The National Assembly of Pakistan has a total of 342 members, including 60 seats reserved for women, as per Article 51. Although Pakistan fairs much better than the composition of quite a few parliaments around the world, the apathy towards encouraging women to run for general seats as well as an opposition to even encouraging participation in voting remains surprising for a country that gave the Muslim world its first woman prime minister. With the next general elections approaching in approximately a year, not much effort has been made by the Parliament to increase the participation of women voters. A proposal to order re-election in any constituency where women have cast less than 10 percent of the vote has been under discussion for a while now but is being resisted by the JUI-F and the Jamaat-i-Islami. Both parties claim that the measure is akin to forcing women to vote and such measures must be avoided. The problem is not restricted to the religiously conservative parties. Following the 2013 general elections, as well as the 2015 by-elections, reports had emerged of an alliance — signed by the representatives of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), Awami National Party (ANP) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) — in Upper and Lower Dir to bar women from voting. Keeping these precedents in mind and the general hindrances to women’s political participation in the country, it makes perfect sense for there to be a requirement that a minimum threshold of women’s votes must be present in any election for it to be considered fair and representative. In fact, the 10 percent proposal is still very low, but it might make for a start in combating the extremely patriarchal culture in Pakistan. The latest figures of registered voters released by the Election Commission of Pakistan last month, indicate that Pakistan has a total of around 97m registered voters of which women voters are around 42.42m: which translates to a little less than 44pc of the total number of voters. Democracy in Pakistan can never prosper, or even properly exist, unless it represents women as much as it does men. *