The Elected Women Candidates For National Assembly

According to data released by the Election Commission of Pakistan, only eight female lawmakers were able to get elected to general seats out of a record number of 183 contestants for July 25th polls.

No female candidates won a general seat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but of the winning women candidates, four won on NA seats in Sindh, three in Punjab and one in Balochistan.

All political parties are bounded to allocate at least 5% tickets to women on general seats for the NA and provincial assemblies. Ever wondered why? Because the relatively high number of women participating in elections this time around could partially be attributed to a provision in the Elections Act 2017.

The minimum number of women were issued tickets by the three major parties, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, PML-N and PPP as it was permissible by the law, barely following the official 5% requirement. Among the successful women candidates, three had contested on PPP tickets ─ Nafisa Shah (NA-208, Khairpur-I), Shazia Marri (NA-216, Sanghar-II) and Shamsun Nisa (NA-232, Thatta).

Two winning female candidates, Ghulam Bibi (NA-115, Jhang-II) and Zartaj Gul (NA-191, DG Khan) had contested on PTI tickets, while the PML-N, Balochistan Awami Party and the Grand Democratic Alliance each had one winning woman candidate ─ Mehnaz Akber Aziz (NA-77, Narowal-I), Zubaida Jalal (NA-271, Kech) and Fehmida Mirza (NA-230, Badin II) respectively.

In the 2008 elections, the number of female candidates was as low as 72, including 41 party ticket holders and 31 independents. The number of female candidates in the 2013 elections was 135 with the number of independent candidates higher than those of party ticket holders — 74 and 61, respectively.