Daily Times

These general elections have proven to be a victory for Pakistan’s women. Women from Dir, Kohistan, North and South Waziristan made history yesterday when they exercised their right to vote for the first time. This has been confirmed by Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Chairman Secretary Babar Yaqoob. These areas are places where women have been deprived of their Constitutional rights since the country was too deferential to local tradition and customs. A few years ago, some of these areas were terrorist strongholds where the militants enforced their own brand of oppressive and anti-women laws.

This positive change can be credited to the Election Commission Act 2017, which made it obligatory for winning candidates to secure at least 10 percent of the women’s vote from the constituency. The previous year, the ECP had rejected Council Election results from Dir, as no woman had voted. This is also the first time in Pakistan that women’s votes will be counted separately, making their votes more consequential than ever before.

However, increasing women’s participation in the electoral process still remains an uphill battle. Women’s turnout in Khyber Division, Shangla, Mohmand, certain parts of Peshawar and Charsadda among other areas was very low. In Peshawar, men also entered a women’s polling station in Peshawar and attempted to shut it down. The culprits in this incident must be made example of to deter such criminal acts in the future.

Still, as the women’s vote now carries more weight than it did before, political parties and their candidates will no doubt, do more to court the women’s vote in the future, prompting change in how women’s participation in the electoral process is perceived. This phenomenon was seen in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa this year as religious parties actively encouraged women’s participation in the elections for the first time in the province’s history.  *

Published in Daily Times, July 26^th 2018.