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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Indian mobile hospital treats over 2,200 cyclone-hit people as New Delhi ramps up relief efforts in
Colombo (PTI): A mobile hospital set up by India in Sri Lanka has provided medical care to over 2,200 people affected by Cyclone Ditwah, as New Delhi ramped up its assistance to the flood-ravaged island nation with engineering support and delivery of fresh relief consignments, the Indian mission here said on Sunday.
Sri Lanka has been grappling with widespread flooding, landslides and severe infrastructure collapse triggered by the cyclone, leaving several districts isolated and severely straining the country's disaster-response capacity.
At least 627 people have been killed and 190 remain missing as of Sunday noon due to catastrophic floods and landslides caused by extreme weather conditions since November 16.
Sharing a social media post by the Ministry of External Affairs on its X handle, the Indian High Commission said a field hospital set up by India in Mahiyanganaya near Kandy has provided medical care to more than 2,200 people affected by the cyclone since December 5.
The hospital has also performed 67 minor procedures and three surgeries, it said. The field hospital was airlifted to Sri Lanka by an IAF C-17 aircraft along with a 78-member Indian medical team on Tuesday.
In another post, the mission said Indian Army engineers, working with Sri Lanka Army Engineers and the Road Development Authority, in Kilinochchi have begun removing a damaged bridge on the Paranthan–Karachchi–Mullaitivu (A35) road, a key route disrupted by the cyclone.
"This joint effort marks another step toward restoring vital connectivity for affected communities," it said.
India has additionally sent nearly 1,000 tonnes of food items and clothing contributed by the people of Tamil Nadu. Of these, about 300 tonnes reached Colombo on Sunday morning aboard three Indian Naval ships.
High Commissioner Santosh Jha handed over the supplies to Sri Lankan Minister for Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Cooperative Development Wasantha Samarasinghe.
India, on November 28, launched 'Operation Sagar Bandhu', a Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) initiative, to aid Sri Lanka in its recovery from the devastation caused by Cyclone Ditwah.
Since the launch of the operation, India has provided about 58 tonnes of relief material, including dry rations, tents, tarpaulins, hygiene kits, essential cloths, water purification kits and about 4.5 tonnes of medicines and surgical equipment, the Indian mission said in a press release on Sunday.
Another 60 tonnes of equipment, including generators, inflatable rescue boats, Outboard Motors, and excavators, have also been brought to Sri Lanka, it said, adding that 185 tonnes of Bailey Bridge units were airlifted to restore critical connectivity along with 44 engineers.
Two columns of the National Disaster Response Force, comprising 80 experts and K9 units with specially trained dogs, assisted with immediate rescue and relief efforts in Sri Lanka.
Besides the field hospital in Mahiyanganaya, medical centres have also been set up in the badly hit Ja-Ela region and in Negombo. INS Vikrant, INS Udaygiri, and INS Sukanya provided immediate rescue and relief assistance to Sri Lanka.
Apart from the two Chetak helicopters deployed from INS Vikrant, two heavy-lift, MI-17 helicopters of the Indian Air Force are actively involved in evacuations and airlifting relief material, the release said.
At the request of the Sri Lankan Disaster Management Centre, a virtual meeting was organised between DMC and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)'s National Remote Sensing Centre on Saturday.
Since the onset of the disaster, ISRO has been providing maps to assist DMC in its rescue efforts, the release said.
