Election 2024: Major political parties fail to award women 5% of party tickets

ISLAMABAD: An analysis conducted by the women’s rights organisation Aurat Foundation revealed that major political parties in Pakistan failed to allocate five per cent of their party tickets to women.

This is considered a violation of Section 206 of the Election Act 2017, which requires all political parties to award five per cent of their provincial and national assembly tickets to women.

According to the findings, only the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) fulfilled the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) requirement for national assembly party tickets.

The MQM allocated tickets to seven women out of a total of 73, reaching a percentage of 9.6. Similarly, the PML-N provided tickets to 16 women out of 205 candidates, accounting for approximately 7.8 per cent.

Read more: Elections 2024: In a first, 47 women candidates in KP contesting from general seats

Meanwhile, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) awarded only eleven women party tickets out of 235, amounting to a mere 4.5 per cent.

The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) granted ten women party tickets, surpassing the left-leaning Awami National Party (ANP), which allocated only two women tickets compared to 59 for men. Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) granted two women party tickets out of a total 220 candidates.

The Balochistan National Party (BNP) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Pakistan-Fazl (JUI-F) did not allocate any party tickets to women.

For the provincial assembly of Punjab ,only the ANP, JUI-F and Pakistan Markazi Muslim League (PMML) awarded more than five per cent of party ticket to women.

ANP awarded two party tickets in total, one of which went to a woman candidate. The JUI-F awarded seven women party tickets, for a 5.8 per cent. While PMML awarded 14 women party tickets for 6.1 per cent of total party tickets awarded.

The PPP, PML-N, PPP, JI, MQM, and TLP failed to crack the required five per cent.

Read more: General elections 2024: Why are rural women more willing to vote?

Meanwhile for the provincial assembly of Sindh , the PPP, JI, JUI-F and the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) met the five per cent criteria. The ANP did not award any woman a party ticket.

For the provincial assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), PML-N, MQM, JI, and JUI-F failed to meet the criteria. MQM did not award any party ticket to women for a seat at KP provincial assembly.

The Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) scored the highest per cent with two women awarded party tickets. In contrast, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Parliamentarians (PTI-P) awarded six women party tickets at 8 per cent.

For the provincial assembly of Balochistan, only BNP and JI managed to fulfil the criteria. Meanwhile, JUI-F, ANP and MQM did not award any woman a party ticket.

The women’s rights organisation wrote a letter to the Election Commission of Pakistan stating that they were “dismayed to find that some political parties have not observed the legal requirement under section 206”.

The letter requests the ECP that the “political parties submit an affidavit during the process of election schedule that they have complied with the provisions of the Act, including Section 206. If they have not met the minimum requirement of awarding 5 per cent]tickets to women on general seats, this should be considered a case of ‘false declaration of information’.”