By Ayesha Khan
 |
| Panel discussion. Left to Right: Dr Saba Gul Khattak, Ms Khawar Mumtaz, Ms Munizae Jahangir (moderator), Ms Bushra Gohar, Dr Nafisa Shah Photo credit: Collective team |
The
Collective for Social Science Research (CSSR) and the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives
(IDEAS) held a launch event for their research studies on women’s political
voice in Islamabad on September 27th 2017. These studies are designed
to explore pathways to increasing women’s political participation. The launch
is part of a multi-country study on Action
for Empowerment and Accountability (A4EA) funded by the UK Department for
International Development (DFID) and coordinated by the Institute for Development Studies (IDS) at the
University of Sussex.
The launch discussion brought up the
numerous challenges facing Pakistan’s young democracy and the growing
anticipation surrounding the general elections scheduled for next year. Participants joined in to share their
experiences and ideas for how best to strengthen the electoral process and
bring women’s voices in more effectively, especially conflict-affected parts of the country where
women are being excluded from democratic activities.
Civil society organizations, such as PILDAT (Pakistan Institute of Legislative
Development and Transparency), FAFEN (Free and
Fair Election Network), Aurat Foundation, Pattan and more, have, over the last two
election cycles, moved beyond campaigning to get women ID cards and registering
them to vote. They now focus their work on training elected women to be
effective representatives at the local, provincial and national levels so that
they can be more accountable to the people they are meant to serve. The
Election Commission of Pakistan data reveals that the gender gap between voters
widened between the 2013 elections (10.97 million) to the start of 2015 local
government elections when it grew to 11.65 million.
Dr. Ali Cheema of IDEAS, and Dr. Shandana
Mohmand of IDS hope to identify the obstacles to women’s participation and explore
whether civil society interventions to enlist more women voters can be
effective in reducing the gender gap in the upcoming elections.
The A4EA launch brought together leaders of
the women’s movement, such as Khawar Mumtaz and Tahira Abdullah who were deeply
engaged in the struggle to restore reserved seats for women in Parliament. This
struggle began as a demand of the Women’s Action Forum during the 1990s but was
only realized in 2002. Reflecting on how far women have come since then during
the panel discussion, Dr. Nafisa Shah, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) MNA, and
Bushra Gohar, senior vice-president of the Awami National Party (ANP), agreed
that the time has now come to mainstream women’s political participation and
expand affirmative action measures. This would mean advocating for political
parties to include women in all of their central decision-making bodies, and
commit to allocating a certain percentage of their tickets for general seats to
women.
Progressive measures such as these become
complicated in the Pakistani context because women face extremist pressure that
excludes them from the public sphere, particularly in areas most affected by
Taliban elements. Unfortunately, mainstream political parties in certain
constituencies have entered into tacit, and even written agreements with
non-state actors to bar women from voting. This includes even avowedly liberal
parties such as PPP and ANP. Panel participants agreed that the Election
Commission of Pakistan, courts, and political parties had to play a more
effective role to ensure this practice would not be repeated in the 2018
elections.
Collective action is essential to bring
together, and empower women’s voices in the political process. It has worked
before – the women’s movement succeeded in getting the state to reinstate
reserved seats, and women parliamentarians launched a new wave of progressive
legislation when they worked together in the Parliamentary Women’s Caucus
starting in 2004.
Today, innovative civil society efforts are
focusing on action at the local level, which is what CSSR will be examining
more closely in its upcoming research. Bearing in mind Noam Chomsky’s advice
that democracy starts effectively only after
the elections, Dr. Yasmin Zaidi of the Center
for Gender and Policy Studies initiated the AAN network, an innovative
network-building initiative to enlist young college-going women in selected
districts of the country to engage with their local “duty-bearers”, i.e.
elected and government officials to ensure that their concerns are met. Begun
in 2016, the AAN network has mobilized over one thousand women to work in local
chapters to articulate their priorities and trained them in how to advocate so
that the powers that be listen, and actually respond. The AAN network is now planning
to develop a women’s charter of demands that it will take to political parties
and local candidates, in effect consolidating and raising the volume of women’s
voices in the electoral process.
Even though progress sometimes seems slow
and Pakistan’s transition to democracy falters often, its prospects don’t fail
to engage women, even those living in conflict-affected areas. If and when they
eventually find their full voice in the political process, who knows how far
they can take the country towards a better future?
