LAHORE: Women lawyers have put forward a set of demands regarding upcoming bar council elections and the opening of vacancies in high and supreme courts for judges.

The Women in Law and the Women Lawyers Association demand fair representation, safe workplaces, end of discrimination of women lawyers, and making voting more inclusive.

Women in Law founder Nida Usman Chaudhry told Dawn that they had been working on the inclusion of women since some time now, adding that bar councils were elected every five years and face many systemic challenges, but the chances of women making it to the seats is quite bleak.

“Out of 198 members only six are women across the bar councils,” she said.

“In the Pakistan Bar Council, a woman has never been represented. The same is the case in Supreme Court there has never been a judge that was a woman.

“They changed the rule of being a candidate from a 15 years standing to 20 years which has made it more difficult for women especially those who have had to wait 15 years for this. Now they find they have to wait five years more.”

A woman lawyer said that senior male lawyers had a kind of boys’ club where they keep maintaining their positions in the corridors of power. “There is no representation of youth and minorities either.”Ms Chaudhry said they don’t want reserved seats for women. “But we do want a limit on the majority of a gender. No one more than two-thirds of one gender should compose any council,” she said.

She also added that while election booths are separate, many women feel intimidated passing through a sea of men to vote.

“While the practice is done alongside men, in elections, we propose that the walk-up to the polling booth should be kept separate so more women voters come. There is no sense of personal space on election day and a lot of aggressive campaigning. It can get intimidating,” she said.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2020