Women candidates determined to change political scene in Pakistan
Islamabad, July 24 : Krishna Kumari Kohli, a female senator from Pakistan's Sindh province, became a focus of local media and people a few months back for her being the first woman lawmaker from a low-cast non-Muslim tribe in the Upper House of the country.
Kohli told Xinhua news agency that her entry into the Senate will open new doors for women as they will see her as a role model and a beacon of hope to achieve their dreams.
"I am daughter of a poor tenant and spent a part of my childhood as a bonded labourer, but my hard work and honesty to my cause of changing my life and life of people around me has landed me in the Senate. If I can do it, other women who are more educated and privileged than me can do it even better than me," she said.
A few months on, a woman from the same Thar district where Kohli belongs, is all set to contest elections on Wednesday for the provincial assembly of Sindh.
A tailor by profession, the provincial assembly candidate Sunita Parmar said in a viral video on social media that she was keen to protect the interests of women and work to release them from the shackles of poverty and ignorance.
"I want to change the condition of women in my area. I want to work for girls' education and play my role in providing basic health facilities to them. Political parties should accept women's existence and capabilities, as it is the need of the hour," she said in the video.
The Election Commission said that this year, political parties have fielded women candidates in conservative areas.
Hameeda Shahid is one such candidate from Dir district of the country's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Xinhua reported.
Women were previously not allowed to leave the house to vote, but Shahid is determined that she will change it by motivating women to stand up for their rights. She said that women should join politics so that their fellows could detail their problems to them, which they cannot tell male lawmakers.
The mother of six added that she doesn't have any experience in politics. However, if she wins the election, she will work for women's rights in her area.
According to the country's law, it is mandatory for all political parties to allocate at least 5 per cent of its seats to women candidates. The recently released figures of the poll body showed that 11,885 candidates will contest elections. Out of which, there are 305 women candidates which makes about 5.2 per cent of the total ticket holders contesting from political parties.
Apart from this, there are 60 reserved seats for women in the National Assembly for which women from different political parties are selected according to the number of seats they win.
Tanzeela Mazhar, a journalist from Islamabad, said that despite the fact that women are contesting, the chances of victory for most of the candidates are slim.
"Political parties were sure about their defeat in certain constituencies and to fulfil the 5 per cent mandatory quota for women representatives, they fielded women from those constituencies while keeping the strong constituencies for the male candidates."
Despite that, the Election Commission said that the elections will see the highest number of women candidates contesting for the National Assembly seats in Pakistan's electoral history.
As many as 171 women candidates will be in the run against 272 seats of the National Assembly. In 2013, 135 women contested the poll.
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DJ Black Coffee's event in Goa cancelled after NOC revoked on Good Friday
Panaji (PTI): The Goa leg of Grammy-winning South African DJ Black Coffee's India tour was cancelled at the last minute on Friday evening after authorities revoked the event's No Objection Certificate (NOC), a move intended to honour the solemnity of Good Friday.
Officials on Saturday cited the need to respect local sentiments and the religious significance of the day as the primary reason for withdrawing the permission previously granted to host the "Sunset-to-Night" event.
The opposition Congress demanded a probe by the Economic Offences Cell of the state against the organisers.
The revocation of permission by the Communidade of Anjuna, in whose land the event was scheduled to be hosted, followed an objection by locals and the Congress, citing the solemn occasion of Good Friday and the upcoming Easter Sunday.
Local police officials confirmed that the organisers of "Sunset to Night" have cancelled the event, leaving many revellers disappointed.
Sebastian D'Souza, an attorney of Communidade of Anjuna, in a letter addressed to organisers, stated that the NOC granted to them on March 4, 2026, to host the musical event on April 3 in survey number 206/1 of Anjuna village has been unanimously revoked by the managing committee.
D'Souza stated that the date coincides with Holy Week, particularly Good Friday.
"This has been decided in the interest of residents of Anjuna, Vagator and Chapora," the letter reads.
The Comunidade of Anjuna is a traditional, collective land-holding institution in North Goa, part of the twelve comunidades of Bardez.
A huge crowd assembled outside the venue of the programme on Friday night as the word spread about the cancellation.
Several netizens posted reels on social media claiming they were informed about the cancellation at the last minute.
Earlier, the Congress had objected to hosting such an event on the sacred occasion of Good Friday, calling it "deeply insensitive and unacceptable."
"Your event, @Paradoxindia_, in Goa on the sacred occasion of Good Friday is deeply insensitive and unacceptable. @RealBlackCoffee , this is not just about music- it is about respecting faith. By going ahead with a techno show on a day of mourning for Christians, you have hurt religious sentiments not just in Goa, but across the world," Goa Pradesh Congress Committee President Amit Patkar had written on X.
Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, Patkar said that the state Congress would file a complaint with the Economic Offences Cell (EOC) against the organisers for allegedly selling tickets online without obtaining necessary permissions from authorities such as the Goa Pollution Control Board and the Fire and Emergency Services.
The event organisers could not be contacted immediately for their comment on the Congress leader's claim.
While at least 3,000 people had arrived in Goa to attend the event, the access road to the venue was not wide enough for Fire and Emergency Services vehicles to reach, Patkar claimed.
