Study to help implement pro-women legislation launched in KP

PESHAWAR: A non-government organisation, Blue Veins, on Monday launched a study on policy advocacy and research to strengthen implementation of pro-women legislation and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) response services in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The function was arranged at the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly to launch the study which was supported by the Australian government and Trócaire, another NGO. The aim of the programme was to share the findings of the research focusing on identification of challenges and hindrances faced by women parliamentarians in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Qamar Naseem, Programme Coordinator, Blue Veins, told the participants the basic aim behind conducting research was to evaluate the challenges and obstructions faced by the women parliamentarians as lawmakers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The research findings not only contributed to identification of the challenges but also the analysis also helped in assessment of their impacts on legislation.

He said the Blue Veins hoped the study would be very useful for the parliamentarians to initiate dialogues among themselves and take positive steps in and outside the assembly on the challenges faced by women parliamentarians to ensure their constructive participation in political process".

Rukhshanda Naz, a noted women rights activist, said importance of women participation in politics for practicable and successful democratic system had been realized by all over the world. She said the research findings truly reflected that to guarantee good governance and healthy democracy although Pakistan had made various efforts to ensure active participation of women in political system like increasing 17 per cent reserved quota for women in the national and provincial assemblies, yet gaps and challenges still existed which threatened the existence and role of women parliamentarians in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The rights activist said the challenges and issues identified under the research had helped explore the underlying restrictions which prevented women to play a role as active representatives of the society.

Mairaj Humayun Khan, a member of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and chairperson of Women Parliamentary Caucus, said the reserved quota seats in KP had encouraged women to actively participate in politics and play a positive role in legislation but their representation and participation continued to be inadequate. She said the Women Parliamentary Caucus was playing a role in strengthening voices of women legislators in the assembly and providing them a platform to struggle collectively for own rights. "But still less interest of some of the members of caucus and many other factors restrained from performing an effective role. Mostly the reason behind their less active participation is their unwillingness to go across their party lines," added the lawmaker.

Meraj Humayun Khan said: "We could achieve successful results and play our role to influence legislation positively if each member works in collaboration and puts her share in the caucus activities beyond the party lines."

Amina Sardar, a member of provincial Assembly, said women constituted almost half of the population of Pakistan. "Their participation and contribution to social, economic and political spheres is also very imperative. For sustainable development and successful democratic system, securing their participation and access to political life is very required," she added.

MPA Mehmood Jan said: "The findings of the research can be very useful to enhance women political participation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Male parliamentarians' perspectives mentioned in the research reflect that patriarchal and tribal mindset exists in our political system. It restricts and influence women's political participation.

Patriarchal norms, conservative attitudes, negative remarks, lack of cooperation, discriminatory gender ideology and many other like reasons have resulted in systematic gender-based discrimination for women political workers."