitutional the non-allocation of reserved seats in the Senate and National Assembly for women from Fata.

The counsel for the petitioners, Fazal Shah Mohmand, stated that the people of tribal areas were the most neglected, more particularly the women, who were not provided any opportunities.

The petition stated that the Constitution ensured elimination of all sorts of exploitation and stressed equality of all citizens. The petitioners submitted that under Article 51 of the Constitution, 60 of the 342 seats of National Assembly have been reserved for women, who are elected from the four provinces.

They stated that of the 104 seats of Senate, four women were elected by members of each of the provincial assemblies and one from the federal capital area.

However, they contended that seats were reserved for women of all areas, including four provinces and federal capital, except Fata, thus only the women of Fata were kept deprived of their representation in the Parliament.

They contend that the Constitution secured the fundamental rights of its citizens and Pakistan was also a signatory to various international conventions and treaties which were aimed at ensuring the participation, representation and contribution of the women.

The petitioners said the non-allocation of reserved seats for Fata women was a violation of different provisions of the Constitution. They stated that the Fata women should also be provided an opportunity for better participation and representation like their counterparts in other parts of the country.

They requested the court to grant them interim relief by directing the respondents to allocate reserved seats for the women of Fata in the National Assembly for the forthcoming elections till a final disposal of the writ petition.

The respondents to the petition include the president through principal secretary, prime minister through principal secretary, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor, National Assembly speaker, Senate chairman, chief election commissioner of Pakistan, chairperson of National Commission on the Status of Women, secretary, Ministry of States and Frontier Regions and the federal secretary of the Law Ministry.