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assemblies serving as electoral colleges. There were no women in thisassembly.The first Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, adopted by thisassembly in 1956, provided 10 reserved seats for women in the singlechamberParliament (05 from West Pakistan and 05 from East Pakistan).The significant feature in this regard was the “Principle of Femalesuffrage and Women’s Reserved Seats” — a dual voting right, underwhich the women were not only eligible to vote for a general seat but alsofor the women seats’ candidates. 26 However, no elections were heldunder this Constitution as it was abrogated with the proclamation of thefirst Martial Law on October 8, 1958.The second Constitution proclaimed by the military dictator GeneralMuhammad Ayub Khan in 1962 provided for a National Assemblyconsisting of 156 indirectly elected members, including 6 seats forwomen — 3 each for both wings of the State. In the Constitution of 1962,female suffrage on the basis of women’s territorial constituencies wasabolished, and the women were to be elected by the assemblies throughindirect elections. 27General Yahya Khan declared another Martial Law in 1969, abrogatedthe 1962 Constitution and announced new general elections under hisLegal Framework Order, LFO. The LFO provided for 13 reserved seatsfor women (6 from West Pakistan and 7 from East Pakistan), in the singlechamber Assembly of 313, to be elected indirectly by members of theNational Assembly. The elections under LFO were held on 7 December1970 but the Assembly thus elected could not convene its session due tothe cession of East Pakistan.The 144 members of the assembly elected from the western wing formedthe Constituent Assembly of the remaining Pakistan. The assembly wasconvened for the first time on 14 April 1972. It included six womenmembers elected on the reserve seats. This assembly adopted the 1973Constitution which was promulgated in the country on 14 August 1973.26Saiyid, Dushka, http://edharti.com27 http://www.wpcp.org.pk29
Under the 1973 Constitution a bicameral parliament was established and10 seats were reserved for women in the Lower House or NationalAssembly which were to be filled in by votes of the members of theNational Assembly; while no seat was reserved for women in the UpperHouse or Senate. The Constitution also fixed reservation for women seatsfor two more general elections or ten years, whichever came later, andthen the provision was to expire. 28The next assembly elected in 1977 under the 1973 constitution, however,proved to be short-lived and was dismissed just after three months withthe imposition of the third Martial Law in the country by General Zia ulHaq on 5 July 1977 and the subsequent suspension of the Constitution.Political activities were resumed in 1985 when elections were held onnon-party basis to elect an Assembly, comprising of a total of 237members. Under the Revival of Constitution Order (P.O.14 of 1985)reserved seats for women were increased from 10 to 20 and the period ofreservation was extended to 10 years or three general elections.President Zia ul Haq dismissed his self created assembly on 28 May 1988and next party-based elections were held in the country on 16 November1988 after the death of President Zia ul Haq in a mid air explosion inAugust the same year. The new National Assembly also had 20 womenmembers on reserved seats.The 1988 assembly was dismissed by President Ghullam Ishaq Khan in1990 and with that the provision of the reserve seats lapsed. There was noprovision for the reserve seats during the next three consecutive generalelections held in 1990, 1993 and 1997. The Parliament elected in 1997was dismissed once again in October 1999 through another military coupby General Pervez Musharraf.After the lapse of reserved seats for women in 1988, women’srepresentation in the assembly had become dismally low. The proportionof women representation fell to just 3.2 percent in the National Assembly28 Mahmood, Safdar. Constitutional Foundations of Pakistan, Jang Publishers, Lahore,199730
Page 2 and 3: Legislative Quotasfor WomenA Global
Page 4: Table of ContentsNo. Content Page12
Page 7: For some experts, types of electora
Page 10 and 11: in and its impact on political deci
Page 13 and 14: The Beijing Platform for Action, ad
Page 15 and 16: it is argued, compensatory measures
Page 18 and 19: 2 The QuotasAs already stated in th
Page 20 and 21: acknowledged that the quota brought
Page 22 and 23: Gender quotas around the world 20Th
Page 24 and 25: Usually, this model has guaranteed
Page 26 and 27: Political Party Quotas are rules or
Page 28 and 29: 3 Reserved seats in PakistanHistori
Page 32 and 33: elected in 1997; 2.4 in the Senate
Page 34 and 35: Ministry of Women’s Development o
Page 36: In the second general elections hel
Page 39 and 40: AfghanistanAfghanistan’s National
Page 41 and 42: legislation by the Parliament. The
Page 43 and 44: “Nothing in the world is perfect,
Page 45 and 46: Sri LankaSri Lanka’s unicameral H
Page 47 and 48: Quantum of representationThe women
Page 49 and 50: legitimacy of the system in its obs

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