Daily Times

The latest political front of banned Jamaatud Dawa – Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek – is in a fix to meet the mandatory five percent women’s representation in party lists as there are only two women among the 265 contestants who have submitted nomination papers on AAT tickets.

The AAT, registered with the Election Commission of Pakistan in the name of Dr Mian Ihsan Bari, came to the limelight a few days ago when it emerged that those contesting the election on its tickets had been endorsed by the Milli Muslim League (MML), that remains unregistered over its links with outlawed Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). In April 2018, the US State Department amended its designation of LeT, identifying MML and Tehreek-i-Azadi-i-Kashmir (TAK) as its affiliates.

Since the ECP code of conduct requires all parties to have at least five percent representation of women in its ticket holders for general seats, the AAT still requires at least 11 more women candidates on its general seats’ list to meet the criterion.

Speaking to Daily Times on Sunday, MML spokesperson Tabish Qayyum confirmed that there were two women among the 265 AAT candidates whose nomination papers had been accepted by the ECP. Regarding the minimum representation criterion, he said, “We are hopeful that in a few days, we will be able to find more female representatives.”

He said MML candidates had decided to contest the polls on the AAT tickets after the ECP twice dismissed the outfit’s application for registration.

Giving a break up of candidates contesting on national and provincial assembly seats, the MML spokesperson said that 79 candidates would contest for NA and 186 for provincial seats. He said the MML had fielded 54 candidates on NA seats in Punjab, 11 in Sindh, nine in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), four in Balochistan, and one in the federal capital.

Asked about contenders for seats in major cities, the spokesperson confirmed based on information available with him so far that candidates endorsed by the MML would contest the election on AAT tickets from four NA seats (NA-125, NA-132, NA-133 and NA-134) and 16 provincial assembly seats in Lahore.

Of the 186 provincial seats, 125 were in Punjab, 35 in Sindh, 16 in KP and 10 in Balochistan.

To a query about the possibility of alliances with other parties, the MML spokesperson said that the outfit was already in the middle of talks with Pakistan Muslim League-Q and Pakistan Muslim League-Functional. He dismissed the possibility of an alliance with the PML-N, saying that there would be no alliance with the N League because of its opposition to MML’s registration with the ECP.

The AAT, registered with the ECP since over a decade, had contested the 2013 election on the symbol of cow and has now been allotted the symbol of chair. AAT leader Dr Ihsan Bari told Daily Times that a huge number of independent candidates were approaching party’s offices seeking tickets, adding that the matter of women representation would be resolved in time.

Commenting on the existing mechanisms to enforce the five percent women quota on general seats, Advocate Asad Jamal said there was a problem with the law since it did not prescribe consequences for violators. “We can’t accept compliance without the law prescribing adverse consequences,” he said, adding, however, that compliance could still be ensured through political and moral pressure on political parties. He said since there was too little time before the upcoming election to ensure that proper compliance mechanisms were in place, ‘next time around, the parties and the ECP should rethink the whole process’.

Published in Daily Times, June 25^th 2018.