HARIPUR: The Election Commission of Pakistan should not allot symbols to political parties that fail to allocate five per cent of general seats to women candidates in elections, as without women representation in assemblies the objective of true democratic governance and development can’t be achieved.
These views were expressed during an orientation session on UN Women-supported “women leaders’ mentorship programme” organised by Sungi Development Foundation here on Friday.
Office-bearers of district and tehsil chapters of various political parties, and representatives of civil society organisations and transgender individuals were in attendance.
Shahid Aziz, regional coordinator of Sungi, briefed the participants about the objectives and outputs of the intervention.
He said that the project would be implemented in 57 districts of the country over the next 34 months, empowering the young generation of women leaders to contribute their share to inclusive and democratic governance.
The speakers emphasised the critical role of the ECP in enforcing election rules, specifically the mandate requiring political parties to allocate at least five per cent of general seats to women candidates.
Participants highlighted that true democratic governance and development cannot be achieved without adequate women’s representation, and suggested that parties not allowing women to contest general seats should be denied election symbols.
They also emphasised the need for inculcating leadership skills and giving opportunities to women to hold key offices in the parties.
“Political parties need to change patriarchal behaviours by encouraging women leaders so that they could play their role in changing the existing political discourse, which has abysmally low representation of women elected through direct elections,” said a lawyer, Gul Naz Rasheed.
The speakers lauded the in-house performance of women parliamentarians elected on reserved seats of political parties and suggested that the parties must work for changing the patriarchal culture and encouraging women workers to come forward to contest general seats.
Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2026
