Beyond the vote, how do we progress?

With a central and overriding campaign agenda — that of ridding Pakistan of corruption — the new government has promised a new Pakistan. But so far all we’ve heard is where the PM and his governors will live — in official accommodation or not; what transport they will use — an entourage of cars or helicopters; and taking bold and welcomed stances against bigoted populist thinking only to reverse it when the heat gets too much to handle. So far it seems that window dressing is the only order of the day.

With the echo of Britain’s New Labour’s early policies promoting the underclass and improving social mobility, the PM’s speech reflected a promise of an Islamic welfare state in order for the vulnerable and poor to have a chance in this newly-promised Pakistan. Economic growth and its importance was also repeatedly emphasised in the same address. Within this narrative of improving the lot of the vulnerable, the PM regrettably did not highlight the marginalisation and wide-spread prevalence of violence against women and girls in the category of vulnerable citizens and did not link sustainable economic growth to women’s emancipation. I do not say this only because I am a dupatta-burning feminist, I say it because the statistics are hard to ignore. Nation-building and poverty alleviation require that women and their specific needs are addressed separately from other issues. The only mention of women specifically in the first national address was our dire statistics on the maternal mortality ratio (MMR).

On MMR, according to UNFPA, a total of 9,700 women die to pregnancy-related causes a year. That is 1.1 deaths per hour of a woman across this country. The risk of a woman dying due to a pregnancy-related complication is one in 140 women. Children’s stunting was also a concern raised by the prime minister. I hope his offices make the inevitable link between the health of the mother as the central reason for a stunted child. According to a comprehensive research study by the Research Collective, in parts of rural Sindh, the link between the health of a mother — a mother’s BMI was recorded right after giving birth — and that of a child’s health in terms of stunting — which was recorded within three months of birth — is stark and disturbing. It was also established that a nutrition outcomes of children were associated with the health of their mothers.

The fact that the PM only mentioned this issue in his address, though important, is disconcerting, as it seems as if women dying in pregnancy are isolated tragedies. The societal and systematic discrimination from the day a baby girl is born into most Pakistani households is unrecognised and the link between this important factor and that, which leads to the high maternal mortality rate, must be recognised and addressed.

China was quoted twice in the PM’s speech because of its impressive record of pulling 17 crore people out of poverty in a span of 30 years. Again, I hope the prime minister and his officials have at the forefront of their minds the fact that the 17 crore included women. Importantly, the Chinese through the use of specific, comprehensive and sustainable policies that directly targeted women achieved this and their specific needs. China, and particularly Mao’s philosophy, that people armed with the right ideas can accomplish anything and the stress on ‘the worker’ meant that women’s work was considered as valuable as men’s. China’s full employment policy meant firstly, that unrecognised work of women, in the house and fields, was recognised and regulated. Secondly, it drove the Communist party to include specific policies and systems that supported the full employment policy. This meant establishing women’s trade union wings, healthcare centres, identifying women community leaders at the local level, daycare centres at all levels for working mothers and regulating the type of work pregnant women would do. It also meant breaking centuries-old myths and prejudices around the role of women as unrecognised carers and house bound help. Among other things, China’s economic success has been reliant on women enjoying social, economic and personal agency over themselves. Pakistan’s policies, on the other hand, address men only and believe women will indirectly benefit from men’s emancipation. This government will have to re-examine how poverty alleviation and an economically prosperous Pakistan require taking an engendered policy stance.

So far, the reality is that regardless of who is in power, Pakistan’s ruling elite have left little for people to pin their hopes on. For principles alone do not feed stomachs. Ordinary Pakistanis, 67% of who live in rural parts of the country, out of which 30 million are women, live sparingly, often invisibly, in either feudal fiefdoms of powerful landowners or in poverty-stricken conditions of bare survival. The disconnect between the ruling elite fighting for power and democratic principles, and the people’s lives of economic poverty and every day struggle is Pakistan’s true reality. Asking for votes and being elected is as far as elected politicians in Pakistan have gotten. Once in power, meaningful delivery is at the bottom of every politician’s wish list. Perhaps that is why this stranglehold of dynastic rule has been broken so easily. Ruling Pakistan is not a family business to be handed down automatically from generation to generation and we, as ordinary citizens, have been far too complacent with dynasticism and its consistent prevalence over our governance. At what expense this stranglehold has been broken, however, is too early to predict

But regardless of how one has come to power with seats in the legislative houses, being truly accountable to people, and the sanctity that this holds, has arguably not been fully understood by our representatives. This applies to all sides of the political divide and the PTI’s new promises with the same old faces arguably provide little real hope that the status quo will in fact change.

A general election on time and parliamentary representatives filling the Houses is more than we expected, but not close to what we need. Regardless of the losers and winners in the recent elections, political representatives of people must recognise that if the uphill task of establishing and maintaining democracy and sustainable growth is the goal, there is no other better starting point then the one they can initially control — actual representation of all ordinary people. Without taking women along with men true democracy and progress are bound to fail.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2018.

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