KARACHI, Feb 20: The presence of women in politics has always been looked down upon in every society. It took centuries for some nations to break stereotypes and accept women as a part of opinion forming political groups. Unfortunately in Pakistan, usually it has been women from the upper class who make it to the very top in the political scene.

The two-day workshop, conducted by Executive Director of Centre for Civic Education Pakistan Zafarullah Khan, had been organised by the Women Media Centre Pakistan with the help of Endowment for Democracy, Washington DC, the USA.

The basic aim of organising such a workshop, according to WMC Executive Director Fauzia Shaheen, was to create awareness among women journalists about the basic structure and working of political parties and the significant role women played in it. The workshop was attended mostly by students of the Jinnah University for Women and Federal Urdu University apart from female media correspondents.

During the first day of the workshop, Zafarullah Khan spoke on the Political Parties Order 2002, and how it affected the entire setup and formation of the political parties. He also pointed out various factors that contributed to deteriorate the system on the whole. According to him, the total number of days when counted from August 14, 1947 to October 12, 2006 turned out to be 21609. Out of which the country had military dictatorship or marshal law for almost 11,419 days, he said.

Brief history of women politicians of the country was also highlighted in the second half of the workshop.

According to the data provided on the website of various parties, Mr Khan pointed out that none of the parties had more than 17 per cent women in the central leadership.

In the first half of the programme on the second day, there were two presentations, one by Zafarullah Khan on reserved seats for women and the second by Dr Huma Baqai on political system in Pakistan and the problems that women faced in it.

The last part of the training was the panel discussion. Former information minister Javed Jabbar, PML-N leader Sardar Abdul Rahim, MPA Sassui Palejo, PML-N MPA Farheena Ambreen, JI’s Women Wing representative Dr Farah Aslam and a TV anchor Jasmine Manzoor were the panelists.

The speakers collectively tabled the idea of encouraging women to participate in politics and creating an atmosphere in which women were given due respect.—Meera Jamal