Where are the women voters in Pakistan?

According to the last census held in 1998, the total population of Pakistan was a little over 132 million. The female population constituted 48 per cent of the total population. The latest figures of registered voters released by the Election Commission of Pakistan last month indicate that Pakistan has a total of around 97m registered voters of which women voters are around 42.42m which translates to a little less than 44pc of the total number of voters.

Using the 1998 census composition, there should have been 48pc women registered voters, which corresponds to 46.58m and which means that around 4.16m women have not been able to find their way to the voters list.

In the controversial electoral rolls for the 2002 general election, women voters constituted 46.11pc of the total registered voters. This percentage went further down in the2008 electoral rolls when registered women voters constituted about 44pc of the electoral rolls. The percentage of registered women voters improved to 46.62pc just before the 2013 general election. Sadly, the latest ECP figures indicate a significant dip in registered women voters to 43.73pc of the total registered voters.

The current percentage (43.73pc) of registered women voters compares very unfavorably with the percentage of registered women voters in India which is 47.78pc according to their 2016 electoral rolls.

It has also identified some 26,000 census blocks where women voters’ registration is below the 40pc mark. 

Newspaper Dawn carried a disturbing story in early 2017 that 17 National Assembly constituencies saw less than 5pc women voters actually casting their votes during the last general election in 2013. Three of these constituencies lie in Fata where special circumstances including terrorist activities have disturbed the area over the past many years. Some other constituencies had experienced an overall low voter turnout, eg NA-152, where male voter turnout was a mere 2.13pc.

However, some of these constituencies have repeatedly shown a tendency of women being barred from voting and therefore it is important to focus on them. Two National Assembly constituencies in Upper and Lower Dir fall under this category.

In Pakistan there is already exists a law (Representation of the People Act, 1976; Section 81 ‘Undue Influence’) which makes it an offence to “compel any person to vote or refrain from voting” but despite overwhelming evidence, such as the written and widely publicised agreements of local political leaders on legal stamped papers, that women are not allowed to vote, the ECP or the local administration has hardly taken action against these political leaders.

Women in law making bodies in Pakistan

The  participation of women in politics in Pakistan has largely remained confined to reserving seats for them. The 1973 Constitution of Pakistan reserved 10 seats in the National Assembly for women with the general seat members serving as their electoral college. This is notable that the reservation was made for three general elections or ten years, whichever came later. Although Military ruler Gen Zia-ul-Haq doubled the number of women’s seats, but he did not extend the time bar. The seats thus expired after the 1988 elections and the next three parliaments were without women’s seats. Another Military ruler Gen Musharraf  increased the number of women’s seats in the National Assembly to 60, and likewise in the provincial assemblies. He did not put an expiry date on these either.

Democracy failed exceptionally quickly after independence because Pakistan possessed a weak and fragmented political party called “Muslim League” that was unable to resolve key governing conflicts. In the wake of intensifying political instability, the civilian bureaucracy and military assumed governing power in 1958. Since its independence, Pakistan's democratic system has fluctuated between civilian and military governments at various times throughout its political history, mainly due to political instability, civil-military conflicts, political corruption, and the periodic coup d'états by the military establishment against weak civilian government. In Pakistan the present electoral system and the politics it is generating have become a vehicle for reinforcing the gender status quo, instead of being a tool to challenge and change it. And it totally failed to address the structural inequities — ethnic bias and more important gender biases.