In General Elections of 2018 more than 300 women will be contesting for provincial and national assembly from all parts of Pakistan, it is the highest number of women participation in any General Elections.
According to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) from 107 registered political parties 48 nominated 304 female candidates while 59 political parties failed to nominate any women.
[junkie-alert style=”green”] Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) gave tickets to the highest number of female candidates. [/junkie-alert]
The number of women candidates nominated by different parties are as follows:
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) = 43
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) = 42
Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) = 37
Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) = 35
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) = 33
Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP)=18
Awami National Party (ANP) = 14
Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP)=12
Allahu Akbar Tehreek (AAT) = 10
Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) = 8
All Pakistan Muslim League (APML)= 8
National Party (NP) = 7
Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) = 6
Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PMLQ) = 5
Balochistan National Party (BNP) = 3
Balochistan National Party Awami(BNPA)=2
According to a provision in Elections Act 2017 political parties are bound to allocate 5% of general seats to women but despite this Pasban, JUI-S & PTI-Nazryati failed to nominated even a single female candidate.
Allahu Akbar Tehreek (AAT) nominated 240 candidates out of which 10 were women while as per Elections Act 2017 at least 12 women should have been given tickets.
To ensure women participation Election Commission has put a threshold of 10% for women voters. According to section 9 of Elections Act ECP can declare any election void if the women turnout is less than 10%.
Due to massive campaign by ECP, NADRA & NGOs 3.8 million more women have been registered for elections while they claim 8 million women are still not registered.
Musharraf reserved 60 seats for women in the 342 member National Assembly but most of these reserved seats are awarded to members of strong & influential political families.
