Preferential treatment?: Women legislators sidelined in development fund allocation

Money allotted to male counterparts while they were ignored, says women’s caucus.

PESHAWAR:

Women lawmakers of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly criticised the government for not allocating development funds for them, drawing attention to money which had been released for their male counterparts.

As a result, the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus (WPC) will chalk out a strategy to deal with the issue during the ongoing assembly session.

The caucus comprising 22 women MPAs, including treasury lawmakers, have adopted a united stance for the immediate release of funds, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MPA Amna Sardar told The Express Tribune on Friday. Sardar is also a member of the WPC subcommittee

Women from both opposition and treasury benches walked out from the last assembly session because the government had not yet released development funds to them. “I know we have been elected on reserved seats but the people of our constituencies also need development projects,” stated Sardar.



WPC Chairperson Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli claimed, “Women MPAs are being discriminated against by the government which is why they were compelled to walk out of the assembly session on October 11.”

During the last assembly session, women lawmakers from the treasury benches held a meeting with Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and informed him of the matter, explained Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) MPA and parliamentary labour secretary Meraj Humayun Khan. “The CM had then promised to release Rs10 million in development funds for each female lawmaker through the social welfare department.” According to the procedure, Humayan explained, treasury lawmakers were required to submit their proposals for various development projects in their constituencies aimed at women’s empowerment to the social welfare department.

The K-P government initially released Rs10 million for each male legislator and Rs20 million more was also announced for them, added Humayan. However, the CM had announced funds for all women MPAs as well, said the QWP MPA.

Pakistan Peoples Party MPA Nighat Orakzai also confirmed the WPC had taken up the issue with the CM. If any woman legislator was left out in the allocation of funds, they would approach the court, maintained Orakzai.

Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency chief Ahmed Bilal Mehboob disagreed with the government’s decision to allocate funds directly to lawmakers in the absence of local government officials.

“Development work is the responsibility of local government representatives, if the funds are released directly to MPAs it only interferes with local government affairs,” said Mehboob.

“The major responsibilities of a lawmaker include legislation making, supervision of development schemes and fulfilling other constitutional obligations,” he elaborated.

Every year, Rs20 million in development funds are allocated to each member of the assembly. The amount is supposed to be to launch development schemes in the respective MPA’s constituency based on his or her recommendation.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 28^th, 2013.