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HVK Archives: Pak. women demand quota in legislatures

Pak. women demand quota in legislatures - The Hindu

Amit Baruah ()
6 May 1997

Title : Pak. women demand quota in legislatures
Author : Amit Baruah
Publication : The Hindu
Date : May 6, 1997

Women activists demonstrated outside -the Pakistan National Assembly today,
calling upon parliamentarians to reserve at least 40 seats for women in the
217-member Lower House. The demonstration coincided with the National Assembly
beginning a fresh session.

An appeal distributed by the small group of women said: "Women's rights and human
rights organisations welcome the Government's move to restore women's reserved
seats in the national and provincial legislatures through the introduction of a
constitutional amendment bill on April 28, 1997. We believe that the presence and
active participation of women representatives in the legislatures is absolutely
vital before any further enactments or constitutional amendments are undertaken
since the reflection of their views and concerns in future policy is critical for
an effective democracy."

A spokeswoman for the protesters said in 1988 the 20 seats reserved for women in
the National Assembly had been scrapped and now political parties had committed
themselves to restore the earlier position.

However, the appeal said: "While we believe that there should eventually be a 33
per cent reservation of seats for women in the legislature, immediate steps must
be taken to at least double the number of seats provided for in the earlier
constitutional provision."

According to the women's groups, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (N) had
previously committed itself to raising the number of National Assembly seats to
40, which comes to approximately 20 per cent of its total strength.

"It is also equally vital for the percentage of Provincial Assembly seats to be
immediately raised to at least 10 per cent to avoid having just a few isolated and
marginalised women in legislatures," they argued.

Also, the groups maintained that the provision of reservation of seats should be
extended to the Senate or Upper House of Parliament. "This would be in
furtherance of the commitment made by the PML (N), PPP (Pakistan People's Party
and ANP (Awami National Party) on July 29, 1995, in a workshop organised by
non-governmental organisations."

They called for allocation of reserved seats to women with a proven track record
on women's rights and democracy, saying that this issue had been constantly raised
by activist groups as well as women within political parties.

"And finally we see this as the first step towards making women's political
representation effective and sincerely hope that further dialogue will continue to
explore more effective ways and modalities for mainstreaming women's political
participation and representation," the appeal added. The groups who signed the
appeal are: Aurat Foundation, Women's Action Forum, Human Rights Commission of
Pakistan, Bedari, Sustainable Development Policy Institute and Progressive Women's
Association.


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