ISLAMABAD – Women parliamentarians, actively participating in the parliamentary business, remained more assertive in comparison with their male counterparts in the National Assembly. According to FAFEN’s direct observation of proceedings from March 11, 2010 to March 4, 2011, women members accounted for almost half of the parliamentary agenda conducted during the third parliamentary year of the thirteenth National Assembly.
In the National Assembly, 60 women were elected on reserved seats and 17 through popular vote. Despite their significant under-representation, women members actively participated in the parliamentary business as compared to many of their male colleagues in the National Assembly that is headed by the country’s first woman speaker.
The women parliamentarians put up 2,458 parliamentary interventions during the entire third parliamentary year. FAFEN defines a parliamentary intervention as each of the instances when a member of the National Assembly either submits an agenda item on the orders of the day (calling Attention Notices, Questions, Private Members’ Bills) or raises his/her concerns during a debate on the floor of the House (Points of Order, Supplementary Questions, Debate on Adjournment Motions).
Despite the fact that 18 women parliamentarians failed to participate in any form of parliamentary business during the entire year and 43 women parliamentarians came up with less than 10 parliamentary interventions, the remaining 34 female parliamentarians contributed almost half of the parliamentary business conducted during the year. There were 10 female parliamentarians, who contributed more than 100 interventions each during the year. These 10 active parliamentarians can be credited for 60 percent of the participation registered by all female parliamentarians.
In other words, these 10 women members accounted for around one-quarter of the parliamentary activity in the lower house of the parliament during the year. All the women parliamentarians conducting more than 100 parliamentary interventions have been elected on reserved seats and with the exception of one member of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid, all belong to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.
Female parliamentarians with more than 100 interventions include Shireen Arshad Khan with 176 interventions, Marvi Memon (171), Nuzhat Sadiq (164), Tahira Aurangzeb (161), Qudsia Arshad (155), Nisar Tanveer (154), Khalida Mansoor (131), Tasneem Siddiqui (130), Nighat Parveen Mir (120) and Shaheen Ashfaq (114). With the exception of Marvi Memon from the PML-Q, all of these parliamentarians are affiliated with the PML-N.
On average, each of these 10 parliamentarians put up 112 questions. More than one third of the total questions (34 percent) were put up by these parliamentarians. There were 5 popularly elected women parliamentarians who did not register any participation during the entire year. The five female parliamentarians include four from Pakistan People’s Party and one PML-N – elected through popular vote, made more than 20 parliamentary interventions each during the third parliamentary year in the National Assembly.
Among popularly elected women Members Azra Afzal Pacheho (PPP), Saira Afzal Tarar (PML-N) and Mrs Shamshad Sattar Bachani (PPP) put up 54, 34, and 30 parliamentary interventions respectively. Agenda-wise, during the third parliamentary year, 136 Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) moved 130 Calling Attention Notices (CANs), of which 37 (29 percent) were women members. Female parliamentarians put up 1,685 questions out of the total 3,339 questions raised in the assembly during the third parliamentary year.
Out of 34 Private Members’ Bills on the Orders of the Day, 17 were submitted by single female members, including the only Private Members’ Bill passed by the Assembly during the third parliamentary year. Women Members raised a total of 199 Points of Order during the year, including 23 POs related to non-inclusion of their submitted agenda items on Orders of the Day or seeking permission to take part in discussions on agenda items submitted by other members.
A total of 41 female members from six parliamentary parties participated in raising Points of Order. All 6 female parliamentarians affiliated with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement participated in raising Points of Order during the reporting period. Fifteen female members of the PPP put forth their concerns through Points of Order, followed by ten PML-N female members, seven PML-Q female members, two ANP female members and one independent female member.
