Laraib Nisar
Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan stated “No nation can rise to the height of glory unless their women are side by side with them…It is crime against humanity that our women are shut up with in the four walls of the houses as prisoners. There is no sanction anywhere for the deplorable condition in which our women have to live.”
The statement shows how women empowerment and inclusion in day-to-day national life was the first priority of the newly born Pakistan’s leadership. Women played a huge role in the establishment of Pakistan and the political leadership of the time made sure that women continue to participate in all fields of national discourse. But unfortunately, the golden principle of women inclusion and empowerment were left behind. Let us take a ride through Pakistani women’s evolutionary political journey through the course of the last 74 years.
Historically, women’s participation and the share of the seats in national and provincial assemblies were different in different periods of time, under different political systems and regimes. In the first Pakistani legislative assembly, women acquired 3% of the total seats (2 out of the total 30 seats). While in the second legislative assembly, unfortunately women had 0% representation. There was no significant female representation in the politics of the country for the next 13 years, from 1958 to 1971, because military ruled the country in this era.
After the Zia era (1978 -1988), shift in political structure brought changes in the representation of women in legislative bodies. By 1988, the 3% assigned quota that existed since the first legislative assembly rose to 10%, and women attained 22 National Assembly seats along with 5% of the seats in the provincial assemblies.
However, in 1990s the provision of reserved seats for women was terminated. Therefore, no seats were allocated for women in the 1990, 1993, and in 1997 elected assemblies, at neither the provincial nor the national level, resultantly, women’s representation in the national political domain was minimal.
In 2000 under military rule, the quota for women’s political participation was raised to 33% at the local government level for the first time. This quota was effective at three levels of the local government, namely the union council, the tehsil, and the district level. Similarly, before the 2002 election, the number of women was increased to 17% in both the national and provincial assemblies.
A substantial increase in the quota also increased women’s overall participation in the political system for the election of 2002. As a result, the largest ever number of women contested and won general seats. In the election of 2002, 188 women in total contested general seats, and of these 188, 101 were nominated by political parties, and 39 among them won their respective seats. To compare this to the 1997 election, this ratio was almost one-third: only 56 women contested the election at that time, among them 39 were nominated by political parties, and only 7 managed to win.
When we closely view the elections of 2008 and 2013, we observe some fluctuating trends. In the 2013 election, women acquired 70 out of 342 seats in the lower house of the national legislature, almost 20.5% of the total number of seats. In the upper house, women were elected to 17 out of 100 seats, 17% of the total number of seats. When this is compared to the 2008 election, we see that a slightly higher proportion of women participated in 2013. In the 2008 election, 34 women were nominated by political parties to stand for election. In the 2013 election, 36 women acquired nominations by political parties. Similarly, 108 women contested the 272 National Assembly seats in 2013. This number is again higher than in the 2008 election, when 76 women in total ran for office. In 2018, a record number of women participated in the electoral process, 183 female candidates applied for National Assembly elections, and only 8 of them won the general seats.
With the advancements on the legislative side, it is important to include women in the voters’ pool as well, fair electoral results cannot be achieved without a gender inclusive election. Voting rights were initially approved for Pakistani women in 1947, and were later reiterated in the 1956 constitution, with provision of reserved seats in the Parliament. Despite being a legitimate right, millions of Pakistani women have been barred from voting through arrangements among political parties, local elders, and powerful figures, quoting customs and traditions as a justification. Pakistani women’s lifestyles, especially in rural areas, are completely detached from politics, so even if they aren’t prevented from voting by their male relatives, they are brought up in a manner that they aren’t accustomed to pay attention to elections and politics. And then of course there are hardliners who state that female participation in elections is haram (forbidden). This makes it hard for women to leave their homes, especially those who are not from liberal or urban backgrounds.
But positive trends are being observed in the country with the passage of time, in 2018 44 percent of registered women voters used their right to decide the country’s future, which is four percent more than the 2013 elections, when the women voters’ turnover was 40 percent. Though this shows improvement in the trends of women participation in the electoral process, still gaps persist, because the male-female gap in voter turnout stood at 9.1 percent with 11 million fewer women exercising their right to vote than men. It is essential to remove the gender gap from voting turnout, as both men and women equally have the right to vote and hence decide the country’s future.
It is imperative to educate the women of the country about the significance that their vote holds, and the change that they can bring. Moreover, the ECP, political parties and civil society organizations (CSOs) should make concerted efforts to ensure women’s participation in the political discourse. Women turnout in elections can be boosted by launching Civil society educational and motivational campaigns at the grass-root level, ensuring women’s meaningful representation in political parties, as well as the institutions that deal with elections and politics, so that a gender-lens is used while forming electoral policies. Additionally, capacity building of already elected women parliamentarians can help them in not only achieving political excellency, but also makes them able to become so politically strong that they can get reelected, as well as work for enhancing women’s participation in politics, by becoming a role model for younger girls of the country.
The author Laraib Nisar is a Defense and Strategic Studies’ graduate, working as a Program Coordinator at Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) Islamabad.
