Dialogue session: Women MPAs admit making pro-women legislation a tough task

PESHAWAR: The female lawmakers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly have complained about having faced difficulty in making legislation for women in the province.

They maintained that two important draft bills about the Domestic Violence and Child Marriages have been left pending as the provincial assembly is going to complete its five-year term on May 28.

“The women lawmakers faced many challenges in the assembly,” said Najma Shaheen, Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) affiliated to the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F).

She was speaking at a dialogue session titled “Devising Strategies/Proposing Solutions to Minimise the Hurdles Faced by Women Parliamentarians as Lawmakers.” The Blue Veins, a non-governmental organization, had organised the session.

Najma Shaheen recalled that when the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Domestic Violence Bill 2017 was tabled in the assembly the women lawmakers faced opposition from some of their male counterparts.

She pointed out that the bill was opposed by creating an impression that it was against the ideology of Islam.

She argued that there was nothing against Islam in the bill and it was forwarded to the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) to seek its input and advice.

The lawmaker said the bill was cleared after some amendments proposed by the CII, but it was not tabled before the assembly.

However, she admitted that majority of the women lawmakers were inexperienced who took their time to learn about the rules of business.

The JUI-F MPA said that the role of women lawmakers was confined to ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in the assembly as they didn’t bother to read the bills in a bid to speak their mind on a point of order.

She suggested that training sessions should be held to guide the new female lawmakers about the rules of business and their role as lawmakers.

Najma Shaheen recalled that when women lawmakers’ caucus was established in the KP Assembly some three years back, the male MPAs questioned it.

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) MPA Rashida Riffat, who had the honour of passing the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Marriage Functions (Prohibition of Ostentatious Displays and Wasteful Expenses) Act, 2018 also shared her experiences as lawmaker.

She said the women caucus was established as a result of efforts made by Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli of the Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) to train female lawmakers.

Rashida Riffat said that after formation of the caucus, the female MPAs were asked to take up the cases of violence against women in their respective districts.

She said membership was also given to some likeminded male lawmakers, including Noor Saleem Marwat of JUI-F and Syed Jaffar Shah of Awami National Party (ANP), to strengthen the women caucus.

Rashida Riffat said that there were differences between the male and female lawmakers over the Domestic Violence Bill. She maintained that the women lawmakers prepared the bill in the light of teachings of Quran and Sunnah.

Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli, a former minister, recalled that she helped form the women caucus in an effort to train the fresh female lawmakers and familiarise them with the assembly business. She said the caucus provided training platform to the women legislators.

Former ANP MPA Shagufta Malik said that the political parties should give tickets to experienced women MPAs as they would be better able to take part in the proceedings.

Asia Khattak, a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) woman councillor in district government, said that educated women should be given the opportunity to become lawmakers.

Lawmakers Ziaullah Afridi, Noor Saleem Marwat and Mehmood Zeb also took part in the discussion and said that male legislators supported their women colleagues.

Quratul Ain of Blue Veins made a brief presentation about the role of women MPAs in the provincial assembly.

She said that expect KP, the other three provinces adopted laws on domestic violence.

She vowed that her organisation would continue its advocacy programme for the women lawmakers when the next government is formed after the July 2018 general election.