PESHAWAR: A study on the political participation of women parliamentarians in the country has found that a higher proportion of women legislators from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has attended all assembly sessions in proportion to their strength, while 14 per cent of women head standing committees of the provincial assembly.

The study titled ‘Women Legislators’ Political Participation in Pakistan 2018-20’ and conducted by the Human Right Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) was unveiled here on Tuesday.

According to it, the participation of women MPAs in legislation in the KP Assembly stood at 24 per cent.

The study highlighted biased media coverage and discrimination against women in political parties and assemblies, and revealed that the political parties’ unwillingness to promote women not only hindered their entry to politics but also impacted their parliamentary performance.

Discrimination against women by parties also highlighted

It said the political parties were reluctant to allot tickets to women for winnable general seats hampered their participation in national politics.

The study highlighted the role of media in improving women’s meaningful participation in politics to build a strong and sustainable democracy.

It said women elected on reserved seats were marginalised by both men and women elected on general seats and were not given resources.

Rights activists Fozia Waqar and Tahira Habib moderated the event.

Objectives of the study were the performance of women legislators in the federal and provincial assemblies since Aug 2018, the extent to which women legislators were involved in key decision-making, and constraints to women’s participation in politics and effective democratic governance, and ways to overcome such obstacles.

Perceptions about women legislator’s performance, male parliamentarians agreed that women had a fair understanding of legislative business. They (men) believed that women were at par with the men and some performed better than them.

“They (women) have the correct approach, speak to relevant departments; they are invested into the legislative side, solid efforts being done towards good legislation,” according to these findings.

The study says that absence of gender equality policies, gender blind institutions and processes (elections, judicial appointments), absence of gender equality policies, sexist working culture, lack of safety and respect for women in the political sphere, lack of political education and knowledge of processes and lack of research support or access to information hinder evidence-based legislation or to conduct effective oversight are main barriers faced by women legislators.

The women lawmakers also spoke about biased media coverage saying it reinforces bias against women in politics.

“On the oath-taking day, some media persons asked me how much my bag cost. They also asked another woman about how much time she took for getting ready in the morning and from where she gets her makeup done from. Such questions are offensive because they don’t ask men the same questions,” the report quoted an unknown woman MPA of KP Assembly as saying.

The study says that women lawmakers suggested increase in proportion of women’s seats to 33 per cent across all local governments, allocate at least 15 per cent winnable tickets to women in general elections and provide support (financial and other) to ensure women’s success and increase the number of women in executive committees and other decision-making positions within the party.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2021