Govt to reserve parliamentary seat for capital’s women
Statement submitted in parliament calls for a constitutional amendment
PHOTO: APP/FILE
ISLAMABAD:
In what could be a ground-breaking move granting greater representation to women of the federal capital, the new government has apparently decided to allocate a reserved seat for women from the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) in the Parliament.
Law Secretary Abdul Shakoor Paracha has submitted a statement in the parliament to for allocating a reserved seat for women of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).
The concise statement says that the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in its April 28 order had declined to entertain a petition for the allocation of woman reserved seat from ICT in the Parliament.
PM Imran never took parliament into confidence over foreign visits, says Rabbani
The ICT, under Article 1(2)(b) of the Constitution, is a separate entity and is not part of the four provinces.
"The present (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) government believes in the emancipation of women and would not object to giving a seat of women in National Assembly and Senate of Pakistan from ICT to make the women at par with other federating units,” the statement read.
However, it acknowledged that to achieve this, the parliament needs to enact a constitutional amendment for which present government has resolved that do so through consensus.
“A suitable constitutional amendment bill is being proposed," added the statement.
Citizens of the city are entitled to equal protection of the law under Articles 4 and 25 of Constitution, hence the ICT sees the allocation of electoral seats in the national assembly where residents can directly elect their representatives into the parliament.
These seats, determined on the basis of population, used to be limited to two until the last census when an almost doubling of the population meant that the ICT gained a seat in the last election.
The federal capital, though, has never elected a woman into the national assembly. A look at the past election results up to 1972 (as per records maintained by the Election Commission of Pakistan), shows that women have never seen parliamentary representation from the city.
In 1972, when there was just one seat allocated in the assembly for the capital, Chaudhary Zahur Ilahi of the Muslim League won the elections. In 1977, it was Zahoor Ahmad of the Pakistan Peoples Party who won. In 1988, it was Raja Pervaiz Khan of the PPP. In 1990, it was Haji Nawaz Khokhar of the IJI who won.
The 1993 elections saw Khokhar retain his seat while contesting from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) platform. It was the first election in the past 30 years which saw a woman compete in the elections for the capital with Fauzia Saleem Abbas garnering just 242 votes to Khokhar’s 59,308 votes.
Then in 1997, as Nawaz Sharif returned to the PM’s chair, Syed Zafar Ali Shah won the elections from PML-N’s platform.
Parliament Lodges: Senators dissatisfied with CDA’s performance
With the 1998 census doubling the number of seats for the capital as well as the nomenclature from NA-35 to NA-48 and NA-49, the elections saw Muhammad Aslam of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) and Nayyar Hussain Bokhari of the PPP win the two seats.
In 2008, Anjum Aqeel Khan and Bokhari won with the election seeing two women contest, Naila Joseph Diyal and Noreen Khan.
In 2013, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi of the PTI (later vacated and won by Asad Umar of the same party) and Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhary of the PML-N won the elections. But only a handful of women contested elections in the city.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 13th, 2018.
In what could be a ground-breaking move granting greater representation to women of the federal capital, the new government has apparently decided to allocate a reserved seat for women from the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) in the Parliament.
Law Secretary Abdul Shakoor Paracha has submitted a statement in the parliament to for allocating a reserved seat for women of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).
The concise statement says that the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in its April 28 order had declined to entertain a petition for the allocation of woman reserved seat from ICT in the Parliament.
PM Imran never took parliament into confidence over foreign visits, says Rabbani
The ICT, under Article 1(2)(b) of the Constitution, is a separate entity and is not part of the four provinces.
"The present (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) government believes in the emancipation of women and would not object to giving a seat of women in National Assembly and Senate of Pakistan from ICT to make the women at par with other federating units,” the statement read.
However, it acknowledged that to achieve this, the parliament needs to enact a constitutional amendment for which present government has resolved that do so through consensus.
“A suitable constitutional amendment bill is being proposed," added the statement.
Citizens of the city are entitled to equal protection of the law under Articles 4 and 25 of Constitution, hence the ICT sees the allocation of electoral seats in the national assembly where residents can directly elect their representatives into the parliament.
These seats, determined on the basis of population, used to be limited to two until the last census when an almost doubling of the population meant that the ICT gained a seat in the last election.
The federal capital, though, has never elected a woman into the national assembly. A look at the past election results up to 1972 (as per records maintained by the Election Commission of Pakistan), shows that women have never seen parliamentary representation from the city.
In 1972, when there was just one seat allocated in the assembly for the capital, Chaudhary Zahur Ilahi of the Muslim League won the elections. In 1977, it was Zahoor Ahmad of the Pakistan Peoples Party who won. In 1988, it was Raja Pervaiz Khan of the PPP. In 1990, it was Haji Nawaz Khokhar of the IJI who won.
The 1993 elections saw Khokhar retain his seat while contesting from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) platform. It was the first election in the past 30 years which saw a woman compete in the elections for the capital with Fauzia Saleem Abbas garnering just 242 votes to Khokhar’s 59,308 votes.
Then in 1997, as Nawaz Sharif returned to the PM’s chair, Syed Zafar Ali Shah won the elections from PML-N’s platform.
Parliament Lodges: Senators dissatisfied with CDA’s performance
With the 1998 census doubling the number of seats for the capital as well as the nomenclature from NA-35 to NA-48 and NA-49, the elections saw Muhammad Aslam of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) and Nayyar Hussain Bokhari of the PPP win the two seats.
In 2008, Anjum Aqeel Khan and Bokhari won with the election seeing two women contest, Naila Joseph Diyal and Noreen Khan.
In 2013, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi of the PTI (later vacated and won by Asad Umar of the same party) and Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhary of the PML-N won the elections. But only a handful of women contested elections in the city.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 13th, 2018.