In 2010, two years into the democratically elected, PPP-led civilian government, Ammara Durrani (Communication Specialist, Ministry of Information) asked me to write a brief assessment of its record, thus far, on the ‘woman question’ for an official publication. As a Pakistani feminist, I have historically documented and opposed conservative and religious patriarchal groups and politicians who uphold and promote discriminatory policies against women and minorities. Unlike most (nearly all) liberal women’s rights activists in Pakistan, however, I certainly did not qualify as an apologist for the PPP, even when it used to be headed by the late Benazir Bhutto. So it was intriguing to be invited to contribute.
To Ammara’s credit (and the information ministry’s) the piece was carried with no censure or changes (in ‘Promise, Policy, Performance’, Government of Pakistan).
However, two years into the nebulous democratic dispensation and unsure of how much critique a government publication would allow, my piece was perhaps more cautious than it should have been (“Women’s Rights: Completing Old Agendas, Meeting New Challenges”). Still, when read against the other contribution – a sentimental, wooly, post-Zia tribute to BB by Sherry Rehman (“Shaheed Bibi’s Role in Women’s Empowerment”) which had little to do with the performance of the 2 years of the PPP government, mine was perhaps a little more redeemable as a tentative yet fair view of the possibilities and missed opportunities regarding this government’s approach to women’s rights.
In the article, I had argued that it was ironic that women’s rights struggles have been arguably most dynamic under dictatorships and despite my consistent opposition to Musharraf’s take over and subsequent rule, I have always acknowledged the progressive policies promoted during his rule with reference to women. It has been my contention that this was only due to the fact that women activists and representatives (often across party lines) chose to strategically cooperate in order to further the women’s rights agendas. The most obvious example lies in the parliamentary vote to pass the 2006 Women’s Protection Bill (reforming the Zina Ordinance) whereby all the Islamists boycotted the session in protest (including Imran Khan) along with the conservative Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz group). It was due to the votes of the opposition party of the PPP that the Musharraf government managed to pass the Women’s Protection Bill.
This commitment to women’s rights/empowerment made it all the more difficult to understand the policy decision of the PPP, once it came into power in 2008, to not appoint a minister for women’s development even 2 years later. Still, it is a comment on the legislative achievements of the PPP-led government, which, in the 13th National Assembly appointed a woman speaker for the first time in Pakistan’s history and passed historic pro-women laws against domestic violence, harassment at the workplace and public places, anti-women practices, and elevated the status of the National Commission on Women. This is especially true when compared to those previous (non-democratic) assemblies, which were involved in giving constitutional cover to religious bodies such as, the Council of Islamic Ideology and the Hudood Ordinances and were interested only in extending supra-Constitutional monarch-type status to their own leadership.
The passing of the 18th Amendment and awarding of the NFC as well as 19th Amendment changes to the Constitution are the kind of structural reform that make for sustainable democracies and this credit also goes to this last government. These affect women and their long-term status and rights as citizens as much as they do men. Recently much has been written over the numerous questions asked by women representatives in their 5 years in Parliament as tabulated by various networks and observing bodies such as, the Fair and Free Election Network. However, the quality of questions asked and the timing of these remain under-examined.
When the Nizam-e-Adl regulation was passed early in this government’s tenure, the silence of all these legislators (including the Pukhtoon representatives) was critical. More interestingly, at the time when the Taliban were wreaking systematic havoc in Swat, PPP-apologist women journalists (supposedly objective in their profession) argued with women’s rights activists in Karachi for the need to maintain strategic silence and not criticize the PPP government for not restoring the CJ or the passing of then Nizam-e- Adl, since this would invite military intervention in the political process! This is the same justification deployed by Islamists, some leftists and dictators who argue we shouldn’t discuss violence against women, children and minorities because it is to wash dirty laundry in the public and invites imperialist intervention!
Similarly, the murder of governor SalmaanTaseer and subsequent isolation of Sherry Rehman was also met with detachment and indifference that amounted to desertion by their own party members. Again, women representatives and activists were conspicuous through their silence as they extended only lukewarm support to both targeted members of the liberal party. Also, the appointment of Hazar Khan Bijrani as PPP’s education minister, despite his patronage of Jirga justice and involvement in Swara barter of girls and Israrullah Zehri, a legislator, who defended reports that three to five women had been buried alive in the deserts of Balochistan province as an honour punishment, undermined early on the identity claimed by the PPP as a pro-women government.
Most of all, it has been the discontinuation of the local bodies by this government that strikes at the root of women’s political empowerment. Where over 30,000 women had been conscientized and involved in the local level, grass-root political processes (however flawed and under-funded), this government’s unwillingness to restore the LG system will inflict a long-term backlash on the nascent movements that promise the only viable bottom-up politicization in the country.
In comparison, there has been lesser attention paid to women’s rights progress under the much commented-on ‘judicial activism’ after the reluctant restoration by the PPP government of the Chief Justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry. Attacked consistently by PPP apologists (again, who have been silent on Justice Dogar’s shenanigans in the interim), the fact is that despite over-reach on several fronts, the CJ has continued to take suo motto notice and pass judgments in favour of women’s rights. This is not to suggest that the kind of judicial adventurism demonstrated over the last 5 years is justifiable but simply that, as women’s rights groups, we need to perhaps be selective in our supportive priorities for women’s rights rather than remain partial to a party regardless of its record and symbolic lip-service. One can only imagine the kind of backlash that the PML-N would have received if it had followed such policy steps as those outlined above, instead of the PPP.
Thus, while the Supreme Court did not pass the kind of exemplary judgment or sentence that women’s rights groups were hoping for in the Mukhtara Mai case, still they remained silent on the CJs stand/suo motto call for the need for Hindu Marriage laws, forced conversions/marriages in Sindh and the Lady Health Workers minimum wage and regularization of jobs (to mention a few) --- cases where the PPP government was opposed to and an obstacle rather than facilitator of these women’s rights. Divided loyalties become the bind that the liberal women’s groups tend to succumb to due to the historical blinders they tend to wear every time the PPP comes into power.
Certainly, women politicians have come into their own over the last decade and importantly, they have made their presence felt in the provincial assemblies too. Whether this will translate into democratic progress for women or not depends on how feminist their consciences have become in the process. If not and if they consider themselves gender-neutral and distance themselves from the women’s movement, then the chances of more conservative approaches to the woman question are likely to dominate Pakistan’s political future. The liberal bar, however unsatisfactory, that this PPP government has set regarding women’s rights will have to be beaten by any government that follows. If they don’t then the PPP/ANP will remain by default the ‘pro-women party’. It’s an opportunity that other political contenders should rise up to and which will be closely watched by women’s rights groups and an increasingly vigilant formal media and active social media.
Afia S Zia