KARACHI: Manifestos fall short of womens expectations
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Oct 3: Speakers at a meeting pointed out that the majority of the main political parties had no agenda regarding gender issues and their manifestos made no mention of specific targets they should achieve.
Speaking at a consultative meeting on the manifesto analysis organized by the Legislative Watch Group of the Aurat Foundation, they said that the majority of the parties had handled women-related issues in very general terms and the same was done in election speeches.
They said the parties had spoken of improving the quality of life of women, stressed on female literacy, equal status of women, and better health facilities for women, but they had not given specific targets that they intended to achieve, if and when they formed the government.
They said that in the absence of specific targets, it would be difficult for the electorate or the activists and the civil society organizations to hold the government accountable in case it fell short of their expectations.
They said that though an overwhelming majority of the parties had said that they would review, revise, and even abolish the discriminatory laws, interestingly they had not mentioned which laws they considered discriminatory.
They said one or two parties had come closer saying they would ensure that nobody exploited or victimised others by using religion.
One of the speakers said that political parties did not work on a long-term basis and only tried to get into power. It was proposed that when these parties were not in power, they should form shadow cabinets and monitor and check the working of the government.
Anis Haroon of the Aurat Foundation said that none of the mainstream parties had promised to abolish the Hudood Ordinance.
The foundations LWG chief, Shehla Zia, said that unfortunately the majority of the main political parties had announced their manifestos very late.
The organisers said that during the 1970 election, the Peoples Party had highlighted ib its manifesto the issues being faced by women, but the partys present election manifesto was silent on specific gender issues and had touched the subject in very general terms.
A central PPP leader N. D. Khan, speaking in the occasion, said that since his party did not believe in gender discrimination and treated men and women equally, it had not specifically mentioned the gender issues. He read out a part of manifesto that dealt with human rights violations and the problems of women and minorities.
Shama Leghari of the PML (N), Sadia Malik of the PML (QA), Naila Lateef of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Atiya Nisar of the Jamat-i-Islami and Syed Tanzeem Rizvi of the PPP (Shaheed Bhutto) briefly presented their parties views regarding gender issues.
Kanwer Khalid Yunus, Tanweer Khalid, Salma Waheed, Sardar Rahim, Aajiz Jamali, Zubeida Mustafa, Nuzhat Shirin, Ms Bilquis and others also spoke and participated in the discussion that followed the presentations.
