Women’s Participation in Local Government Elections 2021 in Tehsil Jamrud: Problems and Prospects

Abstract

Erstwhile FATA merger in 2018 no-doubt was the result of immediate response to counter the growing terrorism in the tribal belt of Pakistan. However, it was also the long awaited cry of the people as well to channelize the tribal areas in the line of mainstream politics and to counter the malaise of FCR reign. As a part of broader policy, the KP Local Government Act, 2013 was amended in 2019 to introduce for the first the local government representatives to uplift the politically alienated society from root level. To such end, local government elections were conducted in 2021. These elections were welcomed with enthusiasm by majority section of the society. However, the participation of women in especially Tehsil Jamrud has faced many problems ranging from socio-political to administrative lapses. Generally, like most of the Pakistan’s societies, the social traditions, lack of social and political know-how, lack of information about the power and functions of local government authorities, voting process difficulties, socio-politically strong families and in some cases the dominant religious narratives played the major role in hindering the women participation both as a voter and candidate in local government elections, 2021. However, some specific trends like joint family structure was found politically divided and apolitical competition within the same clan was used as tool hindering the women’s participation in local government elections 2021. This research is an attempt to initiate a constructive dialogue within academia and policymakers to highlight the challenges on different level with pragmatic steps to follow. Methodologically, this study is qualitative in nature and to meet such ends open-ended questions interviews were conducted to acquire the primary data.