Parties asked to award tickets to women in elections

MANSEHRA: Civil society activists have demanded political parties to award tickets to women aspirants for the local government elections to bring them into the national mainstream.

“If women are not given a leadership role, we cannot expect economic change in our lives and status,” Yasmin Bibi, a former tehsil councillor, told a women-only gathering organised by the Saibaan Development Organisation in Balakot on Friday.

The women rights activists, former local government representatives and officials of various public sector departments attended the forum. Yasmin said that it was an encouraging sign that the Aawaz 11 constituted a women learning forum where they could raise their voice against societal discriminations and gender-based violence.

Speaking on the occasion, Saibaan chief Sahibzada Jawad Alfaizi said that his organisation had been working to help marginalised segments of society.

“We have been providing a platform to women to discuss their issues and finalise their strategy to deal effectively with them,” he said.

Speaking on the occasion, religious scholar Maulana Saeed Abdullah said that Islam gives women equal rights like that of men and independence of mobility to earn livelihood for them and their families.

“Women should actively pursue their carrier as business entrepreneurs and other public and private positions to change their economic condition as Islam gives them independence to do it,” he said.

Sajida Khan, a differently abled social activist, told the gathering that men and women were largely amputated of their limbs in the 2005 devastating earthquake but the latter were still deprived of their due rights.