Only one woman turns up for voting at Peshawar polling station

PESHAWAR: Only one woman cast her vote out of 987 voters at a polling station in the provincial capital.

In NA-29 Peshawar, only one woman cast her vote out of 987 female voters in Haji Baba polling station in Peshawar city. The presiding officer in the polling station said the male candidates and nazims told the election staff that they had decided that women would not cast vote at the polling station.

'We would wait for the women voters till official time as may be some voters come for casting votes,' the presiding officer said, adding that they would report the situation to the Election Commission of Pakistan.

However, only one woman voter come at about 2 pm and polled her vote at the polling station. When asked, she replied that her husband permitted her to cast her vote. The residents said that they were not in favour of women voting. They said none of the winning candidates resolved their problems related to drinking water and provision of natural gas.

When contacted, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Commission on the Status of Women (KPCSW) head Neelam Toru said the commission visited the polling station after receiving media reports. She said the issue was taken up with the authorities concerned and one woman voter cast her vote when the commission intervened.

“The commission took up the issue with the district monitoring officer, district returning officer and the Chief Minister’s Secretariat Monitoring Cell,” she said. Neelam Toru claimed that the KPCSW Complaint Cell had received 15 complaints and all were addressed through the authorities concerned. These related to agreements for disenfranchising women voters and lack of other facilities.

At the several polling stations, including in Hazarkhwani and Ahmadkhel area on the Kohat Road, women were not coming out for votes, but polling resumed after the intervention of the commission.

She said that there were also reports of a ban on women voting in NA-26 Nowshera, but election resumed at the Karvi Koroono polling station after the commission and authorities concerned intervened.

Neelam Toru said that it was a great success for the commission and the Election Commission of Pakistan that women cast votes in Dir, Kohistan, Nowshera and other conservative districts of the province. She said women polled votes in Dir and tribal districts for the first time. Observers said the turnout of women voters remained low even in Peshawar for fear of terrorist attacks and cultural barriers.