Pak Polls: Faces of women candidates missing from posters

Islamabad [Pakistan]: Even as Pakistan has had a woman Prime Minister, the country is now witnessing an election campaign where the posters have blanked out faces of female candidates.

Recently, posters of a Member National Assembly (MNA) candidate, Memoona Hamid, contesting from PP-149 constituency of Pakistan, came to light, without her face on them.

Taking cognizance of the matter, social activist and journalist Reham Khan took to her Twitter handle to chastise the faceless picture of Hamid and said, "Memoona Hamid another MNA contender for a seat in the parliament missing from her poster too. Great representatives for women."

Earlier, as per Geo TV, posters of a female candidate of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), Syeda Zahra Basit Bokhari, were spotted where her husband's face was used in lieu of her's.

Justifying the act, Bokhari's campaign manager said that the contender is a 'Syed' and 'Syed women do not publicise their pictures', the report said.

As per the Gulf News, in the forthcoming July 25 election, over 10 million women, above 18 years of age, will possibly miss out on their right to vote.

Referring to the statics of National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), the national daily reported that out of 97 million registered voters, only 43 million are women, while 55.6 million are male voters.

As per the report, a major part of the women population in the country doesn't possess valid Computerised National Identity Cards (CNIC), which is essential for casting votes.

According to the 2017 census of Pakistan , half of the two million population are women.