They also feel that it is difficult for women and female advocates in Pakistan to single-handedly run an election campaign, which requires money, extensive travelling and a lot of public interaction. In these systems, the Women will not be contesting against male candidates who usually have the advantage of more financial resources, ability to travel freely and experience in dealing with the public, and their financial outlay will also be significantly less since they can, when general elections are being held, share resources With their party’s general candidates from the same constituencies. Yet another system for enhancing women's and female advocates in Pakistan political representation is that of making it legally mandatory for political parties to allot a certain minimum percentage of its tickets to women for elections to the national and provincial assemblies. The main advantage of the system is that it would speed up the process of mainstreaming women by bringing them in through the general elections infringement of their right to run their affairs without interference. Legally, it should require a constitutional amendment to ensure that it is not challenged.
There is no guarantee of women coming in through this system, if parties want intentions of the system; they could do so by allotting women tickets in constituencies where their parties have minimal strength. The system would be more suitable in conjunction with another system. Necessary to point out here that none of the systems discussed is without some drawback.
There can be no ideal solution to a complex problem in a situation where inequities exist at every level. At best, these are ways of improving upon the current situation and speeding up the reviewed and revised as necessary, this should not be used as an excuse to postpone taking us to effectively ensure meaningful representation of women and female advocates in Pakistan in all legislative bodies, using the Senate. The modality for the Senate would, obviously, have to be different since the pre electoral process for the Upper House is different. The rule of the one-third representation could apply nevertheless.
The importance of the issue cannot be minimized. The women of Pakistan have been virtually unrepresented in the past. There is no justification for any further delay. In fact, their immediate presence in the assemblies is essential for due attention and action to be initiated on the recommendations of this report. It must also be pointed out that halt-hearted efforts will serve no purpose. The sooner strong action is taken, the sooner will it be possible to gradually phase out the system of special reservation, which is only meant as an interim measure till its objectives have been achieved. POSS or mainstreaming women's political participation and representation, which can be one final issue that must be addressed, is that of women's and female advocates in Pakistan representation in local bodies. Local bodies are a critical tier of government, in which people at the grassroots level can play an effective and meaningful role in developing a democratic culture. For women, this is the political arena most accessible to them and one in which they can participate with greater familiarity and confidence. As in other elective bodies, the principle of 33% reservation of seats and a system of direct elections by both men and women should be instituted. Earlier laws relating to local bodies provided for a 10% quota for women, through the same indirect system of election by elected members.
