The ongoing election process exposed a lacuna in the newly-introduced provision of law which makes it binding on a political party contesting polls to ensure at least five per cent representation of women candidates.

Under the law, a political party is entitled to get an election symbol if it fulfils the said condition, but in the sequence of different election steps the allotment of symbol to a political party or a political alliance comes earlier than the allocation of party tickets. Due to the same reason the Election Commission of Pakistan is facing hurdles in taking action against those parties which have violated the said provision.

In the previous laws meant for conducting general elections there was no such provision of allotting at least five per cent seats to women candidates. However, the provision was incorporated in the Elections Act, 2017, through which eight of the elections laws were consolidated with several changes.

Those eight laws included: The Electoral Rolls Act, 1974; The Delimitation of Constituencies Act, 1974; the Senate (Election) Act, 1975; the Representation of the People Act, 1976; the Election Commission Order, 2002; the Conduct of General Elections Order, 2002; the Political Parties Order, 2002; and the Allocation of Symbols Order, 2002.

In the new law, section 206 was included for encouraging women’s participation in the electoral process.

Section 206 of the Act states: “A political party shall make the selection of candidates for elective offices, including membership of the Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) and Provincial assemblies, through a transparent and democratic procedure and while making the selection of candidates on general seats shall ensure at least five per cent representation of women candidates.”

The implementation of the said section was mentioned in section 215. Sub-clause 1 of the said section provides that a political party enlisted with the ECP shall be eligible to obtain an election symbol for contesting elections for Parliament, provincial assemblies or local government on submission of certificates and statements referred to in section 202 (enlistment of political parties), 206, 209 (intra-party elections) and 210 (information about sources of funding).

Sub-clause 2 of the said section relates to allotment of symbol to a combination or alliance of enlisted political parties.

The law is silent over the issue about what should the ECP do when election symbol has already been allotted to a party and the said party does not follow section 206 of the Act.

An official of the ECP said that due to technical reasons the ECP was not in a position to fully implement this provision. He said that before allotment of election symbols the political parties had submitted affidavits in which they had undertaken that they would allot five per cent tickets to women. However, he added that the allotment of election symbols to a political party took place earlier than allotment of ticket to candidates by the party.

A few days ago the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Commission on the Status of Women (KPCSW) and Aurat Foundation had raised the same issue in a press conference and had pointed out that some of the parties had not allotted five per cent tickets to women candidates.

In a press release on July 12, the ECP explained that it had allotted symbols to parties on basis of affidavits. It was stated that 120 political parties were registered with ECP of which 107 were allotted symbols. It was added that 12 of the parties have not been participating in polls, whereas 88 parties allotted tickets to five per cent women candidates and only seven parties had violated section 206 of Elections Act.

The highest number of tickets has been given by Peoples Party Parliamentarian as of 642 of its candidates across the country 43 are women. The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has been contesting on 769 seats of which 42 are allocated to women. Similarly, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has been contesting on 639 seats of which 37 are women candidates. Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and Tehreek-i-Labaik Pakistan have fielded 33 women candidates each. MMA has been contesting on total of 583 seats whereas TLP on 556 seats.

Another religious party, Tehreek-i-Labaik Islam, has filed papers against 100 seats and has not fielded any woman candidate. Allah-o-Akber Tehreek has fielded 240 candidates and has given tickets to 10 women whereas under the law it has to allocate tickets to 12 women.

Pakistan Rah-i-Haq Party has also allotted tickets to 86 candidates, but has not given ticket to any woman candidate. Similarly PTI-Nazriati fielded 35 candidates, all male. Moreover, JUI-S has allotted tickets to 25 candidates. Under the law, it has to give one ticket to a female candidate, but it has not done so.

“This provision was incorporated into the law after a long struggle of the civil society groups and none of the political parties should be permitted to violate it,” said Saima Munir, programme manager at Aurat Foundation. She said that suitable amendments should be made in the Elections Act so as to remove the flaws related to the said provision.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2018