A petition has been lodged in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) urging action against political parties for failing to uphold the mandatory five percent quota for women on general seats outlined in Section 206 of the Elections Act, 2017.
The Aurat Foundation, in its petition submitted to the IHC, disclosed that only PML-N and MQM-P had allocated over 5% of their tickets to women for 266 National Assembly seats, while other parties fell short of this requirement.
In response, IHC judge Justice Aamer Farooq has summoned the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), requesting its response by tomorrow (Feb 7).
Previously, the Aurat Foundation had filed a complaint with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), alleging that major political parties, including PPP and Jamat-e-Islami (JI), had not fulfilled the mandatory five percent quota for women on general seats.
In a letter addressed to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Raja Sultan, the Aurat Foundation expressed concern over the parties’ failure to ensure the quota as per Article 206 of the Elections Act 2017.
Statistics provided by the organization revealed that PPP, JI, ANP, TLP, JUI-F, and BNP had not met the requirement of allocating at least 5% of party tickets to women on general seats.
In Punjab, PML-N, PPP, JI, and TLP failed to meet the mandatory quota for women. Similarly, in Sindh, MQM-P, ANP, and TLP did not allocate at least 5% of party tickets to women.
Expressing dismay, the Aurat Foundation emphasized that some political parties had disregarded the legal requirement under Section 206 of the Election Act 2017 and Section 6 of the code of conduct for political parties.
The foundation urged the electoral watchdog to take legal action under Section 217(1) of the Election Act against political parties that violated Section 206 by allocating less than the mandatory 5% party tickets to women.
