Opposition members on Tuesday filed a privilege motion in the National Assembly accusing the federal government of granting male members access to funds originally allocated for women parliamentarians elected to reserved seats in the House.

The motion, put forth unanimously by the opposition, claimed the government is "discriminatory and unconstitutional", citing women parliamentarians' failure to receive allocated grants earmarked as Sustainable Development Funds over the last four years.

The document alleged that: "The Government has meanwhile been granting these funds to all male parliamentarians and those elected on minority seats".

The document cited Article 51 (3) of the 1973 Constitution, under which 60 seats are reserved for women proportionate to the strength of each party in the province. It also mentioned Article 25 (2) of the Constitution, which states that there will be no discrimination based on gender.

The motion further stated that women account for 20 per cent of the parliamentarians in the house and contribute to "more than 50pc of the business". It said that their vote is counted equally to anyone when a bill is passed.

"Therefore ... this is not just the breach of the [privileges of] women members alone, but it is the breach of privilege of the Assembly as a whole," the motion stated.

Male parliamentarians were also among the signatories of the motion.

MNA Shireen Mazari from Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf in a tweet also criticised women parliamentarians from the ruling party for 'turning a blind eye' to the struggles of their female contemporaries in the House.

She said, "Ever since PML-N women took charge of [the] Women Caucus, they have [failed] to stand by women MNAs who are abused by male members..."

Mazari also said that women from all opposition parties "have distanced themselves" from the current Women's Parliamentary Caucus of Pakistan, accusing the current leadership of reducing the platform "to a PML-N forum from a women's forum".

PPP lawmaker Sharmila Faruqi voiced her support for the motion through a retweet, calling the government "pathetic" and "gender-biased". PPP MNA Nafisa Shah echoed the sentiment.

However, Awami National Party Senior Vice President Bushra Gohar in a tweeted response to Nafisa Shah recommended that all "discretionary development funds [such as the] SDG Funds should be stopped for all MPs irrespective of party affiliation, gender, religion."