KARACHI: A research study shared with Sindh lawmakers at a dialogue on Tuesday revealed that in the present assemblies, the National Assembly in particular, the participation of women in the most important parliamentary institution ie committee system, had declined compared with the term ending in 2013.

The key findings and recommendations derived from the research study contemplating the ‘Male legislators’ attitude towards the empowerment of women legislators’ were shared with men and women legislators of Sindh in an interactive dialogue held at the Sindh Assembly’s committee room.

The event was organised by the Strengthening Participatory Organisa­tion (SPO) with support of Trocaire and Australian government under the Project ‘Policy advocacy and research to strengthen pro-women laws legislation and GBV (gender-based violence) response services in Sindh’.

Raheema Panhwar, regional coordinator of the SPO, said 223 women were in four provincial assemblies and federal legislature (both houses of parliament).

She said it was not yet the universal standard of ‘critical mass theory’, which necessitated having at least 33 per cent of the total parliamentary seats occupied by women.

In 2008, Pakistan ranked 44 on the list of 145 parliaments arranged for percentage of women members, with 22.8pc women in its bicameral parliament and with a first-time-in-history woman speaker of the National Assembly.

Out of more than 45 standing committees, women had chaired 12, which included the subjects considered to be the male domain ie finance and defence, etc.

In the current mandate, however, the position has fallen to 65th with 20pc women in both the houses of parliament.

Out of 11 parliamentary secretaries appointed by the prime minister in October 2017, two are women.

In Sindh Assembly, there are 30 standing committees currently, of which four are being chaired by women.

Of the nine special assistants to the CM, two are women. Out of 18 provincial ministers, none is a woman, while one woman is appointed as the adviser to the CM.

Sindh legislature members said, “Women are not provided development funds for their constituencies, yet they take active part in debates, resolutions and passing of bills. They also have good record of punctuality.”

Some lawmakers said women party wings needed to be strengthened.

They said it seemed too hard for the government to arrange a room for young mothers in the assembly.

They also complained that women were allowed to reside in backseats. Even when one of them was a minister, she was not allowed to occupy the front desk.

Deputy Speaker Syeda Shehla Raza, Nand Kumar, Mehtab Akbar Rashdi, Naheed Begum, Saeed Nizamani, Naila Munir, Waryam Faqir, Dr Rafique Banbhan, Ameer Hyder Shah and Sorath Thebo actively participated in the debate.

John O’Brien, country director, Trocaire, also took part in the interactive dialogue.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2018