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At a glance

Structure of Parliament: Bicameral

Are there legislated quotas...

  • Yes for the Single/Lower House?
  • Yes for the Upper House?
  • Yes at the Sub-national level?

Are there voluntary quotas...

  • No adopted by political parties?

Is there additional information?

Yes

Pakistan

(Islamic Republic of Pakistan)

Single/Lower house

National Assembly

Total seats:342
Total women:76
% women: 22%
Election year:2008
Electoral system:Parallel
Quota type: Reserved seats
Election details: IDEA Voter Turnout
IPU Parline
Legal sourceDetails
Quota type:
Reserved seats		 Constitution60 of the 342 seats in the national assembly (17.5 percent) are reserved for women. These seats are allocated to the political parties proportionally from the provinces, according to the electoral result. (Constitution, Article 51 [1, 1A, 4(d)]). Parties nominate and ultimately elect the women to the special seats (International IDEA 2008, p. 113).
Legal sanctions for non-compliance: N/A No data available
Rank order/placement rules: N/A No data available

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Last updated 2010-07-08

Upper house

Senate

Total seats: 104
Total women:17
% women: 16%
Election year:2012
Electoral system:Indirectly elected
Quota type: Reserved seats
Election details: IPU Parline
Legal sourceDetails
Quota type:
Reserved seats
 Electoral law 17 out of the 104 seats in the Senate are reserved for women (source IPU).
Legal sanctions for non-compliance: N/A No data available
Rank order/placement rules: N/A No data available

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Last updated 2013-05-17

Quota at the Sub-National Level

Quota type:Reserved Seats
Legal sourceDetails
Quota type:
Reserved Seats
 Electoral law The local government consists of three tiers, from top to bottom: District/City District Administration, Tehsil/Town Administration and Union Administration. At each level, there is a council: Zila, Tehsil/Town, Union, and each has reserved seats to women (33 %), peasants and workers (5 %) and minorities (5 %). Only at the Union level are  elections, and the councilors  form the electoral college for the two upper levels (Local Government Ordinance, Articles 37, 65 & 87; Reyes 2003, p. 42-43). However, in effect, the reserved seats for women are four of the Muslim seats and two of the peasant/worker seats, bringing the total to 6 of 21, and 29 % (Rai 2005, p. 178).
Constitution At the regional level there are Provincial Assemblies, with a total of 728 seats; 128 out of these are reserved for women, i.e. 17.6 percent. For the general seats, single-member constituencies are used, the candidate with the most number of votes are elected; for womens seats, multi-member constituencies with proportional representation are used. The number of women elected for each party is based on the number of votes each party got in the election (Constitution, Article 106 [1 & 3]).
Legal sanctions for non-compliance: No data available No data available
Rank order/placement rules: No data available No data available

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Last updated 2013-05-17

Additional information

Constitutions from 1956 until 1985 all provided for reserved seats for women at both national and local level. In 1956 there was a 3 percent quota at all levels. The allotment of seats ranged from five to ten percent and was only through indirect elections by the members of the assemblies themselves (Rai 2005, p. 175).

 

They expired however in 1988, as the constitution of 1985 stipulated, and for elections during the 1990's the number of women in parliament was never more than four percent (Reyes 2003, p. 42).

 

The national consultation by the Ministry of Women and Development, the National Campaign for Restoration of Women's Reserved Seats, Report of the Commission of Inquiry for Women and the National Plan for Action, all argued for new reservations during the late 90's and early 00's, but this time 30 percent, which eleven political parties also endorsed.

 

The National Reconstruction Bureau released a new local government system in 2001 and 2002 with a 33 percent quota for women in local and provincial levels, but the reserved seats in parliament were only 17 percent for the Senate and 18 percent for the National Assembly (Reyes 2003, p. 44-45).

Last updated 2013-05-17

Sources

  • Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, amended 2004
  • International IDEA (2008), Political Parties in South Asia: The Challenge of Change, South Asia Regional Report, Stockholm: International IDEA
  • Local Government Ordinance 2001
  • Rai, Shirin M. (2005), 'Reserved Seats in South Asia: A Regional Perspective', in Women in Parliament: Beyond Numbers - A Revised Edition, J. Ballington & A Kazam (eds.), Stockholm: International IDEA
  • Reyes, Socorro L. (2003), 'Quotas in Pakistan: A Case Study', in The Implementation of Quotas: Asian Experiences, Quotas Report Series no. 1, Stockholm: International IDEA

Additional reading

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