It's probably overly cynical of me to be a downer in the face of such seemingly encouraging news, but Islamabad has a long history of passing laws it has no expectation will ever be followed in the outlying provinces, which is where most of the most outrageous stuff happens in Pakistan. The central government can't even curb Taleban forces near the Afghanistan border, regardless of their claims otherwise, so it's a little rich for them even to claim to be able to override sharia as it's practiced away from the capital. Put another way, the law may say one thing, but tradition says another, and even though we should laud and support women brave enough to try to vote, we shouldn't be surprised if not many end up doing it, or are prevented from doing so.