JI’s Aisha Syed leads women MNAs in legislation

Islamabad: The National Assembly has many women members but Jamaat-i-Islami’s Aisha Syed stands out from the rest in legislation.

Elected in 2013 on one of the seats reserved for women from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, this resident of Swat district has emerged as one of the most active MNAs during the last four and a half parliamentary years.

“I’ve always been ahead of other women in the house when it comes to participation in the legislative business. I sponsored 12 private member’s bills jointly and one individually and tabled most motions, which all highlighted issues of public importance,” she told ‘The News’.

Ms Aisha, who is also deputy general secretary of the Jamaat-i-Islami, Women’s Wing, said the legislation proposed by her and other movers covered a wide range of issues. “We (legislators) called for an increase in maternity leaves for working women, stricter punishments for corrupt officials and public office holders, effective crackdown on obscenity, interest-free economy, and trial of the perpetrators of the child sexual abuse cases under the anti-terrorism law. Also, our bills sought the enforcement of decrees by judicial process, protection of witnesses in legal proceedings, an end to unnecessary adjournments of legal cases, the welfare of people with disabilities, especially women, freedom, and protection of journalists, and promotion of the teachings of the Holy Quran,” she said.

The lawmaker agreed with the notion that many women MNAs elected on reserved seats know little about their legislative job and thus, failing to deliver the goods.

“If you (woman MNAs) are not from among the people and haven’t worked in the field, and your nominations are influenced by money, strong political backgrounds, and sycophancy, then you can’t deliver. As a member of parliament, you can make law, facilitate legislation, enforce laws, monitor the functioning of the relevant government organisations, and hold those at the helm of affairs accountable but many woman lawmakers are unaware of all this and so, their presence or absence makes no difference,” she said.

Accusing bureaucracy of often taking the lawmakers, who are inexperienced and ill-informed about the intricacies of the system of governance, for a ride, Ms Aisha insisted that if the MNAs knew about the complexities and technicalities of the system and how to handle them, carried a vision, and had the prudence and a strong will to serve the people, they made ‘baboos’ produce results by effectively and efficiently executing their plans.

She regretted ‘indecent political trends’ in the country and said many politicians were busy trading false allegations against each other to serve own interests but that had given a bad name to the politics, which was basically meant for serving the people.

The MNA resented horse-trading in the recent Senate elections and said the culpable people didn’t deserve to be called politicians and instead, they represented the lot, which could go to any lengths to serve own interests.

She praised the country’s top judiciary for acting against corrupt people but emphasised that the action shouldn’t be limited to few people and that there should be an across-the-board accountability.

Advocating the women’s empowerment, Ms Aisha said she had proposed on the floor of the house that anyone, who denied female members of their families the right to inheritance, shouldn’t be allowed by the law to hold public office.

“I know so many women, who are not entitled to their legitimate share in inheritance. There are many women, who work in the federal government institutions but don’t get the due chance of promotion. There is a dire need to empower women within the family and outside as stronger women mean stronger nation,” she said.