Election 2024: Top women candidates to watch out for

The February 8, 2023, general election will go down into history for the sheer number of remarkable women who, in the face of toxic patriarchal hegemony in Pakistani society, politics, and the parliament, dared to dream and had the drive to end up where the fate of the country is decided.

In Pakistan’s male-dominated electoral battlefield, over 3,000 women candidates have filed nomination papers for national and provincial assemblies' seats for the general elections.

Female politicians belonging to different political parties and as independent candidates will challenge their male counterparts despite cultural and societal barriers to women’s active participation in the public sphere.

The increased participation of women in electoral politics is inevitable to make the decision-making process inclusive and the enactment of women-centric laws.

Besides reserved seats, the electoral reforms have also made it mandatory for the political parties to ensure a 5% representation of women candidates in general seats.

Although the number of female politicians contesting elections on general seats has increased over the years, it is still very low compared to the male lawmakers in the parliament.

About 46.89% of registered women voters cast their ballots for the National Assembly (NA) seats in comparison to 56.07% of registered men voters in the 2018 general election, according to Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Over the past five years, women's voter registration has accelerated further. From 46.7 million in 2018 to 59.3 million in 2024, the number of women voters climbed by 27%.

For the 2024 general election, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has issued 23 tickets to its women candidates — 10 for NA seats and 13 for provincial assemblies (PAs).

According to preliminary data collected by FAFEN, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has awarded NA tickets to 21 women candidates, while data regarding provincial assemblies is difficult to collect as the party has been deprived of its iconic electoral symbol — the cricket bat.

On the other hand, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has issued 16 party tickets to its women candidates — 12 for NA and four for PA constituencies.

The Jamiat Ulama-e-Pakistan Fazl (JUI-F) has issued two tickets to women for NA and nine for the provincial assembly seats, while the Jamaat-e-Islami has awarded 10 tickets to women contestants for NA  and 19 for PA seats.

Speaking to Geo.tv, senior analyst Benazir Shah said major political parties were not very keen on allotting tickets to women for general seats.

She notes that the political parties have awarded tickets to a lot of women candidates in areas where they are not very strong or due to a 5% threshold set by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Secondly, the analyst highlighted that the presence of misogynistic and sexist culture particularly during electioneering was the major deterrent that stops women from contesting elections or joining politics.

“This [misogyny] continues even when they [women] are elected to the parliament where even very senior politicians make sexist comments and specifically target women,” she added. 

However, many women politicians have carved a space for themselves in constituency politics against all odds.

In the 2024 elections, an encouraging trend is being witnessed that women leaders including the scions of the Sharif and Bhutto families — Maryam Nawaz and Aseefa Bhutto Zardari, respectively — leading the campaign along with their male counterparts.

The embattled PTI has interestingly fielded a lot of women candidates for general seats for this year's general elections as their male relatives are either in jail or absconding in different cases.

Eminent women candidates vying for general seats 

Maryam Nawaz

PML-N's Maryam Nawaz is contesting elections for general seats for the first time since entering active politics.

Although Maryam was awarded a party ticket to contest the election for  Lahore’s NA-127 seat, she could not partake in the polls due to her conviction in a graft case by an accountability court in the 2018 elections.

The PML-N chief organiser is fighting for Lahore’s NA-119 and PP-159 constituencies in the 2024 general elections. 

On the NA seat, the scion of the Sharif family will face off against Shahzad  Farooq of the PTI and Iftikhar Shahid of the PPP.

Yasmin Rashid

Dr Yasmin Rashid, a senior leader of PTI and former Punjab health minister, will contest the elections from NA-130 and PP-174 constituencies.

In NA-130, Rashid will face off against the PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif from jail as she has been behind bars in cases related to violent protests that unfolded on May 9, 2023.

In the 2018 general election, she lost the NA-125 seat to PML-N’s Waheed Alam Khan.

However, she was elected to the Punjab Assembly on one of the reserved seats for women.

