Pakistan EC summons leaders of several parties for not fielding minimum 5 per cent women candidates

Islamabad, Aug 28 (PTI) Pakistan's election commission has summoned the leaders of several political parties to appear before it on September 4 over their failure to allocate at least five per cent of the party tickets to women candidates in the February 8 general elections, a media report said on Wednesday.
     The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) issued notices to heads of Jamat-e-Islami (JI), Awami National Party (ANP), Balochistan National Party (BNP), Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), and 10 other parties for not adhering to the legal requirement, The Express Tribune newspaper reported.
     Political parties in Pakistan are mandated to field a minimum of five per cent of women candidates for general seats in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies under Section 206 of the Election Act.
     The party leaders have been asked to appear before the ECP on September 4 to address the issue, the report said.
     The February 8 elections were marred by allegations of widespread rigging mainly by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
     Independent candidates — a majority backed by Khan’s PTI party — won 93 of the 265 National Assembly seats that were contested. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) won 75 seats while the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) came third with 54 seats.
     On March 4, Shehbaz Sharif took the oath as Prime Minister of Pakistan, assuming the cash-strapped country's reins for a second time after he agreed on a power-sharing deal to form a coalition government with Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s PPP and other smaller parties.
     Besides the PPP, Shehbaz was backed by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM-P), Pakistan Muslim League (Q), Balochistan Awami Party, Pakistan Muslim League (Z), Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party and the National Party.
     Shehbaz earlier served as prime minister of a coalition government from April 2022 to August 2023.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)