By Nirupama Subramanian
Posted July 29, 2009
As Indian legislators recently scrabbled over the proposed reservation of 33 per cent parliamentary seats for women, this was one area in which Pakistan, where democracy is still no more than a struggling infant with an uncertain future, could look at its eastern neighbour with confidence and say: “Been there, done that”.
In fact, Pakistan did it as far back as in 2001-2002. The present Parliament, formed after the February 2008 elections, is the second to have reserved seats for women. The quota is not the ideal one-third, but 17 per cent in the National Assembly and the Senate, the lower and upper houses respectively, and in the provincial Assemblies.
Unlike in India, where debate still rages over an acceptable mechanism for the reservation for women, in Pakistan women in the reserved seats are not directly elected. Each party gets to nominate a certain number of women proportionate to the number of seats they won through elections. Women also enter the National Assembly through elections for the general seats.
In the current Parliament, there are 75 women in the 342-seat National Assembly — 60 through the quota and 15 in general seats. At nearly 22 per cent, this is better than any other Asian democracy and is more than several western democracies, including the United Kingdom and the United States.
But how have these women MNAs (Members of National Assembly) performed? While they stream in and out of the House in a haze of stylish chiffons and pashminas, the latest designer sunglasses perched over their blonde highlights, have they achieved anything? What kind of issues have they raised? Have they been effective, and indeed, what does an “effective” woman parliamentarian mean — one who raises women’s issues, one who raises all issues, or one who stands loyally by her political party, even if it means opposing pro-women legislation?
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