TIMERGARA: Deviating from its past policy in the district, Jamaat-i-Islami has said that women affiliated with the party will cast their votes in the upcoming local government elections.

Addressing different delegations of women and later talking to journalists at Jamia Hayatul Muslimeen Hajiabad here on Tuesday JI women wing central leader Dr Samia Raheela Qazi said that 20 women members of the party had already been elected unopposed on reserved seats in Dir Lower.

She said that JI was actively participating in the local government elections in Dir Lower. She said that JI had fielded a total of 147 women candidates for different seats.

Raheela Qazi, the daughter of JI late chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad, also addressed gatherings of women in Koto, Manzary Tangay, Rani and Ahyaol Uloom Balambat.

She said that JI believed in democratic principles and it had never opposed women participation in electoral process.

She said that some vested interests were raising hue and cry on absence of women in PK-95 by-election.

`We condemned all those political and social elements, who were blaming JI for what it has not done,` Ms Qazi said, adding that JI had boycotted the 2008 general elections but the so-called champions of women rights remained silent over absence of women from the election process.

Ms Qazi said that JI had an active women wing and its district organisations in all districts of the country. Other political parties had no women organizations, she added.

PPP: The local chapter of PPP claimed here on Tuesday that their candidates would win majority of seats in the local government elections.

Addressing a public gathering after inaugurating the party office, PPP leader Mehmood Zeb Khan and party`s candidates Alam Zeb Khan, Javed Iqbal and Bakht Rehman said that both the JI and ANP were violating election rules in Dir Lower.

They said that PPP would defeat both the JI and the ANP in the elections in the district. They said that PPP leaders approved gas supply project for the district in the previous government but ANP was taking credit for it.

The speakers said that PPP completed several mega projects in the area during its government in the province and centre. They asked the participants to speed up election campaignandreachtoeveryvoterinthedistrict.-Correspondent