PESHAWAR: Complains were pouring that women are being barred to cast their votes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s local bodies elections.
It is also reported that local elders restrained women to cast their votes in several areas of the province.
The local people with a consensus decision restricted the women to cast their votes in Adeena union council in district Swabi.
The incidents where women were barred for casting their votes reported in polling station of Abbottabad, union council Hajizai in Charsadda, union council Bahallo in Nowshera, areas in Tank district, Peshawar, union council Kech in Dera Ismail Khan.
In Nowshera local elders stopped women to cast their votes in union council Bahallo in the ongoing local bodies election. According to reports the women were also stopped to cast their votes in Tank district.
In a union council of the provincial capital city Peshawar local people forcefully stopped polling at a women polling station in union council 41.
In Dera Ismail Khan local elders in union council Kech deprived the women voters from exercising their right to vote again. The women of the area could not cast their votes in elections for last 30 years.
The election commission has directed the provincial government and District Returning Officers (DROs) to take steps as women could cast their votes.
The commission has also summoned a report from the government over the issue.