Firdous Ashiq Awan

Firdous Ashiq Awan, who previously remained associated with the PML-Q, the PPP, and the PTI, is now contesting the 2024 elections on Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party’s (IPP) ticket.

The then PTI leader lost the election from NA-72 (Sialkot-1) constituency in the 2018 elections to PML-N’s Armaghan Subhani.

Now she is contesting the election from the NA-70 constituency of Sialkot against PML-N's Armaghan Subhani and PTI's Hafiz Hamid Raza.

Rehana Imtiaz Dar

Rehana Imtiaz Dar, a new name in politics, who made headlines after her son Usman Dar quit PTI and parted ways with Imran Khan following the May 9 events, has now taken up the mantle in her son's place to claim NA-71 (Sialkot) seat.

She has vowed to defeat PML-N’s heavyweight Khawaja Asif in his stronghold.

Aliya Hamza

Aliya, who was elected as a member National Assembly (MNA) from Punjab on reserved seats for women, is contesting polls for a general seat in Lahore — NA-118 where she will face PML-N's heavyweight Hamza Shehbaz and PPP's Shahid Abbas.

She is among the dozens of PTI workers and leaders who were arrested following the May 9 mayhem. Aliya will contest polls from behind bars.

Saira Afzal Tarar

In the NA-67 constituency of Hafizabad, an interesting contest is expected between PML-N leader Saira Afzal Tarar and PTI's Aniqa Mehdi.

The PPP has fielded Syed Waseem ul Hassan Naqvi in the same constituency.

Tarar suffered defeat in the 2018 elections from Hafizabad’s NA-87 constituency against PTI’s candidate Chaudhry Shaukat Ali Bhatti.

She was elected twice to the NA in the 2008 and 2018 general elections.

The seasoned parliamentarian served as Minister for National Health Services, Regulations, and Coordination during PML-N’s 2013-18 tenure.

Nafisa Shah

Nafisa Shah is vying for Khairpur’s NA-202 seat. In the last polls, she defeated Grand Democratic Alliance's (GDA) Ghous Ali Shah by a huge margin in the NA-208 constituency (Khairpur-1).

Nafisa Shah and Ghous Ali Shah will again face off in the NA-202 constituency.   

In 2001, Shah was elected as mayor of Khairpur district.

She became an MNA on a reserved seat for women in the 2008 and 2013 general elections.

Shazia Marri

PPP’s central leader and former federal minister Shazia Marri is in the race for the NA-209 Sanghar constituency seat where she will be facing GDA candidate Muhammad Khan Junejo and PTI's Hameeda Masood Shah.

She won Sanghar’s NA-216 seat after defeating GDA’s Kishan Chand Parwani in the 2018 elections.

Marri had served as the information minister of the PPP-led government in Sindh in 2011.

Saira Bano

GDA leader Bano will contest elections from Sanghar’s NA-210 seat against PPP's Salahuddin Junejo and PTI's Manochaher.

She was elected to the National Assembly on a reserved seat for women in the 2018 general election.

Dr Saveera Parkash

Dr Saveera Parkash, the first woman from a minority Hindu community, has been fielded by the PPP as their candidate for the PK-25 constituency in KP's Buner. 

She would be competing with Awami National Party (ANP) leader and former minister Sardar Hussain Babak, ex-minister Riaz Khan, JUI-F's leader and ex-lawmaker Mufti Fazal Ghafoor and others in the polls slated for February 8, 2024.

Parkash completed her MBBS from the Abbottabad International Medical College in 2022 and is also the general secretary of the PPP's women’s wing in Buner.

To sum it up, the surge of women candidates gearing up for the upcoming electoral battle — compared to 2018 — is unprecedented. For the women of Pakistan, this is a momentous change as it truly embodies a tide of optimism, calling out the toxic patriarchal status quo in politics and parliament. 

— Jahanzaib Yaseen is a staffer at Geo.tv. He posts on X @jahanzaibyasin

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