ISLAMABAD: The National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW), a statutory body responsible for the empowerment of women in Pakistan, has been dysfunctional for eight months as a chairperson for the commission could not be nominated.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Barrister Zafarullah Khan said a list of candidates for the chairmanship of the commission has been sent to the prime minister and the Leader of the Opposition Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah. However, he said he did not know what had happened after the list was sent in.

The NCSW was established in July 2000 and is an outcome of the government’s national and international commitments including the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action 1995 and the National Plan of Action for Women, 1998.

The commission was established to examine policies, programmes, laws, regulations and other measures taken by the government for women development, to monitor the mechanisms and institutional procedures for the redressal of violations of women’s rights and individual grievances, to encourage and sponsor research to generate information, analysis and studies about women and gender issues and to develop and maintain interaction and dialogue with NGOs, experts and individuals at national and international levels.

The last chairperson of the commission, Khawar Mumtaz, ended her three-year tenure on December 31, 2015 and acting charge of the commission was given to Minister of the National Health Services Saira Afzal Tarar for a month. Since then, the commission has been headless though the NCSW website still shows Ms Tarar as the acting chairperson.

Talking to Dawn, former NCSW chairperson Khawar Mumtaz explained that the commission has 18 members which include two from each province, five ex-officio members from various ministries, one each from special territories, one from Islamabad and one from the minorities.

“Though nominations were sought via advertisements last year, a chairperson for the commission has not been appointed. According to the procedures, anyone, including NGOs, can propose a candidate’s name. The prime minister and the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly then finalise three names and send them to the Parliamentary Committee on Appointment of the Chairperson of the National Commission on the Status of Women for the selection of a chairperson,” she said.

She said all the commission’s plans were halted due to the absence of a chairperson and that new projects can also not be started due to the same reason.

“We had wanted to conduct a national survey into the effects of violence against women on the participation of women in the country’s economy and funds were also allocated for the survey. However, the survey could not be done as there is no chairperson,” she said.

Human rights activist Hina Jilani, who is also an advocate of the Supreme Court, said not appointing a chair for the commission was part of the government’s policy to make institutions weak.

Talking to Dawn, she said the NCSW is a statutory body and is mandated to empower women.

“This is an important job to do and the delay of eight months in the appointment of a chairperson shows the government is not interested in empowering women,” she said.

The prime minister’s spokesperson Musadik Malik could not be reached for comment and Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed did not want to talk about the issue and said he did not know anything about it.

Member of the Parliamentary Committee on Appointment of the Chairperson of the NCSW Senator Kalsoom Perveen said appointing a chairperson is important as the commission cannot become functional without one.

“The committee members have sent a direction to the government for appointing a chairperson as soon as possible and we will send a reminder before Eid as well,” she said.

In reply to a question, Ms Parveen said women’s commissions around the world do a lot of work for addressing women’s issues and that the NCSW can also play a vital role in addressing women’s problems. She said the work done by the women’s commission is all the more important in light of the recent circumstances in the country.

The NCSW has seen through a number of projects and steps during the tenure of the last chairperson, such as hosting a national consultation in collaboration with UN Women in order to review and develop gender indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals for Pakistan.

It also initiated groundwork for finalising and standardising the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women reporting formats and mechanisms as well as developed consensus on the National Policy Guidelines framework.

Published in Dawn September 5th, 2016