Reserved seat allocations for friends and family only

Although the dearth of female representation in the country’s national and provincial legislatures is a pertinent issue, which reserved seats for women tries to address; often these reserved seats are only allocated on the basis of nepotism.

For instance, Heer Soho from Thatta, who was recently put on the Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) reserved seats’ allocation list, has been receiving the nod for a reserved seat since the 2008 general election. As per senior journalist, Muhammad Fayyaz, who hails from Thatta, Heer has been successful in securing the reserved spot for the 4th consecutive general election due to her father, Ismail Soho.

“Ismail Soho is a friend of the PPP’s top leadership, therefore his daughter has been getting the reserved seat ticket repeatedly,” informed Muhammad.

In similar fashion, Nida Khuhro, who happens to be the daughter of PPP’s President in Sindh, Nisar Ahmad Khuhro, has managed to secure a reserved seat ticket for the second election running. Likewise, Nafisa Shah, the daughter of former chief minister of Sindh, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, has also managed to secure a spot on the reserved seats’ allocation list of the PPP.

And just like the PPP, the PML-N also rewards friends and family of their top leadership with reserved seats. Tahira Aurangzeb, who is the mother of former federal minister for information, Marriyum Aurangzeb, and was also a close confidant of Begum Kulsoom Nawaz, has been given the nod for the reserved seats by the party since 2008. Similarly, Shaista Parvez Malik, the wife of former member of National Assembly, Parvez Malik, received the party’s reserved seat ticket in the general elections of 2013 and 2018; and has been given one this time around as well.

The same is the case for Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F), which has given its approval for a reserved seat spot to its supremo Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s sister-in-law, Shahida Akhtar, who has served thrice in the National Assembly. The party has also given a reserved seat spot to Rehana Ismail, another sister-in-law of the party head.

The Awami National Party (ANP), is no different. For instance, it has consistently rewarded Samar Haroon Bilour, of the influential Bilour family of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), who is also a relative of former federal minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, consistently with a reserved seat ticket to the K-P assembly.

Read: Final candidates for NA reserved seats notified

In making these reserved seats’ allocations on the basis of kinship or friendship female grassroot political workers are left behind, which as per some of these workers is an insult to their sacrifices for their respective parties.

A senior political worker of the PPP from Hyderabad, who spoke to The Express Tribune under the condition of anonymity, remarked that the PPP has neglected most of the women political activists who were close to Benazir Bhutto, despite them having served jail time for the party in the past.

Concurring with the PPP worker, Farzana Butt, a PML-N political worker, said that many other women workers, including herself, made sacrifices for the party while they were in opposition but did not receive any appreciation from the party, let alone a reserved seat ticket. “It is disappointing that women from influential families and good financial standing get tickets, whereas genuine grass root political workers are sidelined,” a disgruntled Farzana said.

While the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) allocation of reserved seats is in the doldrums due to the party not having an election symbol, Nabil Ghazanfar, a long-term worker of the party from Peshawar, was of the view that the PTI was not any different from other parties when it came to seats’ allocations.

This practice of prioritising well-to-do women for reserved seat tickets strengthens the prevalence of the stronghold that dynastic political parties and the existing ruling class has on the rest of the populace. In this regard, Dr Sanam Wagma Khattak, a professor at the Department of Economics in the University of Peshawar, opined that representation in the provincial or national assemblies should not be mere tokenism but actually representative of the entire populace

Agreeing with Dr Sanam, Dr Iram Khalid, Chairperson of the Political Science Department of the Punjab University, said that the women who should be nominated for reserved seats are often overlooked. “Only family relations, loved ones, and relatives are given priority, which results in social classes that are meant to be represented in the provincial and national assemblies by women, lacking a voice.

Therefore, political parties should establish a more democratic and performance based formula of allocating reserved seat tickets,” suggested Dr Iram while talking to The Express Tribune.