Female right to participate in election for vote casting; a dilemma; with special reference to southern Punjab

This study investigates the constraints that limit women’s participation in politics as a voter in southern areas of Punjab Pakistan, among these constraints are socio-economic and cultural in the main stream of this study. The study engages both primary and secondary sources, including field survey, personal interviews and questionnaire. A total of 600 women were selected from three divisions of southern Punjab including Dera ghazi khan, Multan and Bahawalpur through multi stage sampling technique for the administration of the questionnaires. The study reveals that the patriarchal system and male domination of the society, which relegates women to subordinate role, has created women’s inferiority complex and alienated them from the mainstream politics especially in the field of vote casting. Besides, the stigmatization of women politicians by fellow women discourages the political participation of the former while religious beliefs and institutional arrangements that restrict women to family responsibilities in the country coupled with lack of decisive affirmative action to encourage women’s political participation as a voter, have created a legacy that limit women’s political participation in southern Punjab respectively. Consequently, the study emphasizes the need to address those constraints that entrench women subordination in Pakistan especially in southern part of Punjab. These include, among others, the reformation of all religious, statutory and customary laws and practices that perpetuate women’s subordination in the country and the explicit specifications and modalities of affirmative actions on women’s political participation as a voter and clear guidelines for implementations in the constitution of Pakistan.