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MGMT 252 - Logic and Critical Thinking: Group Assignment

Group 2: Abbas Azmat (18020190), Inshirah Tahir (20100213), Maha Malik (21090073), Salman

Shah (19020116)

Dr. Ayesha Masood

2nd May, 2018.

Gender Quotas for Women in National and Provincial Assembly in Pakistan

Throughout history, women have been denied access to political power, whereby they are

massively under represented within legislative assemblies across the world. For example, in the

United Kingdom, only 23% of the women are Members of Parliament. In Afghanistan, women

constitute less than 10% of the seats in legislative assemblies (The Guardian). Therefore, many

states have actively tried to create an equal level playing field for women by reserving quota seats

for them in their respective legislative bodies. This paper aims to analyze quota systems for women

in Pakistan and conclude on the nature of their impact by assessing pros and cons of instituting

them.

This paper will start of by defining quotas for women, their importance in legislative

assemblies and the need to institute them in Pakistan. It will go on to make four overarching

arguments in favor of quotas for women; namely, how they help bring about female-friendly

legislation, the way they challenge sexist narratives in society, their ability to transform women

into role models for others to follow and lastly, their portrayal of women as stakeholders in a

myriad of issues. Furthermore, the paper will assess four arguments against quotas for women;

how women may simply be puppet actors put in place via male patronage, their inadequate capacity
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for change given their numerical strength, their loss of legitimacy and lastly, how quotas in

Parliament undermine the representativeness of a democracy. To conclude, the paper will weigh

up the pros and cons of quota systems to determine the more appropriate policy, along with

possible recommendations to mitigate harms resulting from the policy choice.

Quotas for women are explicit requirements of a number of fixed seats that have to be

reserved for women in legislative assemblies. In Norway, out of 80 seats in the Parliament, 24

seats are reserved for women (Atlantic). In Pakistan, 60 seats are reserved for women in the

National Assembly and 128 seats, in total, in the Provincial Assemblies (Election Commission of

Pakistan). Because of its nature, the focus of this paper is the quotas in parliament. Being a Member

of Parliament means that one assumes a position of authority. An increase in social status is

accompanied by this position of authority whereby notions of honor and respect are attached to it.

Secondly, members of legislative assemblies are able to impact millions of people by

passing/blocking legislation on plethora of issues that directly affect them.

Moreover, the scope of this paper is narrowed to Pakistan because of the barriers that hinder

women’s participation in political processes. Pakistan is a developing country and like most

developing countries, it has a number of problems which create an environment that is hostile

towards women. For example due to low literacy rates, there is less awareness about issues such

as women’s rights. According to the World Economic Forum, the gender gap index puts Pakistan

in the second-last place (Dawn). Women find it extremely difficult to get elected on general seats.

Firstly, because of the general perception men have of women. The role that women ought to

occupy is of a domestic one where their responsibilities lie to the confines of their home such as

taking care of their husband and children. They are unlikely to be welcomed in public spaces,

especially ones which are dominated by men and have the authority of making decisions that
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impact the nation. Because people are less likely to vote for women to allow them to enter

masculine spaces, the chances of them getting elected are further reduced. Therefore, political

parties are disincentivized to give them tickets to contest the elections.

In addition to that, a big aspect of politics in Pakistan is its feudal nature. Landlords are

likely to get elected because of their ability to amass power by accumulating land. Having land

allows politicians to give patronage to influential party leaders in exchange for tickets. Moreover,

land is a status symbol which allows a cult of personality to be created around the landowner,

thereby making them more popular and electable. Lastly, in rural areas, families either work on

land or are tenants for landlords. They are likely to vote for the owners of their lands because of

their allegiance to them. Because women have been economically disenfranchised, for example

through inheritance laws which declare that a woman’s share in land is half of that of a man, they

own a negligible amount of land in comparison. Therefore, men have an unfair advantage over

women. As a result of this, men are also able to spend huge sums of money on their election

campaigns. They are able to have large rallies, long advertisements on television and flashy

campaigns, drastically increasing their electability.

