From 1997, there have been five elections in Pakistan. In those elections, 28 women from the Hazara division took part as candidates for the seats of the national and provincial assemblies with the last election seeing the highest number of female candidates in the area.
However, only one of these women, Ghazala Habib Tanoli in 2002, has been able to win an election.
The daughter of an ex-MPA who was serving time for corruption, she sailed to victory in the provincial assembly election despite making few appearances in the election campaign. Four other women from the division have been members of the provincial assembly on seats reserved for women.
One of them participated in the elections from Haripur four times, one from Haripur twice and one from Abbottabad twice. What was worrying was the number of votes they returned. Not once did any of these candidates breach the 1,000-votes mark. Three of the candidates got less than 100 votes.
The highest votes received by a woman remains the 11,971 Ghazala Tanoli received in Mansehra in 2002 in her victorious campaign.
However, despite returning poor numbers, the incidence of women candidates has been on the rise.
Rashida Batool contested the National Assembly (NA) seat from Abbottabad in 1997, while Bibi Nargis Ali and Tanoli contested the provincial assembly seat from Mansehra in the 2002 general elections.
In 2008, Nagina Afzal contested the provincial assembly election from Abbottabad and Faiza Rasheed contested the provincial assembly election from Haripur.
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In 2013, Rabia Gul from Abbottabad, Faiza Rasheed and Irum Fatima from Haripur, and Shaheen Zameer from Mansehra contested the NA elections.
In 2013, Naeema Nisar and Noreen Kazmi from Abbottabad, Faiza Rasheed and Syeda Bakhtawar Shah from Haripur contested the provincial assembly elections. Meanwhile, Sajida Tabbassum and Rashida Bibi from Mansehra also participated in the general elections.
In the 2018 general elections, Iffat Kulsoom, Ambreen Ahsan, Nargis Ali, Sameen Riaz and Nusrat Anjum from Abbottabad contested for NA seats. Meanwhile, Irum Fatima and Shaista Naz from Haripur participated in the general elections for NA seats. Maria Fatima and Zahida Sabeel were candidates for provincial assembly seats in Mansehra. Rubina Zahid, Rabia Gul, Rukhsana Bibi, Bibi Shahnaz Raja, Shazia Tahamas and Kasma Shaheen vied for the seats from Abbottabad.
Meanwhile, Razia Jafri, Faraziah Shaheen, Saira Syed, Farzana, Saima Khalid and Faiza Rasheed participated in the elections from Haripur.
An increase in representation in the candidate list has a reciprocal impact on women’s participation in general elections, including voter turnout.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 12th, 2023.
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