HRCP meeting for highlighting women MPs’ political participation

Journalists and rights activists have stressed during a discussion that women politicians and parliamentarians should be encouraged by giving coverage to their political and parliamentary participation.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) organised a policy dialogue on Thursday to share the findings of their report prepared with the support of the German foundation Friedrich Naumann Stiftung (FNF) to assess women legislators’ political participation in Pakistan for the first two parliamentary years (2018-2020) of the current national and provincial assemblies.

Fauzia Viqar, the study’s lead researcher and prominent women’s rights activist, shared the findings of the report and said that the report’s primary focus was on the functions of legislation and oversight from all political parties.

HRCP co-chair Asad Iqbal Butt, vice-chairperson Qazi Khizer, noted women’s rights activist Sheema Kirmani, journalists working with various media outlets, and civil society activists attended the programme. HRCP official Tahira Habib moderated the discussion.

During two years, despite being a fifth of the numerical strength, women parliamentarians outperformed their male colleagues in most of the reviewed criteria, including attending parliamentary proceedings, the study has found.

The assessment framework measured the legislators’ performance in eight indicators, including attendance, chairing committees, presenting resolutions and calling attention notices, asking questions, introducing bills and passing adjournment motions — all of which were broadly included under three categories: representation, oversight and legislation.

While female lawmakers fully participate in and are committed to performing their parliamentary duties, legal and cultural factors hinder their performance and growth, noted the study.

Hindrances

Discriminatory social norms, a biased assembly system, limited research and financial support as well as limited capacity building opportunities make it difficult for female parliamentarians to effectively perform their functions of oversight and legislation, the study points out.

Female lawmakers identified discriminatory cultural norms and stereotypes about women in society as one of the most significant barriers that not only hindered their entry into politics but also continued to impact their performance in the assemblies.

Another barrier they highlighted was the unwillingness of political parties to promote women in their ranks. Thus, women are left out of key decision making positions in the assemblies and parties.

Political parties are also reluctant to allot election tickets to women for winnable general seats, and women who get the reserved seats are looked down upon and marginalised by both men and women on general seats.

Media

Biased media coverage depicts politics as a masculine profession, and women legislators are often asked regressive or discriminatory questions that focus less on their work as a lawmaker and more on their personal lives, observed the study.

The media portrays women negatively, scrutinising them on the basis of their physical appearance rather than their position on issues, and considering women on reserved seats insignificant in the political processes.

The journalists who attended the meeting agreed that the media too plays a critical role in informing public opinion about the place of women in society and politics. They said that the media should boost women’s political voice and highlight their roles in parliamentary affairs.

Committees

Representation of women as committee chairpersons in the National Assembly was one-third of their proportional strength. Similarly, women remained under-represented in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in chairing standing committees, stated the study.

However, women got over twice their proportional share in the Punjab Assembly. Similarly, the Balochistan Assembly gave an additional 50 per cent share to female MPAs in chairing standing committees.

Resolutions

Female MNAs tabled more than twice their proportional share of resolutions, as did female MPAs of the Sindh and KP assemblies. Female MPAs in Punjab also exceeded their share in tabling resolutions. In Balochistan, however, female MPAs tabled a third of their share of resolutions.