| Summary/Abstract |
Women representation in decision-making and law-making is considered as
a vital step in women empowerment. The Martial Law regime of General
Pervez Musharraf1
brought in a drastic change in the composition of Pakistani
legislatures at both central and provincial levels and has increased 17 per cent
of reserved seats for women in 2002. However, this was much less than
the 33 per cent stated in Strategic Objective G-2 in the plan. This step was
deemed as a landmark in materialising the long-cherished dream of empowering
Pakistani women. The purpose of this study is to assess the discourse
on women’s political empowerment and their level of participation in mainstream
politics by analysing the gender gaps in the Election Laws—General
Elections of 2002, 2008 and 2013. Women are now present in all the legislative
assemblies of Pakistan from more than a decade. How far this change
has remained useful in addressing and solving the problems faced by Pakistani
women? Furthermore, how these women legislators have performed on specific
women-related issues or is this step just an extension of strengthening the
dominant families in Pakistani politics? The issue of quota discourses in the
Parliament is also discussed.
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