Ten of the 16 National Assembly (NA) constituencies in Balochistan province recorded a voter registration gender gap exceeding the legally permissible threshold of 10 percent, according to the constituency-wise electoral rolls published by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on 3 February 2026.
During the 2018 general elections, the voter registration gender gap in all 16 NA constituencies of Balochistan exceeded 10 percent — a rate of 100 percent, the highest recorded in any province in the country in that election. Balochistan at that time accounted for 8.7 percent of the 173 non-compliant NA constituencies recorded nationwide, despite holding only 5.5 percent of total NA seats. These figures underscored the pervasive and systemic nature of the electoral gender disparity across the province.
Read FAFEN’s story: Sindh Still Has 10 Constituencies Above 10% Threshold
By the time of the 2024 general elections, four constituencies had reduced their gender gap below the legal threshold, bringing the number of non-compliant NA constituencies in Balochistan down from 15 to 11 — or 73.3 percent of the province’s total NA seats. Nationally, the number of non-compliant NA constituencies had fallen sharply from 173 to 38 between 2018 and 2024. Balochistan’s 11 non-compliant constituencies represented 28.9 percent of the 38 non-compliant constituencies recorded nationally — a substantial increase in the province’s share of the national total, reflecting the fact that improvement across the country had been far more rapid elsewhere than in Balochistan.
The post-2024 period has yielded only marginal improvement. According to the most recent data published by the ECP, only one additional constituency reduced its gender gap below the legal threshold following the 2024 general elections, bringing the current number of non-compliant NA constituencies to 10 — representing 66.7 percent of Balochistan’s total NA seats. Nationally, the number of non-compliant NA constituencies stands at 23. Balochistan’s 10 non-compliant constituencies now account for 43.5 percent of all non-compliant NA constituencies in the country — despite the province holding only 5.6 percent of total NA seats. Only five of Balochistan’s 16 NA constituencies — 33.3 percent — now record a gender gap at or below the legal threshold.
While the overall trajectory reflects a gradual decline from more than 90 percent of NA constituencies above the threshold in 2018 to 66.7 percent in 2026, the pace of progress remains deeply inadequate. The reduction of only one constituency since the 2024 elections represents the slowest post-election improvement recorded in the province across the three data points. The persistence of non-compliance in 10 constituencies, and Balochistan’s growing share of the national non-compliant total, is a stark reflection of entrenched structural, administrative, and sociocultural barriers that continue to obstruct women’s equitable inclusion in the electoral process in the province.
Read FAFEN’s story: Gender-Gap Exceeds Legal Limit in 23 NA Constituencies
What the Elections Act Requires
The continued presence of a gap of this nature underscores the need for sustained institutional action. Section 47(1) of the Elections Act, 2017 requires the ECP to annually publish disaggregated data of registered male and female voters in each constituency and to highlight the difference in their numbers. Under Section 47(2), the Commission must take special measures in any constituency where this difference exceeds 10 percent, including measures to reduce this variation. Section 47(3) further specifies that these measures shall include action by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) to expedite National Identity Card (NIC) issuance for women in affected constituencies, and by the ECP to enrol them as voters in the relevant electoral area. This provision places a clear, joint institutional responsibility on both NADRA and the ECP to address the gender gap where it crosses the legal threshold.
These measures include targeted voter registration campaigns, NIC facilitation drives, and community-level outreach to address the barriers that continue to limit women’s registration. Consistent implementation of these provisions is critical to ensuring that the downward trend in the gender gap is sustained and accelerated in the electoral rolls ahead of the next general elections.
Read FAFEN’s Story: 54% of Pakistan’s Population Is Registered as Voters
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