A total of 42 women candidates are participating on 15 national and 27 provincial assembly seats of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in the upcoming general elections.
A large number of women are participating on general seats first time in the country’s history. KP and FATA have 47 national and 99 provincial assembly seats.
As many as 80 percent women are contesting polls as independent while, 20 percent having party tickets of the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarian (PPPP), the Awami National Party (ANP), the Qaumi Watan Party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, the Tehreek Masawat, the Pakistan Tehreek-Insaf, and the PML-Quaid.
All political parties have reposed confidence on women candidates and awarded tickets.
In the past, women were only to participate in the elections from KP, including former PM Benazir Bhutto, Begum Nasim Wali Khan, Musarrat Shaheen, Ghazala Habib Tanoli.
Nasim Wali Khan is not participating in the elections this time.
According to latest statistics of women voters issued by the ECP, a total of 5,257,624 female voters have been registered in KP and in FATA, 596,079 women voters.
