IN 2025, Pakistan ranked last (148th of 148 countries) on the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index. Our political parity score has dropped to 11 per cent. The Constitution guarantees reserved seats for women in both houses of Parliament and the provincial assemblies. Seats from each province are indirectly filled by proportional representation against priority lists submitted by political parties. However, the current generic female quotas add pain to misery by leaving millions of voices unheard.

These quotas have become a plus-one system for the political elite. The election of a woman to a reserved seat is decided more by her last name and address than by her abilities and plight, serving only a small subset of women. Inclusion in numbers does not ensure inclusive representation. As per Fafen’s data, in the 15th National Assembly, women’s seats appeared rather like an urban club, dominated by large cities, while in the Punjab Assembly, 39 of the total 66 seats went to Lahore!

When a state denies the disabled, rural, and poor women a seat at the negotiating table, it is ignoring the ‘Maqasid al-Shariah’. The principle of ‘Ad-darar yuzal’ (harm must be prevented) obligates the state to devise plans to ameliorate the position of groups facing structural harm. The state must strive for public welfare (maslaha), and genuine public welfare cannot be realised by the mere general categorisation of all women.

Islamic jurisprudence distinguishes between absolute mathematical equality called ‘musawat’ and substantive and true justice, called ‘adl’ and ‘qist’. The current quotas are based on the former, as they incorrectly assume that ‘women’ are a unitary group who deserve to be treated equally, ie, a general application of quotas. Remedying an unequal scenario with equal treatment is not strictly in accordance with Islamic principles of equity. It does not account for existing power imbalances between women and the fact that some women already have a head start.

The state must strive for public welfare.

In her seminal work Demarginalising the Intersection of Race and Sex, Kimberle Crenshaw challenged the popular belief that women across the globe share the same experiences based on their gender. Crenshaw laid out the idea of intersectionality, arguing that gender is not the sole factor determining a woman’s life; it rather intersects with other variables — age, physique, race, ethnicity, colour, geography, etc — to create unique lived experiences. Combining the experiences, pursuits and challenges of all women into one general category is a grave injustice. A woman elected on a reserved seat from Punjab, belonging to an urban centre, such as Lahore, with a lavish lifestyle, is less likely to have genuine awareness and competence to represent a peasant woman from an underdeveloped district, say Rajanpur.

The Holy Quran also recognises and acknowledges the various intersecting identities of people rooted in geography, tribe, race, etc. “O humanity! Indeed, We created you from a male and a female and made you into peoples and tribes so that you may (get to) know one another. …” (Surah Hujarat, ayat 13). It sidelines homogeneity by associating the division of humanity with recognition (li-ta’arafu) rather than structural hierarchies.

During the life of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), the case of Khawla bint Thalabah, narrated in Sunan Ibn Majah (2063), portrays the interplay of various factors that shape a woman’s life. Khawla’s husband, Aws, subjected her to the pagan custom of zihar, an oppressive form of divorce where the wife enters the prohibited degree of marriage, ending all responsibilities of the previous husband, but also prohibiting the woman from marrying another man. Besides her gender, she was also poor and old, unable to look after her children. When she laid out her layered plight in front of the Prophet, the first four verses of Surah al-Mujadilah were revealed, which declared ‘zihar’ a sin.

It is narrated in Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal (27319) that realising Aws’s lack of the means to perform kafarah (expiation) to restore the marriage and the couple’s old age, the Prophet gave Khawla a basket of dates to distribute as charity on Aws’s behalf.

There is a need to redefine the current quotas, marking a shift from musawat to adl. A formula must be established that factors in all variables alongside gender. For instance, a cap can be set on women belonging to major cities, and a minimum cap can be introduced for disabled and poor women. Redefined quotas will give a voice to hundreds and thousands of hitherto neglected women. It will also dent the prevalent practice of distribution of reserved seats as spoils of war among the female members of influential political families.

Muhammad Hayat Lak is a lawyer.

Laiba Imran is a law student at Lums.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2026