Gender Quota and Women’s Political Participation in Pakistan: A Case of General Elections 2002

The paper aims to critically evaluate the impact of gender quota on women’s participation in the 2002 general elections. For this purpose, the study has analyzed overall participation of women as candidates and subsequent success as legislator. Women legislators’ level of education, profession, age, and previous political and parliamentary experience have also been calculated. Data have been collected from official websites of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and National Assembly (NA). Several studies and reports have also been consulted. The findings of the study have supported this arguments and revealed that increased number of seats have benefitted women of upper strata as traditional culture is not accustomed to deliver opportunity to all segments of society. However, exceptional cases are always there.