Political parties fall short of giving 5% tickets to woman

Aurat Foundation criticises ECP for allowing parties with ‘below mandatory’ women representation

PESHAWAR: The Aurat Foundation has come down hard on the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for going against its own rules by allotting election symbols to political parties that have failed to give even a single party ticket to female candidates.

Aurat Foundation Resident Director Shabeena Ayaz said on Saturday that many political parties did not hand out tickets to five per cent women candidates as per the ECP rules.

"Parties such as the Tehreek-e-Labbaik have doled out tickets to all male candidates and not even a single ticket has been given to a woman," Ayaz added.



She said that the Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) gave party tickets to 88 men and only three female candidates. Ayaz further added that the Pakistan Muslim League-Eagle (PML-E) awarded tickets to 154 male candidates and eight female candidates.

Similarly, the Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek has awarded 240 tickets to male candidates while only 10 have been allotted to women.

Ayaz lauded the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) for awarding 6.2 per cent tickets to female candidates, similarly, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) awarded 5.1 per cent to women.



She added that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) gave 5.7% party tickets to women, while the Awami National Party (ANP) distributed 6.9 per cent to women.

The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) gave 5.3 per cent party tickets to women candidates with the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) giving 7.5 per cent tickets to females.

Ayaz also criticised the political parties awarding tickets to women only to "fill in the blanks", as well as, giving them tickets in areas where the likelihood of winning is low.