It’s only some people in one or two districts who are trying to do this sort of thing, but it is encouraging to see the EC warn them in such blunt terms of the consequences.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_27-7-2005_pg1_2
Three years in jail for barring women from local polls: EC
Stopping women from participating in the local bodies polls is an offence and those found guilty of this crime can get three years in jail, be fined Rs 15,000 or awarded both punishments together, according to a statement by the chief election commissioner’s (CEC) office in Islamabad on Tuesday. The statement said that CEC Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar had taken serious note of reports that in some areas local elders had decided not to allow women to participate in the electoral process. The statement referred sections 165 and 168 of the Local Government Ordinance 2001 according to which barring any person from contesting the LB polls was an offence.
If women are barred for contesting local bodies elections in a constituency, election results in that constituency will be declared invalid, Kunwar Muhammad Dilshad, federal secretary Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), said on Tuesday. Talking to Aaj TV, he said the chief election commissioner (CEC) had categorically stated that nobody could bar women from participating in the LB polls, adding that those pressing women to stay away from the electoral process would be dealt with sternly. Referring to Dir in NWFP where women were reportedly stopped from filing their nomination papers for LB polls, Dilshad said it was an illegal act by local elders and said “women-less” LB polls would be declared null and void. He said that according to Section 168 of the Local Government Ordinance 2001, a person was guilty of exercising undue influence if he made or threatened to make use of force and violence to persuade a candidate, directly or indirectly, to withdraw his or her candidature.
Re: 3 years in jail for barring women from local polls: Election Commission
http://www.dawn.com/2005/07/28/top1.htm
TIMERGARAH (Lower Dir), July 27: Defying agreements reached among major political and religious parties in some NWFP districts to keep women out of local elections, about 60 women filed nomination papers for different seats here on Wednesday. Women belonging to all major political parties, except the JUI-F filed the papers. Adviser to the Prime Minister on Women Affairs Neelofar Bakhtiar also visited the district and filed papers on behalf of some women candidates of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League.
In the last local body elections, only 18 women had filed papers in 34 union councils of Lower Dir where 196 seats had remained vacant. Local leaders of the Jamaat-i-Islami said the agreement to keep women out of the polls had been violated by the People’s Party Parliamentarians and the PML. They said the JI filed papers on behalf of women after dissociating itself from the accord.
Ms Bakhtiar, who was accompanied by a number of women in the district courts at the time of filing papers, told journalists that in the present era nobody could deprive women of their constitutional rights. She congratulated the women who had filed their papers and said they had shown great courage against usurpers of their rights.
Meanwhile, NGOs and social activists of Lower Dir termed the filing of nomination papers by 60 women a great success. They said it was a fundamental right of women to participate in elections.
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Re: 3 years in jail for barring women from local polls: Election Commission
1,150 women elected unopposed in NWFP
PESHAWAR: A total of 1,150 women candidates have been elected unopposed in both phases of the local government elections to be held in the NWFP on August 18 and 25, a Provincial Election Commission (PEC) official said on Wednesday. The official said that five women candidates are contesting for nazim and naib nazim posts in the NWFP, in Tank, Dera Ismail Khan and Bannu districts. The women who were returned unopposed were standing for seats in union councils in Peshawar, Nowshera, Charssada, Mardan, Swabi, Kohat, Karak, Haripur, Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, Tank and Buner districts. The PEC official said that 272 women had been elected unopposed on general Muslim seats and 433 on seats reserved for farmers/peasants in the first phase of the local polls. He said 446 women had been elected unopposed in the second phase of the polls, 176 on general Muslim seats and 176 on farmer/peasant seats.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_11-8-2005_pg1_2