At present, the various ministries and commissions under the State Council have 16 female ministers and vice-ministers, and the country has 18 female provincial governors and deputy governors.
Mr Zardari would then inherit the swollen powers Mr Musharraf grabbed for the office, allowing him to appoint provincial governors and service chiefs and to dissolve parliament on a whim.
FARC's kidnap and murder of a provincial governor in late December was a grisly throwback to the bad old days of a decade ago.
One provincial governor proposes a programme to get people to return voluntarily.