Proving that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has gender bias and is conservative in outlook, the party not only neglected women workers and leaders for important portfolios in the recently held elections for the districts and central offices but also did not elect or nominate office-bearers for its women wings.
The PML-N in its central general council meeting elected as many as 11 central office-bearers, including president, chairman, five senior vice presidents, deputy secretary general, secretary and deputy information secretary and finance secretary but no position was considered fit by the PML-N top command for any woman leader. PML-N President Nawaz Sharif on Saturday appointed two retired army officials, Lt General (r) Abdul Qadir Baloch and Lt General (r) Salahuddin Tirmizi, as the party’s central assistant secretaries general. This time too, the PML-N preferred two retired military officers over dedicated party’s women leaders. Currently, the PML-N has the chairmanship of seven National Assembly standing committees apart from the Public Accounts Committee, but all these chairs have been allotted to male MNAs. The PML-N has five members in the prestigious PAC and all of the seats have been reserved for male parliamentarians.
A source in the National Assembly’s Secretariat said in 2008, when National Assembly Speaker Fehmida Mirza was seeking nominations from various parliamentary parties for the chairpersons of standing committees, the PML-N had clearly told the PPP leaders that they would not nominate any woman MNA for the reserved seats for chairpersonship of any parliamentary committee. The source said the PML-N conveyed its decision after learning that one of its MNA- Ishrat Ashraf – was lobbying to secure the chair of a National Assembly standing committee. The PML-N’s Punjab MPAs were luckier than the party’s MNAs as three of them, including Zil-e-Huma, Shabina Riaz and Samina Wasim Butt succeeded in securing the chairwomanship of three of the 38 standing committees of the Punjab Assembly. Similarly, there is no representation from the party’s women MPAs in Shahbaz Sharif’s cabinet. Though, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has one female adviser in Saba Sadiq, this seat too was awarded to Saba in exchange of her defection from the PML-Q. There is another lucky PML-N MPA Nazia Raheel who secured the slot of parliamentary secretary for special education and that too apparently on the grounds that she had won the PP-88 seat from Toba Tek Singh instead of coming to the PA on reserved seats for women.
The PML-N also gave very little importance to women while nominating district presidents and secretaries general last month as 99 percent of the positions were filled by the party’s male members. Currently, after the dissolution of the party’s women wings from central to district levels, Nuzhat Sadiq is working as central organiser of the PML-N Women’s Wing while even after consistent demands from the party’s women workers, the PML-N has not nominated presidents of party’s women wings at the central, provincial or district level.
A source in the PML-N told Pakistan Today that the party’s women MNAs on reserved seats were not even authorised to float their proposals for uplift projects from the prime minister’s granted Rs 20 million development funds at their own whim. “These women MNAs on reserved seats just approve the projects proposed by male elected MNAs to consume Rs 20 million development funds in the financial year,” said the source.
When contacted, Khurram Dastgir Khan, PML-N deputy secretary information said the gender bias impression about his party had been formed prematurely. “We accommodate women workers/lawmakers according to their capability… we are going to reorganize the party’s women wings in a week or two,” he added.