The National Commission on The Status of Women (NCSW) organized a high-level roundtable of policymakers on "Closing the Gender Gap in the Electoral Rolls", here on Friday. The NCSW in collaboration with the project "Tabeer - Consolidating Democracy in Pakistan," convened the key stakeholders including parliamentarians, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), political party leaders and civil society experts to generate a dialogue and collect recommendations on special measures needed to close the gender gap in the electoral rolls prior to the 2018 general elections.
The dialogue was moderated by former Parliamentarian Attiya Inayatullah. Minister for Human Rights Mumtaz Tarar presided as chief guest, and commended the participants for their spirited dialogue, calling for their recommendations to be submitted to the Ministry so that they can be implemented on an urgent basis.
He said, "The process to obtain a CNIC needs to be simplified and incentives should be given to encourage women to get ID cards so that over ten million missing women can be brought on the electoral rolls to be able to exercise their right to vote." In her opening remarks, NCSW Chairperson Khawar Mumtaz called for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), NADRA, political parties and the government to take emergency measures for bringing an estimated 10 to 12 million missing women of voting age onto the electoral rolls.
Chairperson Mumtaz underscored that the 2018 elections cannot be fully inclusive if the right to vote is not provide to these women through proactive state measures to issue CNICs, said a press release. Tahir Mehdi, an elections expert with Tabeer-Consolidating Democracy in Pakistan, briefed the participants on the current situation, noting that the gender gap in the electoral rolls has been growing steadily since possession of CNIC was made a requirement to be included in the electoral rolls.-PR
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