ISLAMABAD: Although women constitute 20pc of parliament – with 19 seats in the Senate and 70 in the National Assembly, women parliamentarians contributed 36pc of the business transacted by both houses in their respective parliamentary years, a report released on Wednesday said.

The report, released by the Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen), said that women also supported their male colleagues in sponsoring a 3pc additional agenda.

Women legislators attended 67pc of National Assembly sittings and 64pc of Senate sittings. PML-N MNA Kiran Haider was the most regular lawmaker, attending 100pc of National Assembly sittings, while Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party Senator Gul Bushra attended 92 out of 100 Senate sittings.

Senators Sehar Kamran, Sherry Rehman and Rubina Khalid sponsored the highest number of resolutions in the Senate.

Women parliamentarians on average sponsored 23 agenda items individually, while men sponsored 10

MNAs Aisha Syed and Shireen Mazari sponsored eight and seven resolutions in the National Assembly, respectively.

The reporting period for the National Assembly was May 2017 to February 2018, and the Senate reporting period was from March 2017 to March 2018.

According to a statement issued by Fafen, parliamentary orders of the day included a total of 5,654 agenda items issued during the reporting period.

The percentage of contributions women made to parliamentary business in the National Assembly was equivalent to that of men: 49pc.

In Senate, women sponsored 15pc of parliamentary business individually and 3pc jointly.

Women MNAs initiated 31 out of 98 bills (32pc) on their own and 22 (22pc) in collaboration with men. Women exclusively sponsored 36 out of 72 (50pc) resolutions in the National Assembly, and collaborated with men in moving an additional 16 (22pc) resolutions.

Women senators sponsored 13 out of 145 bills (9pc) on their own and five alongside men, and moved 15 out of 99 resolutions (15pc).

Women parliamentarians also kept a close vigil on the government by asked questions and raising calling attention notices. In the National Assembly, women raised 50pc of the questions (1,595) and moved 86pc of the calling attention notices (64).

In Senate, women raised 16pc (241) of the questions and moved 26 (25pc) of the calling attention notices.

On average, a woman sponsored 23 agenda items individually in both houses, while a man sponsored 10. In the National Assembly, women MNAs introduced on average 25 agenda items in comparison to six by men, and women senators sponsored on average 17 agenda items compared to 21 sponsored by men.

Women in the National Assembly attended on average 50 sittings (67pc), while men attended 42 (56pc). Women in Senate attended on average 64 (64pc) of sittings, while men attended 59 (59pc).

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2018