LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Ameer Senator Sirajul Haq said that the political party fully supported the women’s participation in the electoral process and nobody could deny them this right.
Sirajul Haq while being interviewed by Radio BBC said that neither any voter could be stopped from exercising his/her right of vote nor anyone could be forced to cast his/her vote either in accordance to Pakistani law.
Sirajul Haq expressed great surprise over the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)’s decision declaring PK-95 by-election Lower Dir ‘null and void’. He said the JI would challenge the decision in high court as none amongst candidates had lodged any complaint for banning women voting in PK-95 constituency.
He said that the JI has strong women wing and the JI woman Member of National Assembly (MNA) Aisha Syed and Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) Rashida Zafar had run election campaign in the constituency to mobilize the women to cast vote. He said that thousands of women had attended the JI-led Ijtema-e-Aam in Lahore held in November last year.
Meanwhile, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, on Tuesday, contacted JI Ameer via telephone to hold detailed discusssion over the situation. Sirajul Haq told CM KP that the electoral process should be transparent and all complaints of irregularities should be redressed.
Responding to Siraj, CM Pervez Khattak said he had directed the provincial chief secretary to collect entire election record concerning riggings and irregularities that would be presented before ECP and the public. He added that the provincial government would not object re-polling in constituencies and polling stations where solid evidence of vote rigging found.
