Women MPs urged to take unified stand in assemblies
KARACHI, Dec 2: Speakers at a meeting on Thursday urged women legislators to rise above their party affiliations and take a common stand on an issue relating to women as and when presented on the floor of the house.
The meeting, on the subject of Consultations with Parliamentarians on Muslim Family Laws: Problems and Reforms Required, was organized by an NGO, the Aurat Foundation. The speakers pointed out that there were more than 70 women now in the National Assembly and Senate.
Even a larger number, they said, could be of those in the four provincial assemblies. A unified stand taken collectively by all the women legislators on any issue relating to women could not be ignored, they argued.
Sindh Minister for Women Development Dr Saeeda Malik said that though Islam and the constitution guaranteed many rights to womenfolk, these were not being given to them by the male dominant society. She said that the government was trying to bring in women-friendly legislations so that some relief could be provided to women.
She said that efforts would have to be made to change the mindset of the society. She also stressed on literacy in womenfolk without which, she said, awareness about rights was not possible.
Retired Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid emphasized the need for creating awareness both in men and women so that each member of our society could have a clear vision and complete knowledge of his/her own duties and others rights.
Referring to the law on Karo-kari, he said that there could be some lacunas/ loopholes in it but at least some basis had been provided and once its shortcoming were fully known, steps could be taken to review and improve it.
Discussing the long delays in dispensing justice by courts, he said that shortage of judges was one of the major factors. In this regard, he pointed out that even the existing vacancies were not being filled timely, leave alone the issue of creating new posts of judges. This showed, he said, how much the government cared about prompt justice.
Suggesting better working conditions and improved wages for judges, he pointed out that the budget for the entire judicial set up in the country stood at around Rs1.5 billion whereas the annual subsidy allocated to the KESC alone came to more than Rs10 billion. This, he said, showed the government's priority.
The other speakers at the meeting observed that the government had amended the family courts law under which the cases relating to dissolution of marriage, Khula, etc., had to be decided within six months.
They also criticized the government for not taking stringent steps to implement the Sindh High Court decision declaring the jirgas as illegal. They regretted that jirgas were still held in contravention of the verdict. They strongly opposed the proposed ordinance aimed at legalizing jirga system.
Describing the jirga system as 'anti-women', they observed that while most of the jirgas were held to decide issues involving women, but women were never allowed to even attend the jirgas.
The pro-government legislators at the meeting said that efforts were being made to enact more laws that could ensure protection of rights and provision of relief to women victims in a crime.
The opposition legislators, however, regretted that despite their efforts to towards introduction of certain people-friendly bills, the government continued to adopt a hostile attitude by frustrating the moves on one pretext or the other.
They said that if the government was serious in helping out women, it should enact the requisite laws because at this point of time, it enjoyed majority in the parliament.
They pointed out that the government had moved so swiftly to get bills of its choice passed within minutes. They also urged the government to take appropriate measures for the implementation of the existing laws that were never enforced in letter and spirit.
Justice (r) Nasira Javed Iqbal and Danish Zuberi spoke on the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance 1961, Muslim Family Courts Rules, Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act 1939, Nikahnama, Child Marriages Act, etc.
MNA Gul-i-Farkhanda of PML; MPAs Farheen Ambareen and Rehana Nasreen of MQM, Shazia Marri of PPP and Kulsoom Nizamani of MMA; Rubina Qaimkhani, Sheen Farrukh and Anis Haroon were among the speakers.
