Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: In an unprecedented move, women stepped out of their homes to vote in several areas including North Waziristan Agency (NWA), Dir and Khushab, as millions of voters cast their votes across country on Wednesday.

North Waziristan tribal district Deputy Commissioner Ayaz Khan told a private TV channel that no untoward incident was reported to the local administration during the polling process.

Similarly, women cast their votes for the first time in the history of Upper Dir. Queues of women were seen outside the polling stations in NA-5 and PK-12 constituencies. Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Secretary Babar Yaqoob said that women in Dir were casting their votes in the general elections for the first time in Pakistan’s history. Other areas that saw an unprecedented turnout of women voters include Mohmand Agency, South Waziristan Agency, Badin and Mithi.

Women in Mohmand tribal district’s Bayzai sub-division, some 5 kilometres from the Afghan border, also went to the polling booths for the first time.

Local administration in South Waziristan confirmed that women voter turnout was ‘extremely healthy’, and that no complaints had been received from anywhere.

The women of Dhurnal area of Chakwal cast their votes in the general elections for the first time in the last five decades. The women of the area were barred from casting votes for the last half a century. Khushab’s women also cast votes in the general elections for the first time in the history of Pakistan. The ECP had earlier announced that polling process at any constituency where women were stopped from voting or faced any obstacles would immediately become invalid. It had also declared that the result of any constituency would be declared invalid if women voter turnout would be less than 10 percent.

Published in Daily Times, July 26^th 2018.