27 women candidates won February 8 polls — 11 more than 2018

Amid calls for a fair representation of women in the legislatures, 27 female candidates have emerged victorious in February 8 polls — 11 more than the 2018 elections.

A total of 882 women candidates contested elections on national and provincial assembly seats in the 2024 elections. Out of these, 312 had filed nominations for the NA, and 570 for the provincial assembly seats, marking a significant increase in the number of women candidates contesting the 2024 elections.

111 political parties had nominated 275 women candidates to contest the elections on general seats, making up for 4.6% of the total of 6,037 candidates they have fielded.

Moreover, out of 111 political parties, 30 parties had fielded five or more than 5% women on general seats, while four political parties had fielded between 4.5% and 4.9% of women candidates on general seats, and the remaining 77 had fielded 4.5% women candidates on general seats, according to a report.

In 2018, a record 183 women contested the polls on NA general seats and only eight of them were able to win their seats. Of the winning women candidates, four won in Sindh, three in Punjab, and one in Balochistan. No women candidates won a general seat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Additionally, seven candidates won provincial seats — two from Sindh Assembly seats and five from Punjab Assembly in the last general elections.

In 2013, the number of women candidates was 135 with the number of independent candidates higher than those of party ticket holders — 74 and 61, respectively while in the 2008 elections, the number of women candidates was as low as 72, including 41 party ticket holders and 31 independents.

This time a record 27 women have been elected from all five assemblies — 12 from NA, 11 Punjab Assembly, two Sindh Assembly, and 1 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.

Of the successful women candidates vying for NA seats, four had contested on PML-N tickets ─ Shizra Mansab Kharal (NA-112, Nankanasahib II), Maryam Nawaz Sharif (NA-119, Lahore III), Begum Tehmina Daultana (NA-158, Vehari VIII) and Nosheen Iftikhar (NA73, Sialkot IV).

Five winning candidates, who were backed by PTI include, Ayesha Nazir Jutt (NA-156, Vehari I), Umber Majeed (NA-181, Layyah I), Zartaj Gul (NA-185, Dera Ghazi Khan II), Shandana Gulzar Khan (NA-30, Peshawar III), Aniqa Mehdi (NA-67, Hafizabad) while two PPP candidates Nafisa Shah (NA-202, Khairpur I) and Shazia Marri (NA-209, Sanghar I) won National Assembly seats from their respective constituencies on the party's tickets.

One MQM-P candidate — Aasia Ishaque Siddiqui — won from Karachi (NA-232, Korangi I).

Moreover, out of the 27 winning candidates in 2024 —Gul, Shah, Marri, Ashfa Riaz Fatiana, Faryal Talpur, and Azra Fazal Pechuho had previously served as lawmakers.