Religious extremism, traditions blamed for women’s rights violations
PESHAWAR: Participants at a seminar on “strengthening the democratic and electoral process in Pakistan” held religious extremists and the so-called traditions responsible for the violation of women’s rights, and their detachment from politics in the province’s backward districts like DI Khan and Swat.
Swat Participatory Organisation Coordinator Mohammad Roshan highlighted the aims and objectives of a project for strengthening democratic and electoral process, initiated by the Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with an aim to ensure maximum participation of people, especially women, in the electoral process.
Mohammad Roshan said that a total of eight union councils in Swat district had been selected for the project. He said that around 7,143 people had been sensitised in these eight union councils and that nearly 400 men and women had received computerised national identity cards (CNICs). He added that eight voters education committees (VECs) had been constituted for the first time in Swat.
He said family relationships, party affiliations, women’s representation and registration in the voter lists were some of the major problems being faced in the project’s implementation.
He said political rivalries and social conflicts due to the sensitisation of voters was another hindrance to the project’s implementation.
Abdul Ghafoor, Coordinator of the DAMAN Civil Society Network, DI Khan, said that eight union councils had been selected in Dera Ismail Khan for the project.
“We have held four corner meetings for both genders to raise political awareness among people,” he said, adding that 410 CNICs had been issued to both male and female citizens, and that 831 female voters had been enlisted.
However, both coordinators blamed religious extremists and traditions for violation of womenÂ’s rights.
They said nearlsy 25 percent women had got their CNICs and appealed to civil society organisations and local government representatives to start a joint campaign for the provision of CNICs to people as well as their registration in voter lists.
SPO Senior Coordinator Ajaz Durrani said that civil society organisations and political parties should initiate an awareness campaign to strengthen the electoral process in Pakistan and to ensure the maximum participation of people in the process. Former NWFP advocate general Essa Khan said that according to the constitution, there should be no law against human rights.
Source: Daily Times
Date:4/19/2007
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