Veeru Kohlan, general seat candidate from PS 50 Hyderabad on Friday spoke about the problems she faced in contesting elections at a ceremony organised by Potohar Organization for Development Advocacy (PODA) for sharing women’s electoral experiences.
She said that there were 1,700,000 bonded labourers in Pakistan who suffered as at the hands of big landlords. “My campaign was based on land reforms and peasant rights. I can take these issues to the parliament,” she asserted.
However, she lost the election due to a number of hurdles: “I lost because my supporters were not allowed to vote.”
Kohlan hails from a scheduled Hindu caste in Sindh. She claimed that she went door to door to meet her voters and on Election Day they were not allowed to leave their farms and brick kilns to vote. She shared that she was threatened by local political leaders and feudal lords, and her campaign posters were destroyed, her workers harassed.
Kohlan noted that a major problem was that most of the poor people who wanted to support her did not have Computerized National Identity Cards, a voting requirement.
Veeru also claimed that opponents had offered her bribes to withdraw from the elections but she refused. Despite all these obstacles she stood third according to her polling agents. “I will not give up my struggle,” she added.
Veeru declared she would file official complaints to the Election
Commission of Pakistan (ECP) about the problems she faced as a low caste female candidate. She said that although she had lost this time, contesting itself was a symbolic victory for religious minorities and all bonded labourers in the country.
Speaking on the occasion, PODA Executive Director Sameena Nazir, said, “We salute the courage of Veeru Kohlan for contesting elections and for inspiring thousands of rural women to stand up for their rights. Women should participate actively in politics and work to serve the nation.”
