MORE than a hundred tribal women have taken a stand against creeping fundamentalism in northwest Pakistan by declaring themselves candidates in local elections that Muslim leaders had decreed a male-only preserve.

Despite one in three local government seats being designated for women candidates, the governing Islamic alliance has ruled that women should neither contest the polls nor vote. It has warned women that they will be forcibly barred from polling stations and face hefty fines if they try to cast their votes.

At the last election in 2001 the women-only seats were left empty because of a ban by Islamists. However, the federal Government insists that women be guaranteed the same electoral rights as men. More than a hundred women have defied the locally imposed ban in North West Frontier Province.

The women, covered from head to toe by veils and protected by police, went to file their nomination papers in the remote Dir district yesterday.

The ruling Islamic alliance, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, has made its position clear. “We have our tradition that bars women from taking part in the elections and violators will be punished,” Qazi Fazlullah, a local leader, said. said. Polling is due to start next week.

The mountainous Dir district, which borders Afghanistan, is one of the most conservative parts of Pakistan and a stronghold of political forces that support the Taleban. But the federal Government said that the ban was in violation of the country’s laws, which provide equal rights to women.

Nilofar Bakhtiar, an adviser to the Prime Minister on women’s affairs, was sent to the area to assure the candidates of the Government’s support. She congratulated the women for standing up against the repressive elements.

The election commission has given warning of severe action against the people who are trying to stop women from voting.

The right-wing Islamic government in North West Frontier Province has recently passed legislation called the Hasba Act to enforce strict Sharia and to establish a religious police to “promote virtue and prevent vice”.

It proposes on-the-spot punishment for people who fail to adhere to Islamic values.

The federal Government has described the Act as unconstitutional and has vowed to block its implementation.

Political observers maintain that the law would lead to the “Talebanisation” of the province. The provincial government has already banned male doctors from treating female patients and segregated educational institutions. It has also banned male coaches from working with female sports team.

• An Islamic militant who set up the meeting between the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and his kidnappers has been arrested in eastern Pakistan, a police official confirmed yesterday. Pearl was abducted in January 2002 and later beheaded in the southern city of Karachi.

  Hashim Qadir, who was listed among Pakistan’s most wanted men in 2003, was captured by police on Wednesday in the city of Gujranwala, Zafar Abbas, the chief of police, said.

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