12 August 2023 (Islamabad): “Government, media, citizen and civil society need to work together to help women to get CNIC and register as voters so that we can decrease the number of 9 million Pakistani women who are still not registered as voters and are referred to as missing as voters” said Sameena Nazir, Executive Director PODA while addressing a training on political rights of women. This Training of Trainers (TOT) was organized by PODA with the support of NDI-USAID for the Capacity of Rural Women Leaders to Promote Votes without Violence. The trainee participants included students, teachers, social workers, radio journalists, entrepreneurs, lawyer, political party workers, transgender, women with disability and women from religious minority community from district Rawalpindi.  

Constitutional rights expert, Mr. Zafarullah Khan (Convener, Parliamentary Research Group) explained that the fundamental rights chapter of the constitution of Pakistan includes the right to legal identity, the right vote, the right to peaceful assembly and the right to equality and the right to free trial among other rights that are also included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He said that now citizen of Pakistan can download the full copy of the Constitution of Pakistan through a special Application both on Andriod and Apple and it is a very useful too.

Advocate Khawaja Zahid shared the Code of Conduct issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan 2017 and explained its sections 168, 170 and 171 about illegal acts during election such as intimidation or undue pressure that can disqualify a candidate if they harass other candidates including women candidates. He also explained how women candidate can file a complaint.

Ms. Nabeela Aslam, women’s rights manager from PODA explained how women can get a new CNIC or make corrections in her CNIC and how to register as women voters in rural areas.

At the end, all participants received certificates as Master Trainers and committed to provide the same training to 50 new women in their local areas to increase the circles of informed voters.

Ms. Uzma Bibi, a trainee from Kalar Syedan, Rawalpindi said this is the first time she has learnt very useful information about the constitutional rights of women and has learnt how she can help more women to register as voters and why it is important.