PESHAWAR: A consultation was convened by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Commission on the Status of Women with relevant Government and Civil Society stakeholders to orient them on Commission’s strategy with regard to safeguarding women’s interests in General Elections in the province and exploring areas of collaboration to work together for women inclusive Elections on 8th February, 2024.
The commission will be setting up a monitoring cell for a women-inclusive elections accessible through phone numbers 091-9216097, 091-9216107, and a WhatsApp 0316-9088829 to received reports and feedback from field related to issues faced by women voters and reports if any, of barring women from voting in any part of the Province.
The commission cell will be linked up with the Gender Desk and Control Room of Election Commission of Pakistan for quick redress.
Speaking on the occasion, Deputy Director, Sohail Ahmad from ECP briefed the participants on measures it was ensuring to provide a fair atmosphere woman in the elections 2024
.
He also provided an orientation on the Code of Conduct for observers.
Saima Munir of Aurat Foundation delivered a technical session on different dimensions of monitoring of elections from gender lens particularly referring to allocation of 5% of general seats tickets to women party workers by their respective political parties to be eligible for election symbols as well as the mandatory minimum 10% voters’ turnout as a requirement under the Election Act 2017.
Chief Khatib Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mufti Tayyab Qureshi made a special appearance on this occasion and expressing his views on cultural practices of barring women from voting said there were clear Islamic injunctions for women rights in Islam and emphasized that no prohibition existed in Islam on their right to vote.
Secretary, KPCSW Robin Haider Bokhari said monitoring of women inclusive in election was core mandate of KPCSW.
Member KPCSW, Dr. Noreen Naseer said the commission relied on the support of Civil Society to promote women role in election
s.
The participants expressed commitment to work with KPCSW to promote the educational material and monitoring cell numbers within their networks on grassroots level in efforts to ensure a woman inclusive election on 8the February 2024.