The first main argument made in favor of gender quotas is that female friendly policies are

likely to come to the forefront. In the context of Pakistan, it is very important to take into note the

lack of legislature and policy that exists to protect women and provide them with the rights that

they need to alleviate their social and economic position. This is partially due to the fact that policy

making bodies are usually dominated by men and hence quite often issues pertaining to women

and their social upheaval are ignored. This is due to the fact that men never actually experience

most of the issues that women have to face such as harassment, gender based discrimination and

domestic abuse. For example, a proposal submitted in January 2016, asking for harsher
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punishments for arranged child marriages, an issue that primarily target women with 31 percent

women being married below the age of 18, was shot down (Human Rights Watch, 2017). The state

has also, despite being prompted repeatedly, have failed to address concerns of Hindu and

Christian women being forcibly converted to Islam. As it has already been established, assemblies

without women quota seats are usually dominated by men and hence are never really focused on

solving problems pertaining to women. Hence by having reserved seats for women in provincial

and national assemblies, the state at all times can ensure that there are a significant number of

women present in the policy making process. These women then can bring to light many of the

issues that are peculiar to women and can hence drive the solutions forward and come up with

policies that actively look out for these previously disenfranchised women.

Secondly, gender quotas help empower women in Pakistan by defeating the social narrative

that women cannot and should not be in positions of power. This kind of a thinking primarily stems

from the assumption that women by virtue of being the ‘inferior gender’ do not have the

competence needed to perform in many of the positions that practice power and that women lack

a basic understanding of the real world and its complicated affairs to perform well in any

empowered position. This kind of a mindset is particular prevalent in the context of Pakistan which

is a country where the patriarchy is still very much unchallenged. When the assemblies of Pakistan

then require a particular number of women to be in assembly at all times, it challenges the very

concept of women not being able to hold positions of power. This is further aided by the fact that

assemblies and its member are in the spotlight for the entire country and are people who are

recognized for their competence and for the respect they demand. There is a certain prestige

attached to politically empowered positions which the assembly entails. When there is a particular

number of women in these positions, it counters the narrative that women are incapable of holding
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these positions and on some level forces society to move past the contract that women cannot rise

to such positions. Hence, this helps in challenging one of the main barriers for women which are

these social contracts and taboos by employing the policy for reserved seats in assemblies.

Thirdly, with the employment of gender quotas in national and provincial assemblies of

Pakistan, women are accepted and promoted as role models for other females aspiring to enter this

field. A very prevalent problems in most sexist societies is the fact that women usually are heavily

deterred from coming up in most professional fields. This is on account on factors like that there

is a sheer lack of female role models in these fields of work. This primarily applies to the political

sphere. The political arena is very dependent of variables like monetary benefits and social capital,

these are both variables that are tilted towards men and disenfranchise women and hence men are

always able to have more of a dominating role in the political arena. Hence in a world where the

concept of reserved seats in the assemblies does not exist, the political arena will always have more

men in powerful positions than women. This leads to a lack of female role models for other women

who have the ambitions to come up in this sphere of work and hence these women due to the fear

that they have no prospects of vertical mobility, then end up being very reluctant to take up these

careers. Now in a world where there are a significant number of women in assemblies at all times,

leads to women having more female figure heads to look up to when they have the ambitions to

come up in the political arena. This will lead to younger women to assume that there are better

prospects for them if they pursue a career in the political field of work. This will in turn lead to

more women coming up in the political arena and will holistic up in the social and economic

upheaval of women.

The final reason why promotion of gender quotas will have positive impacts within the

Pakistani society is that women will now be stakeholders in a wide variety of issues. From a very
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early age, girls are not encouraged to have knowledge about politics or business or administration

as they are told to ‘leave these issues to men’. Neither are they allowed to partake in political and

economic discussions that usually take place in the drawing rooms of their house. These attitudes

discourage women from forming opinions on matters that are happening around the, simply

because they are made to believe that they are not competent enough for their opinion to matter.

Now when you have women standing up in the parliament and debating issues on various policies

and bills relating to taxation, development budget, education, federal and provincial security etc.

it sends a message that their voices are of importance while deciding on these issues (Dawn). With

their presence in assemblies forming an important voice over issues, social narratives surrounding

women that they not competent enough to know or think about certain issues will be challenged

when women are taking an active part to debate or disagree on recommendations proposed on a

provincial or national level.

