Written by: Naseem Anthony
The National Census 2017 counted 207 million people, representing 48.4% of women. In the context of women’srights, the constitution of Pakistan 1973 specifically bears several provisions to guarantee equal citizenship status and prohibit state institutions from discriminating against sex. These constitutional guarantees created the feasible grounds for successive governments to introduce pro-women laws, establish commissions and helplines, announce women empowerment packages, and allocate reserve quotas and exclusive social protection schemes. Contrary to this, the rising incidence of violence against women, the increasing ratio of crimes against women, and discriminatory practices against women have exposed the fragile institutional setup with insufficient resources and poor political will to implement the pro-women laws.
Pakistan has ratified almost all of the important treaties of United Nations including Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) with the commitment to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women through statutory covers including affirmative measures. Besides, Pakistan has pledged to adhere to Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs) and constitute a Task Force on SDGs ensure the compliance to support these efforts further. Regarding the SDGs, the Goals 5 – encompasses nine (9) targets and fourteen (14) indicators, have received the particular attention. Moreover, regarding the right to marriage [with free will], the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) in its article 16 (1) urges the state parties to ensure it, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) further reinforced the principle.
In light of the mentioned human rights framework, it is commendable that Pakistan has enshrined principles of equality before the law and non-discrimination in its Constitution, particularly with Article 25, which ensures equality of all citizens before the law and prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex. Furthermore, for defining the element of gender and intersection, the introduction of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act is anappreciable gesture as it acknowledges the rights and dignity of transgender and intersex people in Pakistan. Similarly, the special attention of minorty women, transgender community, and women with disabiltiies in National Gender Policy 2022 demonstrates Pakistan’s compliance to international obligations regarding gender equality. Such policies are reflecting the attempt to ensure just, peaceful and inclusive society. These policies and initiatives exemplify Pakistan’s commitment to promoting gender equality and upholding human rights. Pakistan strengthens its legal infrastructure by incorporating international standards into domestic legislation and policy frameworks. It demonstrates its dedication to upholding human rights for all its citizens, regardless of gender identity or expression.
EXISTING CONTEXT OF WOMEN RIGHTS
Despite all these efforts and initiatives, however, the social practices in the country have led to the marginalization of women, both in terms of economics and politics. The influence of religion on lawmakers, along with the deeply ingrained culture of patriarchy and conservative interpretations of religion, has made women [particularly minority women and trans–women] vulnerable to discrimination and exploitation. These are the primary drivers that appreciated the huge disparities in economic opportunties, enouraged the legal and political inequalities, and intact the trend and tendency of anti-women social practices such as underage/forced marriages, rape, domestic violence, and other honor related to crime. Since the situation is prevailed in the entire country; however, the context of the province of Punjab specifically is highly alarming in this manner.
The province accommodated 120,358,962 souls, including 49% of women. Among these 63% are the inhabitants of rural areas. The strong partiarchal cultural practices and orthodox or fundamental interpretation of religion are the domninate factors which created a huge disparities in various sectors. For instance, in political arena, the official data of National Assembly revealed women legislature 21% of the 341 members. At the same time, the same pattern reflected in the Punjab Assembly with 20 percent women of the 270 members. The stark contrast is identified in social protection and safety net programmes as Punjab Employee Social Security Institution (PESSI) revealed 31673 male and 3233 female beneficiaries, constituting 90.7% male and 9.3% female.
Regarding the women’s represnetation in justice system, the The Punjab Gender Parity Report 2022 revealed 2.5% women in judiciary, 16% female at Punjab Prosecution Services. The mentioned female representation is only on low ranks as no female is appointed at the office of DIG and Additional IG. The recent General Election 2018 further recorded this parity in the Punjab province with the ratio of 55.4% male and 47.5% female voters.
Regarding the general trend of violence against women and crimes against women, the Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation (AWAM) noted 27428 reported cases, from which 577 incidents are of domestic violence, 91 cases are related to forced abortion, and Early Age Marriageswere 34. The recorded pattern of the violence against women has indicated the prevanlent form of violence with 14233incident of different forms of harassmen, and 12493 reported cases of women trafficking underscores the pervasive nature of exploitation and abuse faced by women. The AWAM further noted 289 reported cases of religious conversion and forced marriages of minority girls of age between 12 and 16.
CONCLUSION:
The data reflects concerning trends and tendencies and depictsa bleak picture of the various forms of violence and crimes perpetrated against women. It further exposed that the government has introduced laws [without political will to implement], and established institutions, due to insufficient resoruces, merely served as an eye-wash in international reporting.
Since Article 25 of the Constitution of Pakistan 1973 guarantees the equality before law and prohibits from discriminating against women based on sex alone; however, it does not ensure the participation of other sections of women such as ethnic and religious minorities. Regarding it, it is inevitable to amend article 25 to expand the definition of discrimination against women [including intersecting forms of discrimination] and incorporate internationally recognized prohibiting grounds of discrimination barring direct and indirect discrimination in public as well as in private spheres. Specifically amending the legal age of marriage [from 16 years] 18 year for both sexes and making the Nikkah registration conditioned with National Identity Card [with vigrous implementation] can not only influence the ratio of underage marriages but also affect the ratio of forced conversion of minority girls and forced marriages of minority girls.
Moreover, the domain of access to justice further requires the special attention of the authorities and political decision-makers to ensure the elimination of all barriers [including economic and communication barriers] for women/girls that hinder their access to justice. Simultaneously, allocatingappropriate human and technical resources, as well as sufficient financial resources, can strengthen the judicial system [further].
Regarding the local context of gender-based violence, it has been noted that the reported cases often do not present the actual context of violence against women. Ill luck it may be, many cultural and religious beliefs normalize and encourage domestic violence, leading many women to stay mum and not report the abuse they experience in domestic settings. Thus, it becomes complicated to calibrate the degree of gender-based violence in society accurately. Furthermore, the insufficient numbers of shelter homes [for women] with scarce resources for vicitms of gender–based violence are the further challengewhich can be overcome by ensuring the inclusive and accessible shelters for women [victime of violence] and strengthening medical and psychological support services, legal counselling and rehabilitation services.
Concerning disadvantaged groups of women, the discriminatory practices towards minority women/girls, women with disabilities, and intersex women are a matter of serious concern as the rising graph of abduction and forced conversion of minority girls, forced sterilization of women with disabilities, and low level of social acceptance of intersex women are demanding the special attention of the authorities and political decisionmakers for addressing the intersecting forms of discrimination against women/girls.
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