Pakistan’s civil awards triple in nine years, but women’s share stays low

ISLAMABAD: The number of people receiving Pakistan’s civil awards has increased sharply over the past nine years, but the share of women among the recipients has remained almost unchanged, according to an analysis by economist Zehra Farooq.

Farooq, who has analysed civil award lists from 2018 to 2026, said she compiled all 2,209 awards announced during the nine-year period and examined each award by field, gender, level of award and nationality.

Her analysis shows that the number of award recipients increased more than three times during the period, rising from 73 people in 2018 to 372 in 2026.

However, the share of women receiving the awards did not show a similar increase.

Women made up between roughly 10% and 16% of civil award recipients in each year from 2018 to 2026.

Ms Farooq said the figures show that while the size of the annual awards lists changed greatly, the share of women remained within almost the same range.

The lowest share was around 10% in 2023, while the highest was 16% in 2018 and 2021. The share stood at 15% in 2024 before falling to 12% in 2025 and 11% in 2026.

Her analysis also looked at the figures after excluding gallantry awards.

Gallantry awards were kept separate because they mainly relate to military and police roles. Even after removing these awards, the overall share of women increased only from around 12% to 14%, according to the analysis.

This suggests that the low share of women is not limited to gallantry awards.

Farooq said the same pattern can also be seen in civilian awards.

Public service awards show a wider gap

The Public Service category is the largest civilian category in the dataset and shows a particularly large difference between men and women.

Among Pakistani recipients of Public Service awards, 295 were men and only 27 were women.

This means men received about 92% of these awards, while women received only around 8%.

Farooq noted that in several years, the entire Public Service list included only one or two women.

The figures raise questions about how women are represented among people being recognised for public service.

The analysis does not, however, establish why the gap exists.

Farooq suggested that one possibility worth examining is whether the awards reflect the existing structure of Pakistan’s civil bureaucracy.

She noted that the quota for women in the civil bureaucracy is around 10%, while the share of awards going to women remains below or around that level.

This raises a question about whether the civil awards are reflecting the existing gender structure in public institutions rather than creating a separate pattern of their own.

Major changes in fields

The analysis also found major changes in the fields represented in the civil award lists.

Science and engineering together accounted for close to one-third of the 2021 list.

However, by 2025 and 2026, the two fields together made up less than 2% of the list.

At the same time, some new categories appeared.

Information technology appeared as a category for the first time in 2021, while climate appeared in 2025.

Farooq said these changes raise questions about how the state decides which areas deserve recognition.

She asked whether the decline in science and engineering awards reflects fewer major contributions in these fields, fewer people entering these professions, or a change in the areas where the state looks for achievement.

The appearance of IT and climate-related awards also raises another question: whether official recognition is beginning to follow changes in the areas where Pakistan’s talent and work are growing.

Women receive fewer top-level awards

The analysis also examined the civil awards according to their level.

The awards are divided into different levels, with Nishan and Hilal at the senior end, followed by Sitara and Tamgha.

Ms Farooq found that the share of women becomes smaller as the level of the award becomes higher.

At the two highest levels, women account for less than 5% of recipients.

At the more common lower levels, the share of women is higher, generally ranging between 11% and 14%.

This means that the overall percentage of women receiving civil awards does not tell the full story.

Women may represent around 10% to 16% of all recipients in a year, but their representation becomes much smaller when only the highest-level honours are considered.

The findings therefore point to two separate issues: the overall number of women receiving civil awards and the level of recognition they receive.

Nine years provide a wider picture

Ms Farooq said looking at the awards over several years gives a clearer picture than looking at a single annual list.

The civil awards are announced every August, and each year’s list can show changes in the number and type of recipients.

But when the lists are combined over nine years, longer-term patterns become visible.

The biggest pattern in the data is the contrast between the rapidly growing number of awards and the almost unchanged share of women.

From 73 recipients in 2018, the annual list reached 372 in 2026. Yet women remained within roughly the same 10% to 16% range throughout the period.

The analysis also shows that the composition of the awards has changed in other ways, including the fields being recognised and the introduction of new categories.

She said the data does not provide all the answers, but it raises questions that can be examined further.