Day: May 28, 2010

By Khawar Ghumman

Dr Fehmida Mirza, the elegant Speaker of our sanguine National Assembly, made the country’s woman parliamentarians immensely proud the other day when she gave credit of 60 per cent of the business done in the National Assembly to woman legislators. That is praiseworthy because they count just 76 in the house of 342.

One hopes her disclosure, made at a two-day convention of woman parliamentarians in Islamabad the other day, would wake up their male colleagues from their slumber and show more seriousness in the legislative business. Or else they stand to lose their stock in the public eye further and may be their seats to woman rivals.

The National Assembly has a unique provision of 76 reserve seats for women — thanks to the former President General Pervez Musharraf. Proportionate to the number of directly elected members of the lower house, political parties nominate women candidates on reserve seats. The basic idea behind this concept was to have a gender balanced National Assembly, giving women enough representation to raise their voices at this level.

Of the 76 legislators who constitute 22 per cent of the overall strength of the lower house, 16 are elected directly and 60 on reserve seats. Of the 60 women reserve seats, 35 are from Punjab, 14 from Sindh, eight from Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa and three from Balochistan. Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) being the majority party in the house has a lion share of 23 seats, followed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), 17; Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-Azam (PML-Q), 10; Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), five; Awami National Party (ANP), three; Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal Party (MMAP) and Pakistan Muslim League Functional (PML-F) one each.

None of these 60 members has been appointed full-fledge minister except two junior ministers — Mehreen Anwar Raja, Minister of State Parliamentary Affairs and Shagufta Jumani, Minister of state for Religious Affairs. However, two directly elected members have been given full-fledged ministry slots – Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Minister of Population Welfare and Samina Khalid Ghurki, Minister of Social Welfare. Sherry Rehman, who was elected on reserve seat, was given the important portfolio of information ministry but she had to resign owing to differences with the party leadership.

Since the allocation of 60 reserve seats for women by the former military dictator that has also been upheld in the 18th Amendment, one may question whether such a large number of unelected women MNAs have made any significant change in the house. Or they have only been able to increase budgetary expenditure of the house, which has crossed Rs1 billion mark during the outgoing financial year.

In a male-dominated society where in some parts of the country even today women are not allowed to use their adult franchise, presence of such a large number of women MNAs is a great opportunity to influence both policy and decision makings. They (women) were brought to the National Assembly not only to speak for their own folk, but also for other weaker segments of the society. However, they have failed to come up to our expectations, said a seasoned observer of parliamentary proceedings. They largely represent privileged class of the society, thus, could not make any significant change, the observer added.

He also suggested that political parties should fill these reserve seats with young women especially trained in the business of legislation and monitor the government functioning. Just imagine 60 fully dedicated parliamentarians who have no other engagement, can really bring a turn around in the house, which has so far been suffering from lack of interest

on the part of its occupants. Except a couple of its initial sittings, MNAs have lost interest in the National Assembly sessions and majority of them only turn up whenever there is some special occasion such as Presidential address etc. They [women MNAs] like their male colleagues, have serious attendance issues, what to talk of taking active participation in the National Assembly proceedings. Every time there are few known faces who at least make their contribution worthwhile, whereas rest of them remain absent and if they come to the house, spend most of their time in chit chat.

Yasmin Rehman, Justice (retd) Fakhrun Nisa Khokhar, Dr Mehreen Razaque Bhutto, Fauzia Wahab, Sherry Rehman, Farah Naz Isphahani of the PPPP; Nuzhat Sadiq, Tahira Aurangzeb, Khalida Mansoor, Shireen Arshad Khan, Nisar Tanveer, Advocate Anusha Rahman Khan of the PML-N; Marvi Memon, Attiya Inayatullah, Dr Donya Aziz of PML-Q and Kashmala Tariq of the PML-Like Minded and Bushra Gohar of the ANP are the ones, who at least participate in question-hour session of the National Assembly.

Source: Dawn

Date:5/28/2010

By Nilofar Ahmed

THE feudal structure of our society follows its own barbaric rules in order to perpetrate the inhuman and unjust system for the benefit of the few at the top rung of the hierarchical ladder. No matter which name they go by, the number of atrocities committed in the name of honour run into hundreds every year.

