Rehana Laghari For Election Reforms To Strengthen Role Of Women In Politics

Acting Speaker Sindh Assembly and Pattern in Chief Women Parliamentary Caucus Sindh Rehana Laghari, on Wednesday, stressed on need of reforms in the election laws to strengthen role of women in politics

KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Jul, 2023 ) :Acting Speaker Sindh Assembly and Pattern in Chief Women Parliamentary Caucus Sindh Rehana Laghari, on Wednesday, stressed on need of reforms in the election laws to strengthen role of women in politics.

She was addressing a consultative meeting of Women Parliamentary Caucus of National and Sindh Assembly on election reforms organised here at Sindh Assembly building in collaboration with UN Women and UNDP.

Rehana Laghari said that female members also wanted to contest elections on general seats so political parties should give tickets to women politicians to contest elections on general seats and necessary amendments be made in the relevant laws and rules.

The meeting discussed various matters concerning to election reforms for making women's role in politics and process of elections more effective and meaningful.

Secretary of Women Parliamentary Caucus National Assembly Dr. Shahida Rahmani, speaking at the occasion said that the meeting was aimed at formulating recommendations regarding reforms in election laws related to women so women members give their recommendations as to.

She added that such meetings would also be held in other assemblies of the country in collaboration with the Women Parliamentary Caucus of the National Assembly.

Member National Assembly Nafisa Shah said that most of the business in assemblies was done by women members that shows that women wanted to participate in every development process of the society including elections.

She suggested amending the election laws to increase women quota in assemblies from 5% to 10% and threshold of women's turnout from 10% to 20%.

Member Sindh Assembly Sharmila Farooqui pointed out issue of wrong entry of voters especially women in electoral rolls which cause inconvenience for them while casting their votes and women voters have to run from one polling station to another one.

MNA Shahida Akhtar Ali highlighted the issue of availability of identity cards to women and said "We go door to door to convince women to get ID cards and vote" but they face problems at NADRA.

MPA Mangla Sharma suggested increasing number of minority seats through amendment in election laws.

Senator Rubina Khalid, MNAs Nuzhat Pathan, Mehnaz Akbar Aziz, Tahira Aurangzeb, Members Sindh Assembly Heer Soho, Sadia Javed, Nida Khuhro, Tanzeela Ume Habiba, Ghazala Syal, Sarwat Fatima, Shahina Sher Ali, Shazia Karim and Shamim Mumtaz participated in the meeting.

Joint Provincial Election Commissioner Sindh Javed Iqbal, Deputy Director NADRA Syed Aziz, UN Women's Kapil Dev, Hasan Hakeem, UNDP Representative Ambar Syed also attended the meeting while Chief Technical Adviser UNDP Mary Cummins briefed the meeting on election reforms.