Accord signed to support women’s participation in polls

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Commission on the Status of Women and Aurat Foundation have signed an agreement to support women’s participation in general elections in four districts of the province.

“Under the agreement, the Aurat Foundation is providing support to the KP Commission on the Status of Women in four districts including Peshawar, Kohat, Swabi, and Bannu for the upcoming general elections of 2018,” Said Afzal, programme officer of Aurat Foundation, told a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club.

Under this agreement, he said, Aurat Foundation would provide technical assistance to KPCSW to constitute district committees on the Status of Women (DCSWs) under Article 8-E. He added that the DCSWs would help women in the target districts understand the KPCSW Act 2016, the Election Act 2017 as well as Pakistan’s electoral system. All activities under this agreement are funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). “Aurat Foundation is determined to use this opportunity to increase women’s participation in the upcoming election,” he added.

Under the agreement, he said, the Aurat Foundation had organised training sessions to the members of KPCSW, DCSWs and civil society organisations to enable them to monitor pre-election activities, and improve people’s knowledge about the importance of women’s participation in the electoral process.

Shaheen Quraish, chairperson DCSW Peshawar, appreciated USAID’s support initiative and said it would help to increase women’s participation in the electoral process and preserve their right to participate. She also said that USAID’s support enabled KPCSW and DCSW to showcase successes that other donors see as tangible and worthy of further funding.

“USAID is supporting this initiative under its broad Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governance Project (KPG) platform that strengthens public and civil society organisations to improve governance in the region,” she added.

Under this initiative, the KPCSW and Aurat Foundation have also arranged a three-day training programme for civil society organisations and media persons for their sensitisation on new laws related to women in the Election Act 2017.

The legal experts and rights activists including Ali Imran, Waseem Ahmad Shah, Shabina Ayaz, Neelam Toru, chairperson KPCSW, and Amna Durrani discussed women laws.

Neelam Toru, during the training session, said that the commission through DCSWs would monitor the participation of women in the elections across the province. She said that for the first time, 5 percent women candidates of political parties were contesting election on national and provincial seats in the province.