Just before a new year started, more than 800,000 women, who were beneficiaries of an income support program in Pakistan, lost their source of supplementary earning. As it goes for any argument, there were many who went bitterly against the decision, and others who favoured it, claiming that the exclusion was made for ‘undeserving’ candidates. But somehow, in a different way and in a different scenario, it reminded of other instances, where women in Pakistan are either excluded or are unable to claim space for themselves.
The ruling party in the country, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) recently completed 500 days in government. It is journey from participation in the elections to making it to the capital and proceeding in its tenure is marked with varied contributions by women.
The 2018 General Elections were quite significant as far as women’s political participation and representation is concerned. While for the first time in the history of many villages in Punjab as well as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), women left their chaar diwari (confines of the four walls of house), although not the chadar, to cast their vote, in 2 constituencies of the parched Thar district in Sindh, women turnout was more than 70 percent – among the highest in the entire country.
The elections also witnessed the highest number of women candidates in Pakistan’s electoral history - as many as 171 women candidates were in the run against 272 general seats of the National Assembly across the country. Among the women who were awarded party tickets, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) awarded the maximum number of tickets ,19 to women candidates, while the PTI and the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) each fielded 11 women candidates. The slogan of tabdeeli didn’t seem to make its mark at the domain where it was chanted.
While the participation by women in elections was encouraging, the outcome was on the other hand, worrying. Only eight women could make it to the National Assembly through the direct elections, complying to the declining trend in the number of women getting elected on general seats. In 2008 there were 16 women, in 2013 there were 9, and in 2018 the number further shrunk to 8.
In the cabinet of Naya Pakistan, among the 16 ministers and 5 advisers, 3 were women, with two already having served different governments on other posts. Among these was Dr. Sania Nishtar, who is Special Assistant to the Prime Minister of Pakistan for Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation. She is also the chairperson of Benazir Income Support Programme now dubbed Ehsaas, responsible for the recent removal of over 800,000 ‘undeserving’ female beneficiaries. Federal Minister Fawad Chaudhry, heading the Ministry of Information, was later replaced by a female leader Dr. Firdous Ashoq Awan during the tenure.
Women in Pakistan remain largely unrepresented in its upper echelons, as well as conspicuously missing in the policy making domain in private and public sector organisations, with the exception of few institutions. It thus comes as no surprise that Pakistan is among the worst performers in the newly released Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI) 2020 Report, where it has been ranked at the 151st spot out of 153 countries – only surpassing Iraq and Yemen. The report published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) “ranked Pakistan 150th in economic participation, 143rd in educational attainment, 149th in health and survival and downgraded it from 37th to 93rd slot in political empowerment.”
So what has the Naya Pakistan done that could bring a positive change to this bleak outlook? In a feature for The Diplomat, journalist Maham Javaid talks of some pro-women decisions taken in KP, the province which was headed by the ruling party PTI also in the previous term. Every time a forest in KP is harvested for commercial sale, the government is due to pay 60 percent of the income from the sale to local residents. The government seems to ensure that this money was not just going to a few influential men but also to local women.
Amina Durrani, the program director of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Commission on the Status of Women (KPCSW), pointed out to Maham Javaid that how the PTI created the first-ever Women Empowerment Policy Framework, which works at the district level. The government is also responsible for establishing a Widows’ Foundation and some shelters for women, for recruiting and training female police officers.
At a lower and even middle level, such incentives work. In fact, they do help in bringing women from the grass root level to participate in the economic cycle of a country. But tables are turned when more institutions are headed by women and more policies and decisions are made. One encouraging example, can be of Tania Aidrus, who has been put in charge of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s new initiative for technologically-driven environment for the tech savvy youth of Pakistan. Aidrus is an ex-Google executive, which means that she has come back from the greener pastures to serve the green flag.
However, unless the women in the country join the mainstream in larger numbers, the situation would remain the same. Like the few women legislators and lawmakers quoted in this piece, there may be other notable names which could be mentioned. But on the whole, they remain a handful. To help women financially sustain their households, giving them scholarships for higher education and making a few heads of institutions, can be an encouraging move, but not a game changer.
Women need to be facilitated in ways where they can independently use their potential. They need actual protection against online and physical harassment at workplaces and public domains – laws and ombudspersons would remain an eyewash unless they aggressively address the issue. Working mothers need to be facilitated with a strictly enforced policy that organisations make arrangements of day care facilities for their children – one of the biggest hurdles which women face in their career paths. Female students require incentives and quotas at educational and vocational training institutions for greater enrollment skill based careers. Women in politics need not to be seen in large numbers during campaigns and events; they need to make their presence felt in important meetings and table talks, where actual laws, rules and regulations are discussed and put in practice.
Does the present government hold a vision to bring out women and hand them larger roles? It remains yet to be seen. More change is expected from the women themselves, who have already started breaking through the patriarchal hold of the society and glass ceilings. A support from the state, however, would definitely bring about a larger push.