Activists complain of bar on women to contest NWFP polls

Rights activists have accused the authorities of failing to act on reports of women being barred from contesting upcoming local elections in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP), a staunchly conservative area governed by a religious parties’ alliance. “Verbal statements alone by officials at the Election Commission cannot do away with decrees or agreements issued by regional tribal leaders and office-bearers of major political parties aimed at stopping women from contesting polls,” Rakhshanda Naz, head of the women rights’ body, Aurat (Women) Foundation, said from the provincial capital Peshawar. Under the supervision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the three-phase local government polls are scheduled to start on 18 August in 110 districts across the country's four provinces. The ECP became aware of reports from northern NWFP of agreements made earlier this month to stop women from participating in elections and warned of legal action against those involved. However, according to rights’ activists, female participation in filing nomination papers has been extremely low following announcements by local tribal and politically influential leaders of possible consequences if they were to do so, including fines of over US $800. In the second week of July, the Peshawar-based Aurat Foundation launched a nationwide campaign to facilitate and assist women’s participation in the local government elections. “The campaign is all about educating women candidates and helping them through the course of filing nomination papers, running voter campaigns and mobilisation meetings,” Aasim Malik of the Aurat Foundation told IRIN from Lower Dir district, some 260 km from Peshawar. Since the ECP announced the election schedule in the last week of June, efforts to stop women from participating have been continuing in the area, according to rights campaigners in NWFP. Malik pointed out that an agreement by office-bearers of major political parties was only one of a number of means being used to harass potential female candidates, citing the murder of a devoted councilor from Upper Dir, Zubeida Begum, as another example. During the last four-year term, as of 31 August 2004, about 1,270 union council seats meant for women councillors laid vacant across 24 districts of NWFP, with an even more depressing record in the province's northern districts. In Lower Dir district, only six seats were filled out of a total 204 allocated for women, however, the Batagram district had only one female representative against an available 122 positions. While in Kohistan district not a single seat of the 228 reserved for woman was filled, Malik said. Pronouncements on gender equality, emancipation of women and female participation in social and political development are part of the manifestos of every political party, but “with no resolve to implement them in a democratic way,” Naz claimed. The ECP could have dispatched special teams or made some kind of higher level administrative intervention to give a sense of security to female contestants and so encourage their participation, activists believe. In its latest move, the ECP extended the nomination paper filing date for women candidates in four districts of NWFP: Lower Dir, Upper Dir, Batagram and Kohistan.