In collaboration with Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences we held a talk exploring Dr. Ameena Zia’s forthcoming book. Her book on the gender quotas in the national assembly in Pakistan traces Pakistan’s longest democratic rule to date of 16 years to explores the effectiveness of women parliamentarians in governance. Dr. Zia, who is a Professor of Political Science and International Studies at Brevard College in Asheville, NC offered a perspective on representation and empowerment by examining the changes between access (of resources through reserved seats) and existing power relations (as outcome measuring women’s empowerment). As an academic resource, her book highlights the need to deconstruct existing literature through the strict parameters of inquiry, models, and frameworks to achieve insight that mirrors a holistic reality of Pakistani women's political agency.