June 4, 2003	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 3, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, June 3: The controversy between the women development ministry and National Commission on Status of Women (NCSW) over their designated roles needs to resolved on urgent basis.

This was suggested in the first draft of the national Gender Reform Action Plan (GRAP), prepared by the women development ministry.

According to the draft, both the ministry and the commission have overlapping mandate, roles, powers and relationship because they have similar roles to play.

In addition to this, both the departments have same secretariat, which again places structural limitations on the autonomy of the commission.

“There is a need to assign a quasi judicial role to the NCSW and to make it an independent body, thereby enabling it to make all government institutions comply with the agreed upon mandate,” it said.

The commission has to take itself away from the execution and implementation role and play the part of a watchdog body, overseeing the performance of the ministries.

The draft said the women development ministry did not have the powers of gender-vetting to review and certify all major policies, plans and programmes. On the other hand, there is no effective mechanism for making other ministries accountable for incorporation of gender agenda in their policies, programmes, reporting and reviews.

The draft also stressed that the ministry did not have the expertise or staff for gender-vetting work and reviewing of policies. Similarly, it is neither a regulatory ministry like the finance ministry nor is it directly into the provision of services like health and housing ministries.

The role of the ministry is basically in the realm of policy formulation, legislation, advocacy, research, development, planning and coordination. And, a similar role — apart from development and planning — has been assigned to the NCSW through the presidential ordinance in 2001 when the commission was constituted.

The role of neither of these organizations can be seen and analysed in isolation, particularly, when the organizational composition of these bodies are looked into.

Therefore, a clear demarcation of the roles between the ministry and the commission is required on one hand, and simultaneous assignation of women development tasks to the rest of the ministries on the other.

The draft said the constitution of an independent commission on the status of women was the result of a quarter-century old discussions. The move started in 1976 with Pakistan Women’s Rights Committee’s report to establish a permanent statuary body on women status.

However, owing to the lack of willingness on part of successive governments to make an independent and autonomous body for women development, such bodies remained ineffective.

The draft has also underlined a more proactive role for the commission in the shape of more authority over the rest of the government departments. Another way of awarding quasi-judicial powers to the commission is that the body, either on the complaint or on suo moto basis, take cognizance of any matter pertaining to the status and rights of women, and, by itself or through some agency, investigate the problem on the lines of civil court.

The draft also recommended upgradation of women development ministry to provide planning and research facilities.