WOMEN’S DISENFRANCHISEMENT
By Shad Begum[1]
The
Peshawar High Court’s judgment to declare the Election Commission of Pakistan
(ECP) judgment of June 2, 2015 as null and void in the case of PK 95 Dir Lower
has compelled the civil society networks and women rights activist to contest
PHC judgment in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The ECP took suo moto
action after the by-election in PK-95, in which the JI candidate had won the
election.
The PHC
judgement says that the learned judges were not happy with the situation but there
is no such law to compel voters for voting. The question was not to compel the
voters for voting but the entire reasoning of the ECP judgement was that since
the local JIRGA, including the contesting candidates, had reached a verbal
agreement to limit the elections to men only, hence it was against the
constitutional guarantees and the spirit of the electoral laws.
It is
also worth noting that while the case was being heard in the ECP, when there
was a favorable environment for the women voters, they came out to vote on May
30, 2015 in the local government elections. Even more significant are the
results of PK-93 Dir Upper in which the women of Dir came out to vote in the
by-elections in September 2015. It was unprecedented to see women voters in Dir
Upper by-elections. Whether in the local government elections or in the case of
PK-93 Dir Upper, the political parties and their candidates knew that there is
a strong reaction from the ECP on barring women voters, and that the ECP will
take action against the winning candidates, just as in the case of JI’s
candidate in PK-95, if women were barred from voting.
The PHC
judgment will set a precedent and encourage those who disenfranchise women in
the name of culture. The ECP judgment was a strong message to those violating
women’s right to vote but it seems that the struggle of empowering women
through the exercise of their votes is not yet finished.
The
Parliamentary Committee on electoral reforms has yet to come up with the
recommendations and the government of Nawaz Sharif has not been able to
legislate on the recommendations of the electoral reforms committee. The
government of Nawaz Sharif and his brother’s in the Punjab have recently taking
steps that is presenting a soft image of Pakistan in the international
community. The legislation of Women Protection Act by the Punjab Assembly and
the death sentence to Mumtaz Qadri are some examples in this regard. The Nawaz
Sharif government is also working on policy for women empowerment but certain
judgements that disenfranchise women only because of the absence of adequate
laws are going to reflect on the legislative performance of the Nawaz Sharif
government. We hope that the government will take immediate steps to enact the
law on minimum voting by women in a constituency as a requirement for the
returning candidates to be declared successful.
[1]
Ms. Shad Begum, belonging
to Dir Lower district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is a woman social entrepreneur
working for the economic, political and social empowerment of women since 1994.
She is the founder member and Executive Director Association for Behaviour
& knowledge Transformation (ABKT), an Ashoka Fellow, and in
recognition of her extraordinary work for the rights of women, she has been
awarded several national and international awards, including the International
Woman of Courage Award by the US State Department. She has remained a district councilor
in Dir Lower during 2001-2005, after winning the election on a general seat as
an independent candidate. She is on the Advisory Boards of several
prestigious international women organisations and is also a member of the UN
Strategic Guidance Group of the N-Peace Network, a global network of women
peacemakers around the world. Currently, Shad is Reagan-Fascell Democracy
Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) United State.
