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........

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