Out of these female candidates, two were fielded by the Pakistan Peoples Party, two by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Nazriati, one by Pakistan Markazi Muslim League and one by Pakistan Nazariati Party. The rest ran as independent candidates. Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz did not field any woman for a general seat.

In 2018, three women had contested National Assembly seats and two had participated in the Provincial Assembly elections, securing a total of 26,375 votes.

In the recent elections Sidra Saeed Bandisha, the PPP candidate from NA-100 Faisalabad VI, polled the highest number of votes (7,053) among the female candidates. She was running against PML-N provincial president Rana Sanaullah and PTI-supported independent candidate Dr Nisar Ahmad Jatt. Dr Nisar is the son-in-law of the former MNA Chaudhry Ilyas Jatt; Sidra Bandisha is his niece.

Bandisha says she began taking interest in politics a few years ago to carry on the political legacy of her father, Chaudhry Saeed Bandisha and her brother Chaudhry Abdul Rahman Bandisha.

She says that even before the general elections, she had been in touch with the people of the constituency. She says the number of votes she polled was much less than what she had expected. “My political rivals prevented my supporters from voting,” she claimed, adding that there were seeral incidents of intimidation during the polling.

“Women have begun taking interest in politics. When I was campaigning, I noticed that many women gathered on the rooftops of their houses to hear me speak,” says Bandisha. “… But maybe the men in their families didn’t let them to vote for me.”

“I believe in women’s empowerment and want women to play their role not only as voters but also as public representatives,” she says.

In 2018, Ayesha Rajab Baloch, the widow of MNA Rajab Ali Baloch from Faisalabad, was nominated by the PML-N for a National Assembly seat reserved for women.

She says that this year she had wanted to participate in the general elections from NA-97 but the party preferred to field her brother-in-law Ali Gohar Baloch. “Patriarchy is as prevalent in politics as it is in the society. Female contestants face many barriers in the political arena,” says Baloch.

In the 12 general elections held in Faisalabad since 1970, only two women have been elected to general seats. Rahela Shahdat Baloch of the PPP replaced her father, a former member of the National Assembly, Shahadat Baloch, from NA-78 in the 2008 general elections. Iffat Miraj was elected MPA from PP-53 in the 2013 election replacing of her husband, former MPA Shahid Iqbal Awan on a PML-N ticket.

Azma Bokhari, the PML-N Punjab chapter information secretary, says that her party was committed to the cause of women‘s empowerment. “The election of Maryam Nawaz Sharif as chief minister of the Punjab is a major milestone. We’re planning on fielding more female candidates in the future,” said Bokhari.

Bokhari acknowledges the need for more efforts by political parties and the society to enhance women’s participation and representation in politics.

According to the Election Commission of Pakistan data, the total number of registered voters in the 2024 polls was 12,858,5760, of which 54 percent were men and 46 percent women. The total number of registered voters in the 2018 election had been 10,498,1940 of which 56 percent were male and 44 percent female. Countrywide, female voter registration has increased over the past five years, reducing the gender gap in the electorate from 11.8 percent to 7.7 percent.

In Faisalabad, in terms of the number of registered voters, the ratio of women voters increased from 45 percent to 47 percent. The share of women voters in the number of votes cast increased from 40 percent to 41 per cent. However, the number of votes received by female candidates has not increased significantly.

Section 206 of the Election Act, 2017, requires that the political parties nominate women candidates for at least five percent of the general seats they contest. In spite of this law, the percentage of tickets awarded to women by the political parties participating in the 2024 election remained less than five percent.

According to the Election Commission records, 111 political parties nominated 275 women candidates, while 614 women participated in the general elections as independent candidates. Among those, 26 women won the election. They were elected to 12 National Assembly seats, 11 Punjab Assembly seats, two Sindh Assembly seats, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly seat.

Although this number is higher than the 24 women who were successful in the 2018 elections, it is important to note that most of the candidates fielded belonged to influential political families and were nominated because the nomination papers of their male relatives were rejected.

Women constitute about 49 percent of the population of Pakistan. They are starkly underrepresented in the legislative chambers.

In the Global Gender Gap Report 2023 released by the World Economic Forum, Pakistan was ranked 142 out of 146 countries. It was ranked 95^th in terms of women’s political empowerment.

Nida Usman Chaudhry, a human rights activist and author of a research paper titled Patriarchy in Politics and Political Parties in Pakistan, says that the purpose of issuing five percent tickets to women and allocating a quota was to encourage women’s participation in general elections. “However, the percentage of women winning general seats in elections has been declining,” she says.

“Women’s access and advancement in politics depends on men deciding to support them,” she says. “A majority of the reserved seats that are filled based on a priority list presented by the political parties, are allotted to women who are related to male politicians,” she notes.

“To claim compliance with the law requiring five percent tickets for women, female family members of party leaders are sometimes nominated as candidates from constituencies that are party strongholds,” she says. “Sometimes, women candidates are fielded from constituencies where they’re unlikely to win.”

Journalist Tahir Mehdi, who wrote a paper titled Making Elections Credible for the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, says that allocating reserved seats or quotas for women in the National and Provincial Assemblies does not solve the problem. “This amounts to advancing a policy of ignoring discrimination without challenging it. We have been allocating seats for women for over 20 years. This has not improved their chances of contesting general seats,” he says.

“The political party that gets a majority of women’s votes in the general election should get a proportionate share of the seats reserved for women. Else, three-constituency clusters should be made into a constituency reserved for women to enable true representation of women,” he says.

He believes that the goal of gender equality in politics cannot be achieved unless seats reserved for women are linked to constituency politics.

Achieving gender equality in politics requires concerted efforts from political parties, policymakers and the society at large to dismantle patriarchal structures and foster inclusivity and equal opportunity for women in electoral processes.

The writer has been associated with journalism for the past decade. He tweets @ naeemahmad876