The despicable custom has filtered down to all the social classes, urban and rural. The heinous crime is committed in the name of honour to cover up property disputes, to avenge an old and festering enmity; or, if a woman asks for divorce from an abusing husband; or, to defend a murderer who has killed a man and tries to cover it up by killing an innocent woman, accusing the victims of being karo kari, and like cases. The term implies adultery, an extra-marital affair or sex outside of marriage, or obscenity, especially in the case of minors.

A double murder is also committed if a man and a woman decide to marry of their own choice. In many cases the woman victim might be the murderer’s sister, ex-wife or some other relative. Since the murderer also pretends to be the aggrieved party, he can twist the case in his own favour by pleading that his honour was soiled, and that he had no other recourse but to kill the offender! He often manages to get off with a light sentence, if any at all. Close relatives of the slain are also known to forgive the killer.

If, today, a husband finds his wife committing adultery with a man, it is considered acceptable in many Muslim countries for the husband to kill both the partners in the act, and most certainly the wife. But the Quran has a completely different story to tell. In li’an,the procedure adopted when a husband accuses his wife of adultery, but cannot produce four witnesses, he is supposed to go to the authorities and has to swear four times that what he is saying is the truth. SurahAl-Nur says: “Those who accuse their wives of adultery and cannot produce four witnesses, except for themselves, they should swear an oath by God four times that they are telling the truth. And swear a fifth oath invoking the curse of God if he is telling a lie. The punishment can be removed from the wife if she swears an oath four times by God that the husband is lying. And a fifth oath that the curse of God should be upon her if he, (the husband), is telling the truth.” (24: 6-9).

If she confesses or remains silent, she will be given the punishment fixed for adultery. If she chooses to swear that she is innocent, her word will be upheld against that of the husband, and they can undergo a divorce.

Based on the sayings of the Prophet (PBUH), the child born thereafter will be called the child of the mother, and will not in any way be connected with the father. If after this anyone calls the woman an adulterer, or the child an illegitimate issue, that person can be given the punishment of 80 stripes due to a slanderer, who will never be treated as a reliable witness again (see 24: 4). Unless a person can produce four witnesses, he should not bring up such a charge in the first place. Traditionally, the woman killed for karo kari is not given a proper burial, nor is she buried in the community graveyard. No one is supposed to visit the grave even later. Here it would benefit us to look at a hadith of the Prophet. Once a woman confessed to having committed adultery. The Prophet sent her back four times trying to avert the punishment, but she was persistent. At last she was given the punishment. After that the Prophet asked that her funeral prayer be said and she be buried in the same manner in which any other Muslim is buried.

The problem will persist until concrete steps are taken to eliminate honour killing. It is imperative that we include, train and re-orient the police and the religious leaders such as the pesh imams and the qaris in the scheme for reform. The religious leaders must be convinced that this practice goes against the Quran and should be asked to teach people in their sermons and the children in madressahs what an unjust act and a heinous sin and crime this brutal murder is. If we start now we can hope that at least our next generation will become more humane in the matter.

Source: Dawn

Date:5/28/2010

THIS is with reference to of the article ‘The war on Baloch women’ (May 26) by Rafia Zakria. In the article the writer has highlighted incidents that had happened to women in different parts of Balochistan.

Although the incidents are condemnable in every sense of the word, just limiting one’s scope to these issues and turning a deaf ear to other major issues amount to disservice to the nation.

All the leading Pakhtun and Baloch nationalist parties of Balochistan have condemned these incidents, but the irony is that not much attention is paid to the violation of human rights in the garb of law and order in Balochistan. This has become the order of the day.

Such articles only seem to be an attempt to divert attention from the real issues pertaining to this part of Pakistan.

There should be articles about the plight of women who have spent days on end in protest camps protesting for their loved ones in front of Quetta and Karachi press clubs.

USMAN KHAN
Quetta

Source: Dawn

Date:5/28/2010