“Just wait and see,” the supporters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf said when asked to account for the fact that the party had not nominated very many female candidates for the general election. After the vote, they highlighted the election of Zartaj Gul Wazir in the conservative Waziristan area, where she unseated a long-time favorite, as evidence that women would have a prominent role in “Naya Pakistan.”

Many people suggested Dr. Yasmin Rashid as a possible chief minister for the province of Punjab, an appointment that would have made her the first woman to hold the job. Others suggested Shireen Mazari as the next federal minister for defense or foreign affairs. Things, it seemed, would be better for Pakistani women in politics under the PTI-led government.

The release last week of the list of federal and provincial cabinet ministers dashed some of these hopes. In the federal cabinet, out of 21 ministers only three are women. PTI’s Mazari is the human rights minister, Zubeida Jalal of the Balochistan Awami Party has the novel sounding portfolio of “defense production,” and Dr. Fehmida Mirza of the Grand Democratic Alliance will be in charge of “inter-provincial co-ordination.”

And the fact that only three out of 21 cabinet posts — the rest of which include more crucial portfolios such as defense, education, foreign affairs, and the interior — were given to women instead of men, is the good news.

The bad news comes from the two provinces in which PTI has formed a government. According to the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFAN), an independent organization that monitors elections in Pakistan, in the Punjab Assembly — where PTI won 175 seats: 138 general seats, plus 33 reserved for women and four reserved for minorities — the party has appointed only one female minister. The ministerial list includes portfolios for school education, irrigation, labor and manpower, youth affairs, industry, commerce and development. Not one of them was allotted to a woman. In some cases men, including Malik Nouman Langrial, have been appointed as ministers but not yet given a portfolio. Even Dr. Yasmeen Rashid's appointment appears to be an afterthought meant to thwart criticism rather than reward achievement.

A similar tragedy seems to have taken place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province governed by PTI even before the 2018 general election. According to FAFEN, PTI won 58 general seats in the KP Provincial Assembly, plus 14 reserved for women and two reserved for minorities, making a total of 74 seats. Despite this large number of seats, and the fact that one of the party’s candidates, Zartaj Gul Wazir, won not a reserved seat for women but a general seat, not a single woman was appointed to a ministerial post. The list of ministerial appointments released recently showed that while ministers were appointed for the likes of law, irrigation, food and education, not a single woman was good enough in the eyes of the PTI to be designated a minister. Even areas such as education, traditionally considered more female-friendly in Pakistan, were given to men.

When women win electoral contests and gain high-profile roles, not only are they able to better understand the concerns of half of the population, they also serve as role models that can inspire other women to take similar leaps forward.

Rafia Zakaria

This situation is troubling because it continues to follow a trend in PTI that party leaders said they would reverse. Prior to the election, the party faced criticism for the fact that it had given fewer tickets to female members than other parties, such as the Pakistan Peoples Party. The roles given to women such as Shireen Mazari and Dr. Yasmin Rashid were both held up as evidence that PTI would give women a more visible presence in the future. While both women remain in the party, their stature seems somewhat diminished given that coalition partners, scions of powerful political families, and other men near and dear to the leaders of PTI have quickly stepped up to the plate to grab the most powerful positions.

Women make up half of Pakistan’s population, but they voted in far fewer numbers than men. Electoral reporting requirements that would void elections in constituencies where less than 10 percent of women voted at least ensured that they were not banned from voting, but the number of women who vote in elections and the ascent and visibility of the women who get elected are interconnected.

When women win electoral contests and gain high-profile roles, not only are they able to better understand the concerns of half of the population — the half that usually gets ignored and forgotten — they also serve as role models that can inspire other women to take similar leaps forward. Politics stops being the realm of men, and begins to truly look like the realm of representation.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf can still make this happen. There is no limit to the number of ministers that can be appointed in the provinces of KP and Punjab, or even in the federal government. The complete absence of women from the cabinets of the two provinces gives the impression that PTI does not think women are capable of political leadership.

If they want to correct this impression, the path before them is simple and obvious. All they need to do is appoint some of the many dozens of women representatives in the Punjab and KP legislatures to ministerial positions, so that they oversee some of the many agencies in either province.

While true proportionality would suggest the target should be 50 percent representation, even 10 or 15 percent would be better than the zero representation that is the situation now.

Rafia Zakaria is the author of “The Upstairs Wife: An Intimate History of Pakistan” and “Veil.” She writes regularly for The Guardian, the Boston Review, the New Republic, the New York Times Book Review and many other publications.

Twitter: @rafiazakaria