While Panama and the who-dunnit discussion around 10 billion dominated media headlines, political rights were violated of 1,164 Pakistani citizens. This is the number of registered women voters in PP-23 constituting the areas of Dhurnal, Dhaural and Mogla villages of Chakwal district in Punjab. Please re-read the previous sentence again. Chakwal in Punjab which, according to 1998 Census figures, has a literacy rate of 57 percent. The 2017 census will definitely show an upward increase in this rate.
While all things constitutional are being discussed these days from dismissals, impeachment and constitutional criteria to lead Pakistan, let’s not forget Article 51 (2) of the 1973 Constitution which stipulates the right to vote on all Pakistanis who are 18 years and above. Mass awareness campaigns were and still are being planned and unrolled to encourage Pakistanis to become registered voters. It is quite common to hear people with a misplaced pride declare that they do not vote. How can they be encouraged is a separate topic but in PP-23 there were 1,164 women who were registered voters but still they did not vote. Thus, they were not oblivious to their political rights and the processes necessary to exercise those rights: they had registered but as the by-elections showed, they did not vote. Why?
Realistically speaking there can be a number of reasons why a person is unable to vote on the election day. The most common are lack of security, lack of adequate arrangements on part of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), intimidation, threat of violence, community barring the women voters and local candidates coming to an understanding of refraining from seeking women votes. Violence on the actual day of election is also a major reason for registered, women voters to vote. These are, in their totality, the reasons all over Pakistan cited for no or low women turnout.
In Chakwal, no violence happened prior or the day of the by-election, no threat nor intimation of any sort nor was there any inadequacy in the arrangements made by the ECP for female voters. There was no panchayat by the community or the candidates declaring that women would not vote. It was convention….tradition that did not allow 1,164 registered women voters to vote.
In Chakwal not a single registered woman voter voted because of an unspoken but enforced tradition of women not voting. When I spoke to some of these women, they shared that the thought of voting has never occurred to them. When I asked, as to why then bother to register, they laughed saying “we didn’t register … we were registered.” Thus, so deeply has this been ingrained into them generation after generation that women have no business voting, that this is almost a reverse Pavlovian response of staying at home on election day. The village elders of Dhurnal union agree and compliment the younger, educated women of “respecting and honouring this tradition.”
Respect for traditions apart, not allowing a woman to vote in today’s Pakistan is denying her the basic right enshrined in the constitution of the country. It should be addressed and treated by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) as systematic rigging. For instance, even if 50 percent of the 1,164 registered women voters come out and vote according to their free will, it can have a significant impact on the election results of that constituency.
It is important to understand that this practice in the name of tradition is being done in a place like Chakwal, which is one of the most prominent areas of Punjab and not a far-flung district, where the relevant institutions are not able to practice their authority. Moreover, there is no security concern due to which women are afraid to go out of their homes to vote. This is nothing but a systematic way of keeping women voters out of the elections process, so that they cannot have their say in electing their representative as their vote can create a difference.
There is a dire need to create a realisation among the women of village Dhurnal that their vote is very important and by not voting or paying heed to unnecessary traditions is equal to doing injustice to themselves. The community based organisations working on the local level in the village must step up their efforts and start mobilising the women to reject the ages old tradition and make their vote count. This is the right time to do so because the next general elections are only around the corner. Other stakeholders including media, pro-women organisations and most importantly women parliamentarians must take up the issue in the national and provincial assemblies on urgent basis so that the women from village Dhurnal are not barred from practicing their right in the name of tradition in the next general elections.
The writer is a development consultant. She tweets at @GulminaBilal and can be reached at [email protected]