Petty squabbles delays women's quota in Pak parliament

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief swept to power promising a quota for women in parliament. But last month, his ruling party shot down an Opposition bill seeking just that.

Abida Hussain, the only woman in the Sharief cabinet, said it was a ''tit for tat'' move, with the ruling Pakistan Muslim League defeating the Benazir Bhutto-led Pakistan People's Party 70 to 10.

In 1995, when Sharief was in the Opposition, his party voted against the then minority PPP government's attempt to set aside seats for women. P> ''The process has actually moved backwards,'' says Aziz Siddiqui, political analyst and human rights campaigner. ''With the main political parties locked in rivalry, the democratic experience has been impaled on the barbs of cynical one-upmanship.''

Pakistan's women used to have special seats in parliament in the 1970s, but that provision lapsed in 1990 after 12 years of martial law. In the last three general elections, women have won less than three per cent of seats, with the provincial assemblies returning 0.5 per cent or less. The winners almost always were nominees of political parties.

A member of one of the women's groups and rights activists campaigning for gender justice in politics, now say, ''The government must not only re-introduce quotas, but also ensure that they achieve the goal of affirmative action.

''The reservation of the past failed not only because of its measly size (of seats), but because it provided for a very restricted indirect mode of election -- by the few elected members from the respective provinces,'' Siddiqui explains.

As a result, most women who make it to parliament are supported by influential party leaders, and are often neither independent-minded nor able to articulate the interests of women. Everyone who has contested independently has been wiped out by the better organised political parties.

While shooting down the Opposition motion on women's parliamentary quotas last month, the Sharief government repeated that it intends to unveil a constitutional reforms package, drafted by a special committee, which will include the provision for seats for women, during the budget session of parliament.

But women's rights campaigners are wondering if that is only a sop from a party that does not have a reputation for a great deal of sensitivity on women's issues. In fact, none of Pakistan's parties have taken bold steps to alleviate the horrendous problems faced by women, particularly in the villages, where the majority of people live, and where discrimination is a fact of life.

Pro-women's quota campaigners said the ruling party had some very frivolous objections last month to the PPP bill on women's quotas. For instance, law-maker Chaudhry Asad-ur-Rahman, who was asked during the debate on the amendment if there were special seats for women, retorted: ''Why not for children?", Another treasury member Ibrahim Paracha said he feared if they gave in to women, 'members of the third sex'' would demand representation next time.

However, Federal Minister Hussain, one of the six women in parliament, insists her government will create a 20 per cent quota for women, who will be elected by local bodies.

Pakistan's 1973 constitution had set aside five per cent of seats, a total of 10 seats, for women with a provision that 10 years later or after the holding of three general elections, whichever came later, the quota system would be scrapped. Law-makers felt that by then women would be in a position to fight and win parliamentary seats in an open contest.

But that did not happen. Now women's organisations are demanding between 20 and 30 per cent seats, while C R Aslam of the Pakistan Socialist Party would like 50 per cent reservation, since he points out, "Women constitute half the population."

At a recent workshop in Islamabad, organised by the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the 20-odd participants present thought 33 per cent representation for women in both houses of parliament and local bodies councils was not too much to ask. Attending the one-day round table were representatives of non-government organisations and political parties.

''Basically we are against indirect election of women,'' says Sohail Warraich, a human rights worker who was representing Shirkat Gah, a women's resource centre. ''We are working towards directly electing women from constituencies,'' he added.

The workshop wanted electoral rules changed to make it mandatory for Pakistan's political parties to keep a gender balance, by issuing 30 per cent of their party tickets to the women candidates.

How quickly the new rules will be implemented is anybody's guess, but independent rights organistions are hoping that if the constitution is amended soon, elections for the reserved seats can be held along with the long overdue local bodies elections, which are expected to be announced some time later this month.