Court takes action on bar on women voters

Agencies/IslamabadA high court in northwest Pakistan yesterday ordered the authorities to withhold bye-election results of two constituencies where women were not allowed to cast votes, an official said. The elections were being held in 42 constituencies vacated by politicians who won more than one seat in the May general election. According to the constitution, a candidate can contest more than one parliamentary seat but can hold only one. Some constituencies were vacant due to the deaths of members of parliament. At least three were killed by militants. “The Chief Justice of Peshawar High Court has taken the suo moto notice of media reports that women were not allowed to cast their votes in two constituencies of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province,” a court official said. The chief justice Dost Mohamed Khan has directed the authorities to arrest members of any jirga (elders’ council) who decided against women voting in Lakki Marwat and Nowshehra districts, the official said. Orders have also been issued by the chief justice to the Election Commission to withhold the results of these constituencies and a court hearing will be started within 10 days, the official said. Women’s turnout is usually weak in the most conservative, rural parts of Pakistan, particularly within the tribal belt, the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and southwestern Baluchistan provinces. The turnout yesterday was moderate, officials said. Despite a warning by militants to disrupt polls in a northwestern district, officials said no major violent incidents had been registered as the voting process drew to a close. More than 5mn people were registered for voting for 15 seats in the national parliament and 26 in provincial assemblies but actual turnout was expected to be much lower, said Khurshid Khan, an official at the Election Commission of Pakistan. The by-elections are unlikely to have much impact on the position of political parties in the parliament but are seen as an indicator of their popularity two months after new national and provincial governments were formed. The parties of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, President Asif Ali Zardari and opposition leader Imran Khan are running in most of the constituencies. Turnout in Pakistan’s landmark May general elections was nearly 60%, making it the highest since 1977, according to official statistics. In 2008, not a single vote was cast at 564 of 28,800 women’s polling stations - 55% of them in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, officials said. In the most conservative areas, officials estimated women’s turnout at just 10 to 15% of those registered.