Political Empowerment of Women in Pakistan (1947-1988)

Abstract

Pakistan is an Islamic country, situated in south Asia having more than 49 percent women population according to last official census. This paper attempts to explore the steps taken by the respective governments from 1947 till 1988 for politically empowering women. The span of the study is divided into two section, pre and post 1971. This year 1971 is taken as bench mark year because it was in this year that Eastern part of the country liberated itself from the rest of the country on the ground of being politically deprived. This study attempts to answer the question that whether this separation resulted in increased political empowerment for female that remained in Pakistan after 1971. This separation was significant for the country as post-1971 now Pakistan had more than 96 percent Muslim population compared to nearly 70 percent in pre-1971. While going through the Assembly debates, promulgated legislations and newspaper clipping this study will reach to its conclusions. This paper while going the political developments in these years attempts to concludes that separation of East Pakistan resulted in overall increase in steps taken towards women political empowerment in Post-1971 Pakistan compared to the Pakistan that was prior to 1971.