Daily Times

Now that the third elected government has resumed charge of affairs of the country, at least at the de jure level, in the continuation of ‘transitional democracy’ since 2008; and women have been continuing to get elected on reserved seats for many years in the national and provincial assemblies and local governments; it might be worthwhile to revisit the women in politics question. This article refers to some literature (mainly Khan and Naqvi 2018; also Cheema et al. nd) to illustrate the discussion.

It is worth probing the mechanism through which women use their presence in the legislatures to work for women’s larger interests. Women’s parliamentary caucuses have played a role in supporting and organizing women legislators to introduce some pro-women legislation in the recent past.

Though Khan and Naqvi’s paper (cited above) has a larger framework to it as well, we are particularly interested in the results of the qualitative women politicians’ survey that they undertook just before the July 2018 elections with 200 women politicians belonging to the Senate, national and all four provincial assemblies.

Thinking on a more general level in terms of representation, there is a lack of clarity whether women legislators represent their parties’ interests or of women voters in their areas. This issue goes back to the mechanism through which women legislators are selected in the legislatures. Since they do not have their constituencies and are selected by the political parties proportionate to their seats won in the direct elections; representation and accountability can be fuzzy.

In the survey cited above, women legislators were asked whom do they represent? An overwhelming majority, 75%, stated that they represented their ‘imagined constituents’ as ‘women of Pakistan’, ‘people of Pakistan’, or ‘women in my province or home region’. Only 19% were of the view that they represented their own political party interests. Hence, there was sense amongst the majority of women legislators holding themselves accountable to their ‘constituents’. There was some inter-provincial variation in their responses, as well.

Though, women legislators have made a contribution on the floor of the assemblies; yet there is a ‘disconnect’ between their performance and their self-perceptions of being accountable to women of Pakistan; and their male co-politicians views of them being the ‘charity seat holders’ who owe their seats to their respective political parties and therefore should toe the party lines. Therefore, there is a need to amend the election law to make it possible to elect women legislators in a way that matches self-perceptions of their sense of accountability.

Though, women legislators showed a strong preference for re-election should the opportunity be available, they preferred being re-elected on reserved seats rather than contesting general elections. At the same time, there was a desire to increase the quota for women ticket holders in the political parties to be more than the 5%. It may show the sense of ‘complacency’

It would also help if there were a clear pathway for women politicians to graduate from local government level to reserved seats in the national or provincial assemblies; and from their reserved seats status to them being turned into more electable to contest the general elections on direct seats. It would have helped them to become independent politicians on their own. Such a pathway is not visible so far despite nearly two decades of recent history of reserved seats for women.

Though, Cheema et al. (nd) paper focuses on the dynastic politics in Punjab; it has a similar prescription for increasing electoral competition. It suggests utilizing the political space through local government elections due to the greater seats’ availability, potentially to non-established and non-dynastic politicians as well (who may or may not later make their own political dynasties in the future). The local government politics can act as a nursery to allow new political contestants in the electoral field. It might help to graduate from more personalized politics in the form of dynastic politics to develop a more party-based structures at the local level. Once the politics matures from personalized politics to party-based politics, there is room to organize the party politics around policy issues. This prescription can be equally applicable to the women reserved seats election mechanism.

Though, women legislators’ work has been noticeable by utilizing forums such as the women parliamentary caucuses. There is a larger sense that they can only reach their true political potential if their ‘primary membership’ of being elected on reserved seats has more political backing. In the present configuration, the political parties can ignore women legislators on reserved seats and they also do not receive ‘developmental funds’ since they do not represent any particular geographical constituency, other than the political party or provincial affiliation.

Though, women legislators showed a strong preference for re-election should the opportunity be available, they preferred being re-elected on reserved seats rather than contesting general elections. At the same time, there was a desire to increase the quota for women ticket holders in the political parties to be more than the 5%. It may show the sense of ‘complacency’, yet also reflect the realistic manner they can engage with politics in the near future, given that it has been difficult for women to win on the direct seats in the general elections.

In terms of the recommendations, incorporating the mandate of women parliamentary caucuses into the ‘rules and procedures’ of the respective assemblies can turn the status of these caucuses as forums of ‘permanent standing’ and would give them a constitutional cover, so that women legislators can give feedback on the bills and carry oversight of the relevant government ministries, amongst other responsibilities.

There is also a recommendation to elect women directly on reserved seats through a more open competition; or in the medium term, to introduce a change in the current law that would bind the political parties to select women on the reserved seats through a ‘transparent and merit-based procedure’ rather than filling the seats with women who are perceived to be ‘proxies’ and the party loyalists.

The writer is an Islamabad-based social scientist