What does women’s priority lists of PPP-P, PML-N indicate?

LAHORE  -   The Election Commission of Pakistan Sunday issued the priority lists sub­mitted by different political parties in respect of the seats reserved from women in the National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies. 

The priority list of the Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPP-P) for reserved seats for wom­en in the National Assembly from Punjab province comprises only six names. This suggests that the party, rooted in the legacy of the Bhutto family, does not anticipate winning a substantial number of seats from this prov­ince. According to election regulations, the allocation of wom­en seats for any As­sembly is proportion­al to the number of general seats secured by a political party in the general elections. In the case of the Na­tional Assembly, ev­ery four general seats (round figure) won by a party result in one reserved seat for women. While a re­vised list can be sub­mitted after the elec­tions, should a party surpass its initial ex­pectations in terms of general seats won, the preliminary list serves as an indication of the party’s self-assess­ment of the expect­ed election outcomes. For instance, if the PPP secures approx­imately 26 to 28 Na­tional Assembly seats from Punjab, it would be entitled to six re­served seats for wom­en. In contrast, the PML-N has submit­ted a list of 20 wom­en candidates to the Election Commission of Pakistan. Based on the seat allocation for­mula for women seats, the PML-N anticipates winning around 90 to 95 general seats from Punjab. The PPP wom­en’s list includes nota­ble names such as Hina Rabbani Khar, Samina Khalid Ghurki, Nata­sha Daultana, Neelam Jabbar Ch, Shahgufta Chaudhry, and Sye­da Samana Raza. The PML-N’s priority list features candidates like Tahira Aurangzeb, Shaista Pervaiz, Mar­riyum Aurangzeb, Nu­zhat Sadiq, Mussarat Asif Khawaja, Seema Jillani, Shahza Khawa­ja, Romina Khurshid Alam, Wajiha Qamar, Zeb Jaffar, Kiran Dar, Anusha Rehman Khan, Zehra Wadood Fatemi, Asiya Naz Tanoli, Saba Sadiq, Farah Naz Ak­bar, Shahnaz Saleem, Muneeba Iqbal, Iffat Naeem, and Tamkeen Akhtar Niazi.