'KP women lack awareness about electoral process'.

PESHAWAR -- Women, especially those from religious minorities, still lack awareness and have less participation in electoral process as compared to men in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, say officials of Election Commission of Pakistan.

They were addressing an awareness session organised by Aurat Foundation for women from different religious minorities to improve their participation in electoral process.

They said that there were about 110 million registered voters in the country but almost half of them did not vote in the previous elections. 'It shows that there is a segment of population that still lacks awareness about participation in electoral process,' they added.

Haroon Shinwari, the director of gender affairs and person with disabilities at ECP provincial office, said that ECP was concerned about low participation of women in electoral process.

Pir Maqbool Ahmed, the provincial election commissioner, gave a detailed presentation and informed the participants about their basic rights. He said that men and women from religious minorities had equal rights as citizens of the country.

Saima Munir, a woman rights activist, said that since 2002, seats were reserved for women in different legislative bodies but during the last 17 years or so not a single...