LAHORE: Begum Farhat Rafique, mother of Khawaja Saad Rafique and Khawaja Salman Rafique, was the first woman to be elected from the provincial capital Lahore in a general election in 1985.
Begum Farhat Khawaja Rafique had been a member of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab between 1985 and 1988 while former prime minister Benazir Bhutto became the first female Member of National Assembly (MNA) to be elected from Lahore in 1988.
From 1970 until 2023, a number of female politicians were elected as MNAs from Lahore. These included Begum Kalsoom Nawaz, Shazia Mubashir, Samina Ghurki, and Shaista Pervaiz Malik.
Farhat Rafique got elected as MPA in the 1985 non-party basis elections from the walled city area from where her both sons — Saad and Salman have also served as MNA and MPA respectively. Her husband Khawaja Muhammad Rafique, who was known as a very active campaigner against PPP founder Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, also contested the National Assembly election from Lahore in 1970 but lost.
Similarly, when it comes to being the first ever NA seat winner from Lahore, it is slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto who won from NA-94 in the year 1988 after defeating Mian Umer Hayat. Benazir vacated this seat which the PPP later lost in the by-polls.
Samina Khalid Ghurki of PPP remains the only woman who won two consecutive National Assembly elections from Lahore — in 2002 and 2008. Begum Kalsoom Nawaz and Shaista Pervaiz Malik won the National Assembly seats in by-elections. However, Shaista Pervaiz Malik enjoys a unique distinction of winning the National Assembly seat while she was already a member of NA on a reserved seat.
Begum Rehana Jamil is another woman who got elected in the general elections from Lahore for a Punjab Assembly seat in 2002. She got elected MPA on a PML-N ticket. Shazia Mubashir, the PML-N ticket holder got elected from NA-129 in the 2013 by-elections. Three women who got elected as MNAs in the by-elections include Shazia Mubashir, Begum Kalsoom Nawaz and Shaista Pervaiz Malik.
