[Dawn] Women voters were absent from the polling stations in some parts of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
, as in the May 2013 elections, because they were barred from polling either as a result of a ban imposed or an understanding between the contesting candidates that women voters should not be allowed to come out for voting on the pretext of social or cultural norms.
The reports of women being barred from the polling process were received from various polling stations in Nowshera, Lakki Marwat.
Meanwhile similar reports were also received from Punjab's Mianwali and Mandi Bahauddin areas where by-polls were underway for NA-71 and PP-188 constituencies respectively.
During a visit to various polling stations in Nowshera's NA-5, not even a single woman voter had turned out to cast her vote till the filing of this report and some locals suspected that there might have been an agreement between the contestants to bar female voters from casting their votes.