Despite their minority in the Punjab Assembly, women legislators performed better than their male counterparts during proceedings of the provincial assembly between June 2013 and February 2017, according to a report by the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) released on Tuesday during a ceremony held to observe the International Women’s Day.
The ceremony was arranged to pay tribute to women legislators for their remarkable contributions to the legislative body. Women make up a little more than 20% of the 371 member legislative assembly.
The report showed that 69% of the assembly’s women tend to attend sittings of the assembly compared to 48% of their counter parts, averaging 111 sittings during the reporting period compared to 86 by men. “The women participation rate was also slightly higher than men as 81% of the women took part in proceedings by contributing to the agenda and/or debates as compared to 80% of the men,” the report highlighted.
“Women legislators sponsored 33% of the questions, 31% of the resolutions and adjournment motions each, and 21 % of calling attention notices, while 17% of the questions of privilege and zero hour notices were initiated by women. The agenda initiated by women related to the sectors like governance, education, health, and social welfare,” the report said, adding that women lawmakers were also inclined to raise the issues of their gender in the assembly, highlighting matters related to women’s health, violence against women, female education, and employment.
“The women lawmakers’ contribution to the assembly’s business was high in proportion to their representation in the assembly. Nearly one third of the public agenda was initiated by the women,” reads the report.
Appreciating the lawmakers, the report stated it was due to the efforts of the women that the assembly had passed laws putting institutional mechanisms in place for the regulation of employment conditions for women, restriction of child marriages, and mandatory provision of maintenance by husbands for their wives and children.
Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan while congratulating the women for their better performance said that the Punjab Assembly was committed to resolving the issues of women lawmakers in the House. “Despite their lesser numerical strength, they give a tough competition to their male counterparts on nearly all indictors of parliamentary performance,” he said.
