A national conference organized by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in partnership with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom on Tuesday-Pakistan (FNF) called for extensive reforms to improve the political and electoral participation of marginalized groups, including women, persons with disabilities, transgender persons, and religious minorities. In his welcome address, HRCP secretary-general Harris Khalique emphasized that all marginalized groups must be brought into the political mainstream to move towards empowerment. He also underscored the necessity of a level playing field for voters as well as candidates. Birgit Lamm, head of FNF’s Pakistan office, introduced the conference by highlighting the importance of free and fair elections to underpin the legitimacy of governments. In the first session, transgender rights activist Dr. Mehrub Moiz Awan said that electoral participation for marginalized groups must be grounded in genuine solidarity rather than in the politics of sympathy. Former speaker of the Balochistan Assembly, Rahila Durrani, recommended special political academies to empower women to contest general elections and encourage political engagement. In the second session, former HRCP chairperson Afrasiab Khattak shed light on the duality in Pakistan’s constitutional and legal frameworks regarding marginalized groups, whereby the principle of equality is contradicted by laws that undermine it. Researcher Dr. Naazir Mahmood expanded on the role of educational curricula in peddling skewed perspectives of Pakistan’s political history, thus steadily depoliticizing the electorate. Discriminatory laws must also be revoked, and constitutional guarantees must be instituted for marginalized groups to be adequately represented in parliament.