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Women MPs complain of discrimination

* Accuse NA speaker, Senate chairman of ignoring women legislators

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: Women members of the parliament (MPs) have complained of gender discrimination in both houses of the parliament not only by their male colleagues but also by the National Assembly (NA) speaker and Senate chairman.

Women MPs expressed these views on Monday during a short course titled ‘How to be an Effective Parliamentarian’. The Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT), in collaboration with UK government’s Global Opportunities Fund, organised the course aimed at increasing the legislative capacity of women legislators. Women MPs from all major political parties participated in the course.

Most of the women MPs complained that women were ignored during debates on important national issues, saying that they were allowed to speak only at the end of debate only for two to three minutes with repeated interruptions to ‘wind up’ from the chair.

They said that they were also not taken seriously during standing committee proceedings and private members business and that their bills, motions and call attention notices were ignored.

“Yes we admit that we are children of a lesser God. But once we are there we should be given a chance and not put under the carpet only because we are elected on reserved seats. We are being paid from the national exchequer therefore we should be allowed to contribute to legislation,” said Zeb Gohar, a Pakistan Muslim League legislator and the wife of former speaker Gohar Ayub Khan.

She said that if a woman legislator praises a positive effort by another woman legislator then they are taken to task by their party colleagues.

Senator Razina Alam Khan, wife of Gen (r) Shamim Alam Khan and the chairperson of the Senate Standing Committee on Education, regretted that the recommendations of standing committees were not incorporated in policy making.

PML’s Gul-e-Farhanda, the chairperson of the NA Standing Committee on Population and Welfare, said that bureaucracy created hurdles in the working of women legislators just to protect their own vested interests.

Farida Ahmed of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal said that women MPs were ignored in legislation and were not even provided with the minutes of meetings despite repeated requests. She said that a woman member should be given the floor after every four members in both houses during debate on national issues.

Veteran parliamentarian Syed Naveed Qamar of the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians chaired the first session and responded to queries from the women MPs about NA procedures.

He said that the ‘powerful’ executive puts the legislature on the back foot, adding that politicians have to work in unison for the supremacy of the parliament.

MP Bhandara of the PML, who chaired the second session urged women MPs to support each other irrespective of their party affiliations. Noor Jahan Panazia conducted the programme and urged women MPs to assert themselves.

She also distributed certificates among the participants of the course. There are 90 women members in the NA and the Senate, most of whom were elected to the parliament for the first time on reserved seats, which puts them under pressure from male MPs who happen to be their electoral college.

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