ISLAMABAD: A proposal to amend the Constitution has been submitted in the National Assembly, aiming to abolish the 192 reserved seats allocated for women in both the national and provincial legislatures.
The constitutional amendment bill was introduced by opposition member Aslam Ghuman. It proposes changes to Articles 51 and 106 of the Constitution, which currently specify reserved seats for women in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies.
Presently, Article 51 guarantees 60 reserved seats for women in the National Assembly, distributed as follows: four for Balochistan, ten for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 32 for Punjab, and 14 for Sindh. The proposed amendment suggests that, for these reserved seats, each province and the federal government should be divided into constituencies, and members for these seats should be elected directly by voters in these constituencies, through free and fair elections as per the law.
Similarly, the bill seeks revisions to Article 106 concerning reserved seats for women in provincial assemblies. Currently, Balochistan has 11, Punjab 66, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 26, and Sindh 29 reserved seats for women. The proposed changes would allocate constituencies to each province based on the new criteria, and direct elections would be conducted for these seats in accordance with legal provisions.
The bill is now under review in the National Assembly for further deliberation.
