Women agency and provincial autonomy: a study of post-18th Amendment local government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Authors

Abida Bano Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan | Institute of Asian and African Studies (IAAW), Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3918-5981
Aisha Alam Department of Gender Studies, University of Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47264/idea.jhsms/5.1.11

Keywords:

Political participation, Women empowerment, Informal rules, Patriarchal society, 18th Amendment, Devolution of power, Local government, Political power

Abstract

The 18th Amendment to the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan, a significant milestone in the country's political landscape, granted the provinces certain political and fiscal powers. This included the right to pass local government legislation and hold local government elections. In the 2015 local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a remarkable number of women were elected to local councils on gender quota seats (33%). This was a clear testament to the empowering potential of the 18th Amendment. However, despite this progress, the underrepresentation of women in decision-making processes remains a pressing issue. This paper aims to answer how provincial autonomy has contributed to the autonomy and agency of women councillors in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The study collected data from purposively selected districts, Nowshera, Haripur, and Kohat, through individual interviews using qualitative approaches. The paper strongly advocates that the participation of women councillors in local government necessitates more stringent policy reforms to make the local councils more inclusive towards women as representatives. This stance is crucial and imperative for women's political autonomy and empowerment.

Author Biographies

Abida Bano, Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan | Institute of Asian and African Studies (IAAW), Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany.

Dr Abida Bano is a senior faculty member of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Peshawar. She teaches courses on Fieldwork in Conflict Zones, Liberal and Indigenous perspectives on peacebuilding, War on Terror, Gender, Peace and Security. She has a Fulbright PhD in Political science, specialising in Comparative Politics and Political Theory. Dr Bano has diverse research interests, including democratisation, civil society and social movements, formal and informal institutions, Women's representation in politics, Women and peacebuilding, terrorism and radicalisation, and Qualitative & multi-methods research. She holds certificates of methodologies training from the Institute of Qualitative and Multi-Method Research, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, NY., US. Currently, she is a Colibri research fellow at the Institute of Asian and African Studies (IAAW), Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin, where she is working on decolonising research methodologies and research ethics in conflict-sensitive settings and conceptual collaborations between the global North and South scholars.

Aisha Alam, Department of Gender Studies, University of Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan.

Aisha Alam is a senior faculty member of the Department of Gender Studies, University of Peshawar. She teaches courses on feminist theories, the feminist movement, gender and media and research methods. She is currently working on her PhD thesis on the topic of Climate change and its impact on women's daily lives in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

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Published

2024-08-18

How to Cite

Bano, A., & Alam, A. (2024). Women agency and provincial autonomy: a study of post-18th Amendment local government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Journal of Humanities, Social and Management Sciences (JHSMS), 5(1), 191–207. https://doi.org/10.47264/idea.jhsms/5.1.11