POLITICAL PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN: A POLICY PERSPECTIVE ANALYSIS IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

 The problems surrounding political participation of women have gained huge attention of political and academic forums in the recent years. Several countries, thus, have generally focused on increasing women's participation in politics through inclusion of quotas in electoral and political processes. To address this concern, a number of countries has went through a process of legislation. Nonetheless, Pakistan is one of those countries which has consistently shown a polite and laid-back attitude to women's issues. This appears that the process of participatory policy formulation has not been taken up with respect to women empowerment. This paper attempts specifically to address the policy-making process and environment regarding the political participation of women in Pakistan. This inquires gender-neutral policies which help women gain an equal opportunities of participation in development. The study demonstrates and underscores that women's meaningful political engagement is ensured by their involvement in the policy-making process. It further elaborates that Pakistan’s political system gave women a place thanks to its efforts to gender equality, such as its quota system. To construe this discussion, the normative approach is employed to elaboration the qualitative data, yet to explain political participation of women some quantitative data also becomes a part of discussion.