Drive to mobilise women on polling day

Islamabad : National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) would establish early Warning System in low turn-out areas of women in collaboration with Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to take action against the responsible.

The system would point out the factors which create hindrance for women to cast their vote and report it immediately to ECP, said Chairperson National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW), Khawar Mumtaz.

NCSW would also establish a mechanism to observe women participation in upcoming general elections of 2018 all over the country with special focus on the areas where women are contesting elections on general seats, she said.

Addressing a seminar on ‘Tracking Punjab’s Progress on Quota for Women’, organised by Peace and Development Foundation (PDF), she said that political parties abiding by the rules of ECP, allotted five per cent general seats tickets to women but the main concern is whether they have fielded them on winning seats or not. Most of the women candidates have complaint that their respective parties have not allotted them tickets from the constituencies of their own will which is a major matter of concern, Khawar Mumtaz said.

The chairperson further said that it is time to launch campaigns for mobilization of women to come out of their homes and cast their vote on election day with their own free will.

Pointing out another major issue, she shared that the steps for participation of transgender, senior citizen and persons with disabilities is also another major area for which special measures to be taken to ensure their maximum turnout.

She further stated that another major task for the women who would part of the parliament rather on general or reserve seats would be their proper training to play their active role in the new parliament and render their duties according to the expectations of people for which NCSW had already started working.