Contrasting tales

When a debate over fuel prices grew louder in the New Zealand parliament this week, the speaker of the assembly had to call for order lest it disturbs the six-week-old infant of a lawmaker. The infant was, at that time, being fed through a bottle by the speaker himself. Since relaxing the rules in 2017, the New Zealand parliament has welcomed about a dozen infants born to lawmakers. Mallard, a father to three children and with six grandchildren, said he tried to help care for lawmaker’s babies whenever possible. The speaker of the New Zealand assembly believes that bringing children into the apex law-making body of the island-nation helps “add to the positive atmosphere of the workplace”.

Last year, Jacinda Ardern became the first New Zealand PM to take maternity leave, and only the second PM in the world to give birth while in office. The first, of course, was our own Benazir Bhutto who gave birth to her second child, Bakhtawar, while in office. However, despite setting that trend 30 years ago, Pakistan is still far behind. A few months ago, a Balochistan MPA was bashed by her male colleagues for bringing her infant to the assembly. One fellow lawmaker even asked her to “leave the house”. This presents Pakistan’s missed opportunity. Even though women make up more than half of the country’s population, they are kept out of key decision-making areas, even as critical as the parliament.

Having a child is not a crime. And as the Balochistan MPA said, it is essential for working women to have their children with them to be able to better focus on work. That mistake was partially rectified weeks later when a day-care centre was set up in the Balochistan assembly. It is time we took a leaf out of New Zealand. Perhaps, like the women, it will get the men to also focus on the one thing that is most important: our combined future.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 24^th, 2019.

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