Daily Times

Lahore: Several women activists of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) who were part of the NA-120 bypoll campaign team last year have boycotted Maryam Nawaz’s campaign in NA-127, in protest against the party’s Lahore chapter women wing president.

Estranged activists accuse PML-N Lahore women wing president Shaista Pervaiz Malik for discriminating against them in selection of names for the list of reserved seats for women.

Nargis Mateen, a member of the city’s metropolitan council, told Daily Times that she ran a rigorous campaign for Begum Kulsoom Nawaz, PML-N’s candidate in the last year’s bypoll, but the party ignored her for the reserved seats of woman. “We ignored our family members and committed ourselves to party’s campaign for two months. We were with Maryam during her visits to the constituency and now we have been sidelined,” she says, adding Shaista Pervaiz Malik had accommodated her favourites on the list, ignoring devoted workers.

She says that despite the mistreatment she and others reached Maryam’s campaign office in Singh Pura area of NA-127 to attend the inauguration ceremony on Saturday, but were asked to leave.

Shaista Pervaiz Malik’s husband Pervaiz Malik, president of the PML-N Lahore chapter, had won NA-127 (old NA-123) in 2013, and the couple has since maintained a dedicated cadre of party activists in the area who will be relied upon to run Maryam’s campaign.

Other estranged activists who communicated their decision to stay away from Maryam’s campaign to Daily Times on Saturday were Naseem Bano, the general secretary of PML-N mother’s wing; Sajida Waseem, the general secretary of PML-N Lahore young women wing; and Saima Sheikh, former coordinator of Maryam Nawaz in NA-120.

All of them say that they applied for the reserved seat list but were ignored at the behest of Shaista Pervaiz Malik.

Sajida Waseem says, “Shaista Malik didn’t want us to get the party ticket because she adjusted her own people on reserved seats.

In a last minute decision, Maryam Nawaz had changed her mind to contest from NA-127 instead of NA-125 (old NA-120) because of her prolonged stay with her mother in London.

Responding to the allegations raised by women activists, Shaista Pervaiz Malik says the estranged workers had joined the party only to get tickets, adding that they were not loyal to the party.

“I have been in politics for two decades but I have never seen my participation for the sake of tickets alone,” she says, adding that the estranged activists should continue working with the party.

“A large number of women workers from Lahore were adjusted in the reserved seats’ list. The party cannot give a ticket to everyone who has rendered services for it in Lahore as other districts also have a right to get tickets,” she says, “Today, I handed over my team in NA-127 to Maryam’s team. They would now work together and run a successful campaign since I have worked in the constituency for a decade.”

Unlike PML-N, disgruntled activists of the PTI women wing in the city say they will continue to support the party, despite denial of tickets. Saima Shaukat, who has been protesting in the city for over a week, says she remains a worker of the PTI and will not leave the party. “I am still in the PTI despite the fact that my concerns are not addressed because I am a worker of Imran Khan. I will run the party’s campaign and am waiting for my duties to be assigned by Aleem Khan in a day or two.”

Published in Daily Times, July 1^st 2018.