Speakers urge masses to get registered to cast vote in coming polls

F.P. Report

PESHAWAR: Speakers during a seminar on Thursday stressed man and women participants to get involved in political activities and acquire their computerized national identity cards (CNICs) registration till April, 2018 to be eligible to cast their votes in 2018 general polls.

These views were expressed by speakers including PTI MPA, Arif Yousaf, Ms Asiya Arif of Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC), Zahid Khattak form Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) and others during a seminar held in Peshawar. The event was held under aegis of SPARC on issues relating to minorities and electoral reforms.

The seminar was attended by Community Action Groups comprising of Christian men and women, FAFEN, lawyers, civil society activists, elected representatives and media persons.

Speaking on the occasion, Arif Yusuf- Advisor to Chief Minister, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said that provincial government wishes to see more political participation of women in the upcoming elections. Counting a number of initiates taken by his government, he said it (govt) was working on welfare of minorities including national testing service, job quota and others. He assured full support to the minorities and urged them to pursue education to join the mainstream.

Sharing the findings of the SPARC’s baseline study on minorities, Ms Asiya Arif, Manager Program Development shared that out of 423 respondents interviewed in the Kohati Gate area, 75 per cent of the male participants had acquired birth certificates whereas only 10.27 per cent of the females had their birth certificates.

She further stated that the percentage of people with CNICs was promising with respect to males at above 70 per cent while around 13 per cent of the women participants did not have their CNICs. With regard to voter registration it was found that a sizeable majority of 86 per cent from the Christian community was registered to vote with more men compared to women 21.6 per cent women were not registered to vote while 2.25 per cent were unaware of their voting status. In comparison only 0.54 per cent male respondents were not registered to vote while 1.63 per cent was unaware of their voting status.

The participants also expressed their grievances by saying that the representatives tended to be political with little to no initiative for change for the rights of minorities. People expressed more faith on the local government representatives and said that the issue was one of insufficient funds from the town and district government that needs to be resolved.

Zahid Khattak of Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), shared that Peshawar is one of the districts with lowest women voter registration- against a population of 2100,719 women as of census 2017, only 663,192 are registered to cast votes. He urged both man and women participants to get CNIC registration till April 2018 to be eligible to cast their votes in the 2018 elections.