ISLAMABAD - The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday notified Naeema Kishwar Khan of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly’s member-elect on seat reserved for women from tribal districts.
On the other hand the people of tribal districts have sharply criticized this decision of JUI-F leadership as according to them the MPA-elected Naeema Kishwar was not from the tribal region.
Talking to The Nation the people hailing from erstwhile Fata said that the decision taken by the JUI-F leadership was entirely against the wishes of tribal people as once again they were not given their right.
They added that there were many intelligent and highly qualified women from erstwhile Fata who have the ability to speak for the rights of tribal people and represent them in assemblies were ignored and sidelined.
They said that she was imposed on them and they would not accept this decision They said that JUI-F in their campaigns had talked about then protection of rights of tribal people but as the time has come to serve the tribal people, they ignored the local leadership and elected a woman who does not know about the Fata issues.
Party’s decision invites ire of tribesmen
They lamented that the tribal people were betrayed by JUI-F.
The sources close to JUI-F revealed that the there was an internal rift surfaced in JUI-F central leadership on the move of electing Naeema Kishwar Khan on the reserved seat from erstwhile Fata.
According to the sources, Mufti Abdul Shakoor, the JUI-F’s chief of tribal districts and Member of National Assembly (MNA) was not happy on the decision of electing Naeema Kishwar on reserved seat because he wanted to elect a woman who was hailing from tribal region in order to represent the tribal people in actual meanings.
Sources further revealed that JUI-F chief Maulana Fazl Rehman personally intervened and played his role in electing Naeema Kishwar which was opposed by locals and some members inside party.
Under Article 103(3) sub-clause C of the Constitution, the members to fill seats reserved for women and non-Muslims, which are allocated to a province, shall be elected through proportional representation system of political parties’ lists of candidates on the basis of total number of general seats won by each political party from the province concerned and on the bases of this JUI-F got a single reserve seat.
The newly-elected Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) on reserved seat, Naeema Kishwar Khan is living in Mardan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and has remained MPA on the ticket of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal from 2002 to 2007 and served as an MNA from 2013 to 2018.
