PESHAWAR - Election Commission’s directives of fielding women candidates for at least five per cent of general seats by every political party apparently did not serve the purpose as no woman aspirant could win in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in the recently-held general election.
A total of 48 women contested for National and KP assemblies’ constituencies in the province. Among them, Asma Alamgir of Pakistan People’s Party grabbed the highest number of votes, 24,000.
On NA-13, Affat Kalsoom of Awami National Party got 183 votes; on NA-15 Abbottabad, Sameen Riaz Abbasi secured 819 votes; on NA-16, Nusrat Anjum of Pak Sarzamin Party secured 377 votes.
Similarly, on NA-17 Haripur, Iram Fatima of Awami National Party grabbed 2,592 votes, Shaista Naz of the PPP got 2,933 votes; on NA-23 Charsadda, Tahira Bukhari secured 10,260 votes; on NA-25, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf dissident member Ayesha Gulalai got 959 votes; on NA-27 Peshawar, Sobia Shahid got 3,136 votes; on NA-31 Peshawar, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan’s Yasmeen got 430 votes, on NA-35 Bannu, Syed Yasmeen Safdar got 9,173 votes and on NA-46 Kurram Agency, Ali Begum Khan got 1,365 votes.
While on KP Assembly seats, Hamida Shahid and Saima Khalid secured 10,000 votes individually, on PK-15, independent candidate Sumera got 98 votes; on PK-26 Lower Kohistan, Sidra Khalid got 201 votes; on PK-30 Mansehra, PTI’s Maria Fatima got 1,025 votes; on PK-34 Mansehra, Zahida Sabeel got 3,519 votes; on PK-36 Abbottabad, Robina Zahid secured 77 votes; on PK-37, Qaumi Watan Party’s candidate Rabia Gul got 430 votes; on PK-39 Abbottabad, Qasima Shaheen of the TLP got 637 votes; on PK-38, Shehnaz Bibi grabbed 222 votes; on PK-40 Haripur, Majlis-e-Wahdat-ul-Muslimeen’s Razia Jafri got 60 votes; on PK-41 Haripur, ANP’s Saira Saeed got 608 votes while Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Farzana Rehan got 571 votes.
On PK-49 Mardan, PPP’s Khaista Begum got 8,569; on PK-51 Mardan, the QWP’s Imtiaz Bibi grabbed 63 votes; on PK-58 Charsadda, PML-N’s Sumera Khan got 141 votes; on PK-60 Charsadda, the PML-N’s Farha Khan got 171 votes; on PK-62 Nowshera, independent candidate Bibi Saeed got 330 votes; on PK-72 Peshawar, the QWP’s Nargis Saleem got 19 votes; on PK-77 Peshawar, the TLP’s Saima Shehzad got 120 votes; on PK-27 Peshawar, independent candidate Surayya Shehab got 39 votes; on PK-82, Jamila Paracha got 16,018 votes, on PK-88 Bannu, the PPP’s Sayyeda Yasmeen Safdar got 10,811 votes; on PK-89 Bannu, PPP’s Mehar Sultana got 347 votes; on PK-91 Lakki Marwat, PPP’s Farzana Sheren got 139 votes.
Likewise, on PK-93 Lakki Marwat, Zareen Riaz got 82 votes while on PK-98 D.I. Khan; PML-N’s Khurshed Bibi got 293 votes.
The number of votes secured by these candidates was extremely low, while on general seats, it is nearly impossible for women to campaign in their constituencies. The women can hardly communicate to male members of a family to mould their opining in their favour.
Similarly, the political parties also played treacherous role in awarding tickets to these candidates and selected only those areas for women where the party vote bank was equal to nil. So, the vote taken by these candidates was more than their expectations while in some constituencies, they have crossed the figure of 10,000 votes.
NADER BUNERI