PAKISTAN’S doublespeak on security policies is notorious throughout the world. Last week, the government extended its practice of saying one thing while doing another into the realm of social issues.

Addressing the 58th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York, the federal law secretary reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to empower women and observe international laws pertaining to women’s rights. Meanwhile, back home, the state passively oversaw the regression of women’s rights.

The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) pronounced laws prohibiting child marriage to be un-Islamic, and called for changes to marriage laws that require men to seek their wives’ consent before taking on a new bride.

A girl fatally set herself on fire after the release on bail of men accused of gang raping her. Nurses protesting in front of the Punjab Assembly for improved job security were baton-charged by the police.

A national sporting hero received limited condemnation for voicing archaic views about women’s place in society (though social media buzz forced him to clarify his comments).

Civil society organisations have asked whether the timing of the CII’s declaration on child marriage, and the Sharifs’ silence on the matter, are part of a sinister plot to appease the Pakistani Taliban ahead of negotiations.

More likely, the government is able to engage with the TTP because so many of their barbaric views, including those about the role of women in society, are widely held.

No one needs reminding of the appalling status of women in this country. Even Pakistan’s grand claim to have achieved one of the highest ratios of women parliamentarians in South Asia is half-baked — there is no female representation in the Balochistan cabinet, and only two women are included as junior ministers in the federal cabinet.

This situation persists even though the status of women is a good indication of the country’s overall trajectory. So what can be done about the regressive approaches to women’s rights?

Slights to women such as those that made headlines last week do provoke histrionics amongst women’s rights activists, and we are reminded that Pakistan is a nation of Benazirs and Malalas.

Since the fading of the organised women’s movement in the 1980s, emancipated Pakistani women have increasingly relied on the following narrative to demand rights: don’t mistreat us, some of us are amazing.

No doubt, there are exceptional Pakistani women. But these exceptions do not need more championing (even though they are attacked and labelled Western stooges and blasphemers).

The problem with exceptions is that they are easily written off by those who have the power to improve the lot of women: lawmakers, law-enforcing agencies, members of the judiciary, clerics, feudal lords, journalists.

How does one convince these people that sidelining and suppressing women is in no one’s interest, not even their own?

There’s a strong economic argument to be made for empowering women. When women’s labour force participation increases, economic productivity soars.

When women own land, agricultural productivity increases and children eat healthier. When women are educated, child malnourishment and infant mortality rates decline, leading to a stronger next-generation labour force.

Any country that empowers its women inevitably sees economic growth for several generations.

Politicians should also be threatened by the idea that an anti-woman stance could soon render them unelectable. Women cast 40pc of the votes in the last general elections.

Pakistan is also currently undergoing a transformation as its middle-class booms and rapid urbanisation makes rural values redundant. Women in cities have to be able to move freely and contribute to households that can’t possibly survive on single incomes.

Today’s new middle classes may have some conservative hangovers where women are concerned but will soon face up to realities and seek genuine government investment in women’s literacy, health and mobility (even if they do it in segregated spaces, with headscarves on).

Pakistan’s snivelling at the UN about how deeply it cares for women’s rights suggests that international perceptions still matter to our placid politicians. For too long, Pakistan has gotten away with being able to claim the first female prime minister in the Muslim world.

The experiences of Malala Yousafzai, Mukhtaran Mai and others have received much international attention and will be highlighted in Pakistan’s record when the world tries to paint us as a pariah state.

To maintain any standing in the international community, Pakistan cannot allow for regression in women’s rights.

One wishes the universally held principle of respecting women’s rights were enough to motivate pro-women state action. But in a country where everything is for sale, perhaps these cynical, bottom-line arguments will prove more persuasive.

The writer is a freelance journalist.

huma.yusuf@gmail.com