Women as Voters and Candidates: A Critical Analysis of Electoral Inclusion in KP under Post-Musharraf Democratic Governments
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55737/trt/V24.170Keywords:
Women’s Political Participation, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Post-Musharraf Era, Gender Inclusion Policies, Socio-Cultural BarriersAbstract
This paper will explore the relationship between women political participation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) throughout the post-Musharraf democracy period which has been characterized by massive political reorganization and institutionalization changes in Pakistan. With the advent of the democratic government through the military rule, new vistas of involvement were made available to the women in KP, although there were still structural strains that curtailed their involvement. This study discusses how socio-cultural norms, patriarchal attitude and security issues interacted with changing political institutions to influence the role of women in electoral politics, party systems and the forums of decision making. In the analysis, the researcher will consider two major provincial governments, the Awami National Party (2008-2013), and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (2013-2018) who have put forward the measures in a bid to foster gender inclusion. The ANP government was concentrated in the area of legislative changes and symbolic representation, whereas the PTI administration was more concentrated on the areas of strengthening the institutions, development of the local governments, and increased delivery of the public services. In spite of these, the substantive political empowerment of women was crippled by the lack of proper policy implementation, low mobility and economic dependency. The qualitative research through the help of policy documents, election reports and scholarly works can observe the progress and the further challenges of women in political field of KP. Women as Voters and Candidates: A Critical Analysis of Electoral Inclusion in KP under Post-Musharraf Democratic Governments.
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