elec-tion-ary 1988: [Women candidates on general seats]

1988 elections: women candidates on general seats.

ISLAMABAD: As many as 16 women candidates contested for 20 National Assembly seats across Pakistan in the 1988 elections. Begum Nusrat and Syeda Abida Hussain contested on two seats each, while former prime minister Benazir Bhutto ran for the elections from three seats. They all won all the seats they contested.

However, no other female candidate was successful. There were five candidates from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, nine from Punjab, six from Sindh and none from Balochistan and Islamabad.

Pakistan Peoples Party nominated four female candidates to contest on its ticket for seven seats, while Pakistan Awami Ittehad (PAI) awarded party tickets to female candidates on three seats and IJI and Pakistan National Party on one each.

The remaining seven candidates were independent, including Abida Hussain, who ran for two seats from Jhang.

(Courtesy: Church World Service and Free and Fair Election Network)

Published in The Express Tribune, April 30^th, 2013.