On the other side of the spectrum, however, it is argued that gender quotas in provincial

and national assemblies should not be applied based on barriers that exist limiting their

effectiveness and ability to bring any of the positive changes argued above. The first argument

against quotas is that even with these reserved seats, women act as puppets and extensions of their

male counterparts via patronage systems that exist. Since women lack the resources and political

clout to win on the general seats, they usually have to depend on party backing and have to side

on issues according to party lines. This means that the party leaders, which consist of men, dictate

the way these women politicians take a stand in the assembly (UNDP Report). Because they are

seen as incompetent and dependent on the party echelons, they lack individual voices and have

little or no say in how they vote on bills as compared to their male colleagues who can take

decisions along the lines they think will benefit the party. As a result, women do not develop any
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political skills and administrative capability for bringing about a change since they do not have

any room to exercise their independent judgements or push for change.

Secondly, women politicians who are elected on reserved seats have an inadequate capacity

to bring about change. In the national assembly, women have 60 reserved seats as compared to

272 general seats and in the provincial assembly, they have 128 allocated seats as compared to 600

general ones (Election Commission of Pakistan). Because these general seats are mostly occupied

by men, this results in female politicians who hold reserves seats as outnumbered. This hinders

their ability to sway a bill in their favor or act as a strong opposition against one just because they

are a minority within the assemblies. Another reason why they are not able to bring about change

is because even when they hold a constituency, they are not allocated necessary funds to develop

it. The importance of these funds is not only that development of health, education and municipal

avenues is undertaken in various constituencies, but it also allows a support base network to be

developed which can be used in the future to win votes. Nafisa Shah, a PPP reserved seat member,

led a vocal outcry about how women are hardly ever given any share in development budgets

because the government does not believe they need to establish their constituencies. Hence,

because of the challenges of being outnumbered and not being provided with developmental

resources, women who come on quota seats face major hurdles towards effective ability to bring

about amendments.

Another reason why Quota seats may not be an effective policy choice is because they

delegitimize their candidate. There is a general stigma associated with quota seats as others

members of parliament, primarily men, view them as not having undergone the same test of

election as them and thus less deserving of their position in parliament. They view these members

as having been ‘gifted’ their seat by the party and as such do not respect their position as a member
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of parliament. This translates into these women not being taken seriously and their work and efforts

as a parliamentarian are compromised. They are likely to be taken less seriously and as such are

not able to perform their duties to the best of their ability. For example, members of government

often dismiss justified opposition made by female members of parliament by making ad hominem

attacks against their character and ability. As such, reserved seats for women are used as tools by

misogynist men to weaken the general reputation and narrative of women in politics.

Perhaps the most important reason why there should not be a Quota for women in

parliament is that it goes against democratic principles. Democracy in its purest form ordains the

maximum possible representation of citizens that can exist. Putting controls like quotas hinders

this representation. This sentiment has been echoed by prominent political leaders like Imran Khan

when he states “Legislators in assemblies are representatives of the people. How can some women

be representative of women when they haven’t even contested elections?” (Tribune). Robbing

people of their right to elect their own representatives can be trouble in in certain constituencies

where some people might have problems against the female candidate which has been elected in

their constituency. Moreover, because these candidates don’t have to actively campaign to the

general population to gain their seat, they are not able to form a link with their constituents. This

means their constituents are less likely to approach their representative in cases where they may

need their help, a practice which is very common in politics within South Asia. Furthermore,

constituents are also unable to hold these legislators accountable for their performance, another

core tenet of democracy. Their re-nomination depends on their position within their party, not their

performance and policy making during their term.

Quotas within parliament are a heavily debated topic. We have outlined multiple pros and

cons of having these quotas, but it is important to weigh these arguments against themselves and
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judge which of them are more important. The arguments against quotas detail how these female

MNAs and MPAs are unable to perform their duty to their utmost and how they may be pawns in

the hands of more powerful members. However, these arguments can be referred to as ‘mitigatory’,

meaning they do not entirely dispute the positive benefits achieved through quotas, they merely

mitigate some of it. There is still significant advantage to be gained from having women in

parliament and if reserved seats are the way to achieve them, they must be used. Moreover, the

principle of female representation can be better achieved by implementing reforms suggested by

experts and female rights groups. There is a call for the Political parties Act to be amended to

require all political parties to set a 33% quota for women in all party offices, leadership positions

and party tickets as well (Tribune). Moreover, women should be elected into parliament through

direct voting by having constituencies where only women are allowed to contest elections. There

needs to be an endogenous movement from parties to increase the representation and condition of

women in politics. Until we see such changes, quotas will have to serve as the mechanism by

which female representation is guaranteed.

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