Main parties ‘neglect women’

Only two adhere to Election Commission’s gender quota

LAHORE:

Major political parties of the country have neglected women in distribution of tickets for General Elections 2024 for the national as well as provincial assemblies.

These even have ignored the directions of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to issue at least 5% of the total tickets to female voters.

The code of conduct for political parties Act required issuance of over 5% tickets to female candidates.

In the National Assembly, only MQM and PML-N awarded the tickets more than 5% tickets to women while PPPP, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Awami National Party (ANP), Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), JUI-F and BNP have not met the said requirement.

An analysis conducted by Aurat Foundation, a non-governmental organisation working for gender rights, showed that MQM issued seven tickets (9.6%) to female candidates out of a total 73 tickets, PML-N 16 (7.8%) out of total 205 tickets, PPPP 11 (4.5%) out of total 245, JI 10 (4.4%) out of total 229, ANP two (3.3%) out of total 61, TLP two (0.9%) out of total 220 tickets to female candidates.

BNP and JUI (F) did not grant any ticket to a female candidate.

For Punjab Assembly, only Pakistan Milli Muslim League (PMML), JUI (F) issued tickets to over 5% female candidates but MQM, PML-N, PPPP, JI, ANP and TLP ignored it.

MQM did not award not even a single ticket to a female candidate out of total 12 seats for Punjab Assembly while PML-N issued four tickets (1.4%) out of total 274, PPPP 12 (4.6%) out of total 248, JI seven (2.5%) out of total 268, ANP one of total two, TLP one (0.3%) out of total 288.

PMML awarded 14 (6.1%) tickets out of total 214 tickets and JUI (F) seven (5.8%) out of total 114 tickets.

Read: Women’s participation in elections urged

For Sindh Assembly, MQM awarded four (4.4%) tickets out of total 86 candidates, PML-N to seven (14%) out of total 43, PPPP seven (5.4%) out of total 130, JI six (6.1%) out of total 98, ANP zero out of total 28, TLP, three (2.6%) out of total 114, GDA nine (11.7%) out of total 77 and JUI (F) eight (15.7%) out of total 51 were issued to female candidates.

For the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, MQM did not issue any ticket to a female candidate out of total six seats. PML-N awarded four (4.4%) tickets out of total 90, PPPP five (5.6%) out of total 90, JI four (4%) out of total 95, ANP five (5.6%) out of total 90, TLP three (6.3%) out of total 48, QWP two (10%) out of total 20, JUI (F) three (2.8%) out of total 109 and PTI six (8.3%) out of total 72.

For the Balochistan Provincial Assembly, MQM, JUI (F) and ANP did not issue any ticket to a female candidate out of total three, 45 and 21 tickets respectively.

The PML (N) awarded one ticket (2.5%) out of total 40 tickets, PPPP two (4.3%) out of 47, JI two (5%) out of 40, TLP one (4.5%) out of total 22, BNP two (5.6%) out of total 36 to female candidates.

Executive Director Aurat Foundation Naeem Ahmad Mirza while writing to Chief Election Commissioner has asked for taking notice of the violation.

He wrote, “We request the Election Commission of Pakistan to take notice of this violation of Election Act 2017 and Code of Conduct for the Political Parties, because the 5% restriction is already a low ceiling, and if parties continue to show disregard to women in providing them opportunities to mainstream them into electoral processes, it would mean denying half the population of their due fundamental rights under the Constitution of Pakistan.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 4^th 2024.