If the ECP takes action, it will set a precedent for the next election
It was hoped that the parochial attitude prevalent towards women voters in Pakistan would change on this round of electioneering. All the right indications had been given before the elections: elders in various regions including Paikhel, Bajaur and the Kyber agencies had given the go ahead to women to vote, even the Taliban had issued statements to the press stating that they had “no objections to women voting” in South Waziristan if “proper purda arrangements” were available. But three days before the elections, the tide began to turn. “It is our pride to keep women away from politics. How we can alter the traditions of our forefathers,” is the statement that some elders have been reported to be making. The question on everyone lips is: what will be the turnout of the 37 million registered women voters in Pakistan?
It was reported that elders in Paikhel, Makarwal, Chapri, Tola Bangi Khel, Kalabagh and Chakrala were still denying the 8,000 women in the constituency the right to vote, despite the fact that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) women candidate Ayla Malik had made frequent visits to the area, and tried to use her clout as the granddaughter of the Nawab of Kalabagh to convince women to vote – and elders to let them. The positive sign was that the youth in the area wanted women to exercise their right to vote. More worrying was the agreement between the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Jamaat-I-Islami (JI) to bar women from casting their votes in Low Dir on PP-94, as both are mainstream political parties, with the former claiming progressive credentials.
Nonetheless more women are contesting elections from the Khyber Pakthunkhwa area than ever before, with two women even contesting elections from the tribal areas, both staunchly criticising the tribal attitude towards women. While the fate of women in South Waziristan appears to be better, an unknown group has warned men in North Waziristan against allowing women to cast their ballots. In the Bajaur Agency, however, the JI, Jamaat Ulema-i-Islam and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz is in place to ensure women vote.
In 2008, not a single vote was cast at 564 of 28,800 women’s polling stations in the border areas of Balochistan and KP. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should have pre-anticipated such action and declared that it would not count ballots in areas where the female turn out was low. The staunch warning required were not issued in time but there is still scope for the ECP to take remedial action. Where, on one side, there is talk of great change and new tides swooping Pakistan after this election, not much appears to have changed with respect to patriarchal attitudes towards women. Things need to change fast. If the ECP takes action in this election, it will set an unshaken precedent for the next.
