Daily Times

The Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) noted, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, the increased presence of women parliamentarians as they took charge in key debates during the year 2018-2019

Female legislators maintained a track record of consistently surpassing reasonable performance expectations at decision-making forums through remarkable contributions to setting agendas for parliamentary business along with giving vital input on a range of social and economic issued.

In its report, FAFEN claimed that with a strength of 89 members, women lawmakers made up around one-fifth of the parliament; where 69 were in the National Assembly and 20 in the Senate.

Their active participation could be gauged from the fact that they sponsored 53 per cent of the private members’ bills(39 out of 74); 27 per cent of the resolutions (27 out of 100); 47 per cent of the Calling Attention Notices (51 out of 108) and 32 per cent of the questions(561 out of 1772) in both houses of the parliament.

Comparison of the on-floor performances also asserted that they authored or were a key force behind 40 per cent of the proposals for amendments to the parliamentary rules of procedure (four out of 10) and 39 per cent of the motions for debate on issues of public importance (41 out of 104).

Around 30 per cent of the parliamentary interventions were carried out either solely or after joining hand with other female members, while another three per cent was initiated through partnerships with their male colleagues.

Each female lawmaker roughly sponsored eight agenda items in the National Assembly whereas each male lawmaker tabled three. Women’s performance dipped slightly in the Upper House where they sponsored seven agenda items on average versus eight items by their male colleagues.

Women parliamentarians were not only actively contributing to the parliamentary agenda but also to the debates on scheduled business as well as by raising points of order and matters of public importance.

It was also said that nearly 62 per cent female lawmakers, 46 per cent in the National Assembly and 90 per cent in Senate, contributed to the discussions and debates during the parliamentary proceedings.

Touching upon the official attendance records, the report postulated that female lawmakers were more regular in attendance than their male colleagues. Roughly, each female MNA attended 83 per cent of the NA sittings while each woman senator attended 64 per cent of the Senate sittings. In comparison, male lawmakers attended 70 per cent and 57 per cent of the National Assembly and Senate sittings respectively.

Similarly, each Lower House session was attended by around 70 per cent of the female MNAs and 60 per cent of the male MNAs. Each upper house sitting also had 83 per cent female senators and 71 per cent male senators present in the House.

Keeping the remarkable contributions of the female lawmakers aside, it is quite dismal that their business was largely neglected in the lower house. Bills initiated by female lawmakers were said to be less likely taken up in the house as compared to those sponsored by male MNA.

Only a quarter (five out of 19) of such bills passed the first reading stage while 58 per cent (seven out of 12) male sponsored bills were heard.

Similarly, only two of 16 (12 per cent) female-sponsored resolutions were adopted in comparison to 13 (45 per cent) male-sponsored resolutions.

A likely reason for this ill fate of the agenda sponsored by females could have been due to it largely being private members’ business whereas a considerable size of the male-sponsored agenda came from the male-dominated federal cabinet.

When comparing to the last parliamentary year (2017-18), female contributions to the parliamentary agenda declined from 39 per cent to 33 per cent in 2018-2019.

Meanwhile, female MNAs are more likely to attend sessions since last year while the attendance of female senators remained unchanged.

The average attendance of each female MNA was 67 per cent during 2017-18 and 83 per cent during 2018-19, said the performance analysis.

The FAFEN report covered eight sessions of the 15th National Assembly, held between August 2018 and February 2019, and 13 sessions of the Senate, held between March 2018 and Feb 2019.

Published in Daily Times, March 10^th 2019.