Women Empowerment and Political Democratization in Pakistan with reference to General Parvez Musharraf Regime

Abstract

This article studies the predicament of women’s rights in Pakistan. Analysing the policies related to women rights given by the successive governments in the ruling era of General Pervaiz Musharraf, this study finds that despite the scarce resources, Pakistan and the policies for women empowerment and development had potential to produce good results but they failed to deliver due to lack of political will of the previous governments to implement those policies and to establish the goal of universal education especially for women. The Zia Regime had effected and harmed women’s rights; therefore he had neglected the 51% population i.e. women of the country which portrayed the very negative image of the country to the world. The democratic governments of post-Zia period worked positively in this direction since they required women vote which constituted half of the franchise. The government of General Pervaiz Musharraf promoted women development and empowerment sector f and showed strong will towards promoting women’s right. This study concludes that goal of women’s rights could only be achieved with forceful political will of the government. Social issue that earned the Musharraf regime a great deal of prominence is the Empowerment of Women. Women empowerment received the much deserved spotlight during Musharraf's era as this agenda was considered one of the major building blocks for economically stable and progressive Pakistan. General Pervaiz Musharraf was very much concerned towards the better and soft image of Pakistan in the world. He introduced laws and repealed the discriminatory laws towards women. Pervaiz Musharraf tried his level best to brand the positive image of the country in the world with new laws and reforms being introduced, this was considered as a golden era in context of legislation made for women empowerment in Pakistan. The steps taken can be broadly categorized into two sets i.e. Political and Economic Women Empowerment and Legal and Social Women Empowerment.

Key Words: Women Empowerment, Social, Political, Economic,