Punjab has narrowest, Balochistan widest voter gender gap

By Mumtaz Alvi
December 19, 2023

ISLAMABAD: Punjab stands out with the narrowest voter gender gap among the four federating units, as the total number of voters, which stood at 105.96 million back in 2018, has jumped to 128.56 million on December 13, 2023, registering an increase of well over 20 million voters in five years.

According to the latest data, released by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), there are 39,122,082 (53.44pc) registered male voters and 34,085814 (46.56pc) female voters in Punjab, having a total of 73,207,896 voters.

A woman casts her vote during general election at a polling station in Islamabad. — AFP/File
A woman casts her vote during general election at a polling station in Islamabad. — AFP/File

However, Islamabad Capital Territory has left behind even the country’s largest province (Punjab) in terms of minimum difference of number of male and female voters, as per the latest statistics, which show that 56,406 (52.48pc) are males and 51,4623 (47.52pc) are females and their overall number is 10,83029.

Coming back to provinces, Sindh has an overall strength of 26,994,769 voters, and among these, 14,612,655 (54.13pc) are male and 12,382,114 (45.87pc) are female registered voters.

In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP), there are 11,944,397 (54.47pc) male and 99,83,722 (45.53pc) female voters, bringing the overall database of registered voters in the province to 21,928,119 voters.

In total contrast to Punjab, Balochistan has the widest gender gap with 30,16,164 (56.15pc) male and 23,55,783 (43.85pc) female voters, bringing the overall voters strength to 53,71,947 voters in Pakistan’s area-wise largest and population-wise smallest province.

Keeping in view these statistics, Punjab has a share of difference of over five million, followed by Sindh with 2.24 million, KP with 1.96 million and Balochistan with 0.660 million among male and female registered voters.

For diverse reasons, the most alarming gender gap of voters is recorded in erstwhile tribal area called South Waziristan (Lower), where the percentage of women among voters is just 34.54pc. However, in South Waziristan (Upper) women, account for 44.63pc of the voters.

Likewise, in North Waziristan (another erstwhile locality of the tribal areas), the percentage stands at 42.09pc: female voters percentage in Mohmand is 42.41pc, Hangu 43.98pc, Upper Dir 44.59pc, and Lower Dir 44.67pc.

Quite opposite to these districts, Haripur and Kohistan are the only two districts of the province, which have over 47pc of total registered women voters.