Religious Parties will Determine
their Fate
Power-sharing Deadlock
Offers Little Hope for Women
PESHAWAR:
Next week Pakistan's National Assembly will sit down to elect
a prime minister, but women's rights advocates here say it matters
little whether the power-sharing negotiations lead to victory
for the religious parties or for parties allied with the military.
That is because
whoever ends up the main political force in a coalition government,
the presence of the religious parties will be felt. They have
the numbers to form government in two of Pakistan's four provincial
assemblies near the border with Afghanistan, and are likely to
form government at the national level when the assembly convenes
on Nov 6.
Since the Oct. 10 general elections, activists have been closely
watching what the religious parties say, especially on issues
that affect women. Some women point out that religious leaders
would not be ideal for running the affairs of the bureaucracy.
''What do 'mullahs' (Islamic priests) know about governing a modern
welfare state? What they will do is tell women not to do this,
not to wear this or that. Their policies will sharpen the gender-based
segregation,'' complained Humaira Shah, a homemaker and mother
of two.
Religious parties have never done well in elections in this Islamic
country of 140 million people in the past. But
in the October polls, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) alliance
of six Islamic 
groups
exploited resentment of President Gen Pervez Musharraf's support
for the U.S.-led military action in Afghanistan to gain a foothold
in national and provincial assemblies.
In the 342-member National Assembly, the MMA won 53 seats, up
from just two in 1997. The
Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-e-Azam, dubbed the 'King's Party'
for its perceived support for Musharraf, emerged as the party
with the most number of seats at 96, but far short of gaining
a majority. The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) of exiled former
Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto came in second with 63 seats.
Because no group won a clear majority, parties have been horsetrading
to cobble together a coalition before Musharraf reconvenes parliament
next week. There has been talk of the possibility of religious
parties being a key factor in alliances that will form the new
government.
But the October election also produced the highest tally of seats
won by women in Pakistan since 1970. Thirteen
women were elected to the national Assembly on non-reserved, open
seats. Another 60 women - including 22 from the Pakistan Muslim
League Quaid-e-Azam, 15 from the PPP and 12 from MMA - were elected
to reserved seats for women in the assembly. This makes for a
total of 73 women in the assembly, or 21.3 percent of all members.
Asked if this would help the campaign against discriminatory laws
that affect women, Farzana Bari, director of Quaid-e-Azam University's
Centre for Women, said the women politicians would be united on
issues of violence against women but would be divided on party
lines when debating other gender-specific laws.
It remains to be seen if the increased presence of women leaders
would help activists' battle for women's rights in Pakistan, where
only 21 percent of women aged 15 and over were literate in 2000
compared to 60 percent of men.
Women bear the brunt of tribal practices as well as controversial
Islamic laws, such as the 'hudood' ordinance or morality laws
that were enacted by dictator Zia ul-Haq and which rights campaigners
want abolished.
'Hudood' laws are often abused and encourage extremism in this
patriarchal society, say activists and the Human Rights Commission
of Pakistan. Some 2,000 women are jailed in the country mainly
because of these laws.
Evidence so far suggests on some issues, the MMA is willing to
soften its hardline pre-election stance if it means striking a
deal that will give them a voice in a ruling coalition.
On Sunday, key MMA leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that the
party was now ''flexible'' on the question of U.S. troops' use
of Pakistani airbases on the Afghanistan border.
Rehman, who heads the pro-Taliban Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party and
is MMA's nominee for prime minister, also said the implementation
of Islamic ideology would be ''considered within the framework
of the constitution''.
Rehman
sought to distance himself from comments made by MMA vice president
Qazi Hussain Ahmed, who told an audience of exclusively female
supporters on Oct. 20 that his movement would seek to ban co-education
and establish separate universities for women in NWFP and Balochistan.
''For us education is important, whether it is co-education is
not a major issue right now,'' Rehman said on Sunday.But
for many women, the MMA has already shown its true colours.
''How can they say such a thing when male and female members in
the national and provincial assemblies would have to sit under
the same roof? People would really appreciate if the MMA made
efforts to provide social justice and establish gender equality,''
said Bushra Goha of the National Commission on the Status of Women.
Bushra
fears that the religious parties, especially the Maulana Fazl-ur-Rahman-led
faction of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam that is known for its hostility
toward development agencies, would hamper the work of NGOs in
NWFP and Balochistan.
She said conservative clergymen have instigated attacks on NGO
offices and urged local men to forcefully marry women activists
to stop them from working for NGOs.
However, Saima Munir of the Aurat (Women) Foundation, welcomed
MMA pledges to abolish ''honour killings'' -- in which male relatives
in tribal areas kill female kin accused of immoral behaviour.
Still, Rehana Shah, a research scholar at the Quaid-i-Azam University
here, said that ''making promises before an election is one thing
but implementing them in a real sense is another''. - IPS
