National Commission on the Status of Women 2013 ANNUAL REPORT

Women's representation in national and provincial assemblies through reserved seats has demonstrated
the efficacy of numbers in taking women's agenda forward. While the quota for women is 17%, 16 women
got directly elected on general seats to the NA in the 2008 elections and only 6 were returned in
2013.The latter figure deflects from the fact of women's unprecedented participation in the
electoral contest – 147 women contested general seats in 105 national constituencies and 301 in
203 provincial constituencies. Equally significant was that nationally 87 women stood as independent
candidates and in provinces 190 were independents. While more tickets were given by political
parties to women, these constituted only 3% of the total. Women's voter turnout was also higher than
ever before however in pockets across the country women were restrained from voting and political
parties were reluctant to give them party tickets.