ASIDE from the successful candidates, another big winner of the general election on Wednesday were the women of Pakistan, specifically those in conservative parts of the country. For until now, they had been kept disenfranchised by regressive quarters in the tribal areas and even in parts of Punjab that consider women irrelevant to decision-making on any issue of importance.

Traditionally, every opportunity to choose a representative of the people — whether on a national or local level — was preceded by tribal elders and local chapters of political parties striking agreements to bar women from the hustings. When written agreements triggered protests from civil society activists, they resorted to verbal pacts to maintain the status quo.

That this abhorrent trend is beginning to change is due to the dogged efforts of women legislators who have pushed for election results in constituencies with a lower than 10pc turnout to be declared null and void. Last December, the ECP cancelled the result of a local government poll in Lower Dir because of the abysmally low female turnout.

The very act of casting a vote is empowering, which explains why men in some social milieu find the notion of female suffrage so intolerable. Some of them will continue to resist in the name of ‘traditional norms’ that are particularly set in stone where women’s agency is concerned.

Even this time around, there were pockets where female participation in the voting process was negligible or absent. For that to end, the ECP must continue to demonstrate it will not stand for any violation of the right of franchise.

Overall however, faced with the threat of having their own vote voided by an electoral watchdog prepared to hold them accountable for suppressing the female vote, men in many of these areas ‘allowed’ the women to cast their ballot on Wednesday, some actively encouraging them do so.

The ECP deserves credit for extending every effort to include more women on the electoral rolls and warning of action if they were prevented from voting, also issuing directives to the local administrations of Swat, Lower Dir, Upper Dir, Shangla, Swabi and Battagram to ensure female participation in the polls.

That women lined up to vote — even in parts of violence-plagued Balochistan — and stand as candidates in some of the most conservative areas, is a testament to their enthusiasm for participating in this fundamental exercise of democratic rights.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2018