KARACHI: A civil society organization working for women’s rights in Pakistan said on Saturday a number of political parties in the country had violated a major election provision requiring them to assign five percent of tickets for general seats to women in the national and provincial assemblies.
Pakistan has reserved seats for women to ensure female representation in the legislative process on both national and provincial levels to promote gender equality in governance.
However, Section 206 of the Election Act 2017 also makes it mandatory for all political factions to field women candidates on at least five percent of the general seats to make the electoral contest more inclusive.
The Aurat Foundation, known for its advocacy for women’s rights, highlighted the violation of the said provision in a letter addressed to Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja ahead of the national polls slated for Feb. 8.
“We are dismayed to find that some political parties have not observed the legal requirement under section 206 of the [election] act and section 6 of the Code of Conduct for political parties, to award minimum 5% tickets to women candidates on general seats,” the letter said.
“Political parties submit an affidavit during the process of election schedule that they have complied with the provisions of the Act, including Section 206,” it added. “If they have not met the minimum requirement of awarding 5% tickets to women on general seats, this should be considered a case of ‘false declaration of information.’”
According to the data compiled by the organization, only Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz had met the requirement by awarding 9.6 and 7.8 percent women candidates tickets on general seats for the National Assembly.
Others, including the Pakistan Peoples Party (4.5 percent), Jamaat-e-Islami (4.4 percent) and Awami National Party (3.3 percent), remained below the required benchmark.
Balochistan National Party and Jamiat-e-Ulama-e-Islam-Fazl did not field female candidates on any general seat for the National Assembly.
Most of the parties also violated the provision on the provincial level, according to the Pakistani women’s rights organization.
