Pakistan

Few female candidates ran for seats in the by-elections for provincial and National Assembly seats in Pakistan recently, let alone won. Similarly, after the country’s general elections in May 2013, the number of women holding contested National Assembly seats fell from 16 to 6. To international observers, the numbers may make Pakistani women appear as passive observers in the country’s political landscape, complacent with the status quo. But the story of Pakistani women’s political participation is more complex.

The court has also ordered the ECP to withhold the notification of results from these constituencies till re-polling is completed.

A woman leader of the Awami National Party (ANP), who was a candidate on reserved seats for women, was shot dead inside her house in Hayatabad on Friday night.

Najma Hanif Jadoon’s spouse and former Tehsil Nazim, Hanif Gul Jadoon, was killed along with a 16-year-old son and a gunman in a suicide attack on his car in Swabi on the Eid day in November 2011.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced on Tuesday the names of candidates selected on seats reserved for women and minorities in the National Assembly after making some unexplained changes in the draft notification earlier prepared by it.