MALAKAND - The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government should take steps for ensuring participation of women in the next general election in Malakand and the society should give women their right to vote.
Speakers at a seminar said this on Tuesday, adding that no one was entitled to stop women from casting their votes. The seminar was organised here at Kharkai Malakand by Women Awareness and Development Society (WADS) with the collaboration of Society Strengthening and Participatory Organisation (SPO). Sher Zaman Khan, Khadim Muhammad Khan, Muhammad Iqbal Khan, Fazal Hameed and others addressed at the seminar and asked the society members to take practical steps in this regard and play their due role to maximise the women participation and vote cast. The participants pointed out that according to the law, elections would be postponed in constituencies where women were restrained from voting or the votes cast by them turned out to be less than 10 per cent of their total population. However women were restricted in the past to cast vote, they said.
“This parliamentary act empowers the women to get their political right to vote,” Sher Zaman said. He however asked the government and election commission that they should closely observe the upcoming elections, especially in Malakand. Sher zaman Khan said that the election candidates would now be penalized if they stopped women from voting. He said the political parties should form women wings in the region to ensure their participation in polls.