Call for increasing reserved seats for women in assemblies to 23 per cent

In the National Assembly and provincial assemblies, reserved seats for women should be increased from 16 percent to 23 per cent. The political parties should also be required to field women in 20 per cent of the constituencies they are contesting, instead of five per cent.

These demands were made during the first Sindhi Nari Day ceremony held at the Karachi Press Club on Sunday. Prominent women from various fields, including sports, law and journalism, addressed the ceremony that signified remarkable achievements of women in various sectors at the national and provincial levels.

Mehreen Baloch, a gold medalist in boxing and Commonwealth Games representative of Pakistan in combat sports, stated that men also felt intimidated when women entered the boxing arena. She said that she hailed from Lyari from where many men had earned fame in boxing.

She said when she joined the boxing sports, people were surprised and she was underestimated, due to which she worked harder to prove herself. Now many women were coming to the boxing sports, she added.

Verun Pirzado a sports teacher, expressed her desire to popularise football among girls at the grassroots level and become the first female referee in football. She said women needed to be brought forward not only in the field of academia but also in sports.

Fahmeeda Riaz Shewani , a member of the organising committee for Sindhi Nari Day, pointed out that even in recent elections, women were mostly confined to reserved seats, although some contested on general seats like Maryam Nawaz and Shazia Marri.

She said the condition set by the Election Commission of Pakistan that women candidates must be at least 5 per cent of the total candidates of political parties on general seats was insufficient because if the women’s population was 50 per cent, their seats in Parliamant should reflect that.

She added that whether it were assemblies, senate, judiciary or police, women were significantly under-represented in every field. One reason for this was administrative policies and another reason was fear regarding pursing distant employment because women wanted to return before sunset, she added.

She demanded that state eliminate this fear so that women could contribute to the betterment of the country. It was said that tribal norms restraining women from participating in all walks of life were outdated traditions, and despite all constraints, the girls of Sindh were advancing from Karachi to Karunjhar and Kashmore.

Rabiya Ejaz Sheikh, who hails from Khairpur, is a designer on YouTube. She learned from YouTube and made her channel, through which she earned enough to build her own house, which was astonishing for the villagers.

She advised the young girls to join their preferred fields and benefit from the current era that allowed them to earn from home. Another participant was Najma Maheshwari, an activist. Her father was associated with a political movement. When her father used to take her mother to political gatherings, the family and relatives were unhappy, but she did not care. When she grew up, she entered politics and was even arrested once.

She said her relatives would say, who would marry her. Then her husband, who is a political activist himself, said he would marry the woman who went to jail for society.

Najma said she had been working against forced conversions. She said there should be no objection if women converted to another religion of their own freewill.

Marvi Kalhoro, a young lawyer, said she was the first educated girl in her family. She said her parents were not politically conscious but they educated her. She added that even today, the literacy rate of girls in her family was zero.

She said when she chose law as her profession, she felt she was born for this field to help women.

Laila Nasir hosts a programme on a Sindhi channel. She said families discouraged girls from joining the media, saying they should not appear on the screen.

“If you have self-confidence and you can speak up for your rights, there is no danger,” she said, adding that parents should trust their daughters. Lok singer Nahid Mallani and Alghoza player Arbab Khoso also performed at the ceremony.

Professor Shahnila Zardari, Wahida Mahesar, Shazia Nizamani, Rubina Chandio, Parh Ijaz and others also participated in the event. They said the laws against violence against women should be enforced and political parties should ensure representation and presence of women in decision-making bodies.