First woman to challenge status quo in Upper Dir in 2018 polls

PESHAWAR: In an attempt to break a taboo restricting women from exercising their right to vote and encourage them to have their say at ballot box, Hameeda Shahid is all to contest the upcoming general elections on a Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly seat in the province’s Upper Dir district.  

She is the first woman to run on a general seat from the region where women find it hard to raise voice for their rights and stepping in the electoral arena is virtually no-go area for them.

In the past, women were even restricted from exercising their right to franchise in elections.

As a result, the elections were often challenged in courts which ordered re-election calling for participation of women in the electoral process.

In March this year, women for the first time exercised their right to vote in local bodies elections in the region.

Hameeda Shahid, who is associated with the Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, is not testing her luck at ballot box for the first time as she had previously contested an election for tehsil councillor, but couldn’t win.

She says it is said here that women of the district lacked interest in casting votes. “My taking part in elections will negate that thinking and will be an encouraging step for women,” she adds.

As per the Election Act 2017, political parties are bound to give at least five per cent of general seat tickets to women.

It is the first time that a special provision was added in the election laws to bind political parties to allot tickets to women.