PESHAWAR: With the exception of one lawmaker none of the women members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly could introduce even a single bill in the last seven months.Almost seven months have passed when the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government formed its government in the province. There are 22 female MPAs in the provincial assembly. Interestingly when reached for her comments, Maliha Khan, a woman lawmaker elected on the reserved seat from the quota of the PTI said that since she had not been given a berth in the provincial cabinet so she could not work “too much”. However, she pointed out that as the chairperson of the women caucus in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly she along with other lawmakers was working on a host of issues. She said the newcomers in the assembly were often inexperienced and unaware of the rules, procedures and nature of proceedings.Maliha Khan said the provincial cabinet did not have representation of the women lawmakers. She said only two women lawmakers were the chairpersons of the assembly standing committees. She added that Sumaira Shams was the chairperson of the Standing Committee on Health while Momina Basit was chairperson of the Standing Committee on Zakat.“Actually the issue is that most of the women MPAs are new. They are not familiar with the proceedings of the assembly,” she argued. She claimed the female lawmakers would make their presence felt in the assembly as soon as they became familiar with the assembly procedures and proceedings. “We want to play an active role in the assembly. We will focus on the issues of women and special persons” lawmaker Sumaira Shams told this scribe. She brushed aside the impression that the women lawmakers were sitting idle in the assembly.Sumaira Shams pointed out that they were working on various issues including Inheritance law, child marriages, women trafficking, home-based workers and domestic violence issues under the women caucus committee.The PTI has 16 women MPAs, Awami National Party (ANP) and Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) two each while Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz-N (PML-N) have one each.Apart from the newcomers, Nadia Sher, Maliha Ali Asghar, Aisha Naeem, Shagufta Malik, Sobia Khan, Rehana Ismail and Humaira Khatoon have been elected for the second term.The women MPAs are highly qualified and have the ability to work for the wellbeing of the society, but it is said they are not taking interest in assembly proceedings.The PTI MPAs Aasia Asad and Sumaira Shams are doctors. Aasia Khattak has done her Masters in International Relations and also has an LLB degree.Shagufta Malik of ANP has done Masters in Political Science, Rehana Ismail of MMA has done Masters in Islamic Studies and Sobia Khan of PML-N also has a master’s degree.According to an official of the assembly, almost 35 bills were moved in the assembly during first seven months after the general election but not a single bill was related to women empowerment.According to the available record, MMA’s Rehana Ismail is the only woman lawmaker who submitted a bill titled, “The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2019” on February 14 2019.The objective of the bill is to amend the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities Act 2012 for removing doubts about the question of professorship and meritorious professorship in the various provisions of the said act, appointment of officiating vice-chancellor or acting vice-chancellor and the dean as the case may be.This bill also aims to remove duplication of membership of administrative officers in the Syndicate mentioned in contrary clauses (k) and (p) of the section 22 of the said Act as being made in the subsequent amending Act namely, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities (Amendment) Act, 2016 (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Act No X of 2016).
from The News International - National https://ift.tt/2HVa3oq
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