22 April, 2013

Aurat Foundation expressed dismay over ‘no women in highest election commission body’.

Aurat Foundation has expressed dismay on weak manifestation of women’s participation for general election 2013.
Beginning with the Election Commission, there is no female in the 5 member highest body to conduct the election in just free and fair manner. How can an election be just for 50% of population with 38 million women voters when all decision makers are dominated by males?
Out of 4 provincial Election Commissioners, there is no one representing female. Downwards, there are not even 5 lady officials among more than 2500 permanent personnel in ECP.
The same scarcity is apparent in political campaigning that has ushered in from the announcement of the schedule of the general election 2013. Even the government at state level has failed to provide sufficiently for defecto equality as evidenced by statistics.
Only 16 women in the National Assembly have been directly elected on general seats. This makes it 5.8% which fall farshort of 30% envisaged by the Beijing Platform for Action and the UN.
Reserved seats, if included, improve the dismal picture slightly. There were only 22.2% women members in the national assembly. This falls at provincial level where only 18.6% women represent the four provincial assemblies.
Despite Pakistan’s signing in 1996 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the nation lags behind in electoral dynamics. It is feared that with this regressive trend it may not be possible to bridge theyawning gap even after general election, despite rhetoric wishes echoing in manifestos of political parties.

Released by
Media Cell
Gender Election Monitoring Cell
Aurat Foundation
Lahore