ISLAMABAD: A Senate committee on Monday approved an important bill seeking gender-based segregation of polled votes and re-election in constituencies where women’s turnout remains less than 10 per cent.

The Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill, 2016, seeking an amendment to the Representation of the People Act (ROPA), 1976, introduced in the house by Sherry Rehman of the Pakistan Peoples Party, was passed by the sub-committee of the Senate Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs within minutes with minor changes.

The three-member sub-committee, headed by former law minister Farooq Naek, had been constituted by the members of the main committee, headed by Saeed Ghani, in May for submitting a detailed report on the bill and its possible implications on the country’s politics.

Saifullah Magsi of the PPP and Saleem Zia of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz were the other two members of the sub-committee. However, Mr Zia did not turn up for the meeting on Monday and it remained a PPP affair. Ms Rehman also attended the meeting as the mover.

An official of the Election Commission of Pakistan told the sub-committee’s members that the ECP had already declared the results of a constituency in Dir null and void after reports that women had been barred from voting. He, however, complained that the ECP decisions were challenged and set aside even in the lower and high courts.

During a previous meeting of the standing committee, an official of the ministry of parliamentary affairs had suggested that the bill should be referred to the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms that was formulating proposals for amendments to the election laws. However, Ms Rehman said the parliamentary committee was working on a slow pace and insisted that she wanted the bill to be passed as early as possible. She said the bill was meant to ensure that the women exercised their right to franchise.

The mover has suggested nine amendments to ROPA with an aim to ensure maximum women’s participation in elections and discourage the practice of banning women’s voting by political parties through announced or unannounced agreements.

An amendment calls for “ensuring that the ballot papers are thereafter disaggregated according to sex” at the time of vote count.

An important amendment to Section 42 of the Act says: “In any constituency in which less than 10 per cent registered female voters have voted in the election, the ECP shall declare election of such constituency void in accordance with sub-section (1) and order re-polling within thirty days of the declaration of the decision of the Commission.”

‘The statement of objects and reasons’ of the bill says: “There have been numerous reports at every election in recent years whereby women voters have been restrained from voting in the election as a result of an agreement or understanding between different persons which have included politicians, persons representing political parties, the clergy and leaders of the community.

“This process of systemically disqualifying women is a clear violation of their fundamental rights and amounts to an outright discrimination and negation of rights guaranteed under Article 25 of the Constitution. This bill seeks to address such barriers.”

Moreover, it says: “The bill seeks to make available gender disaggregated data, as not only an effective, transparent and clear method of documentation, but also as a tool to identify gender breakdown of voting structures and to identify and understand the number of women voting, the issues they face, how to eliminate them.”

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2016