Women Parliamentarians Outnumber Men in Proceedings

News Desk

Islamabad: Constituting one-fifth of the parliament, women parliamentarians outnumber men in proceedings and continued to make up the majority of the National Assembly and Senate regular members throughout the year. Women parliamentarians accounted for nearly 35 percent of the parliamentary agenda, 36 percent in National Assembly, and 30 percent in the Senate.

Women members of the National Assembly and the Senate upheld their tradition to assertively perform their legislative, representative, and oversight functions during 2022–23.

According to a The Trust for Democratic Education and Accountability (TDEA) and Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) report on women parliamentarians performance in 2022–23, on average, each female (MNA) attended 57 (66 percent) of the National Assembly sittings, as compared to an average of 46 (53 percent) sittings attended by their male counterparts. Similarly, each female senator attended an average of 39 (68 percent) Senate sittings against their male counterparts’ average of 32 (56 percent) sittings.

During 2022, a rise in political unrest was brought on by rallies organized by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) following the passage of a motion of no-confidence in the former prime minister in April; which resulted in PTI MNAs, including 27 women members, avoiding assembly proceedings for the whole year under the guise of mass resignations, which were only rescinded earlier this year, with the exception of its 20 members.

Notwithstanding the outstanding efforts made by female lawmakers, their agenda remained unmet in parliament. Over half of the Calling Attention Notices (CANs), more than two-thirds of the private member legislation, and every private member resolution, motion for public interest discussion, and proposal for revision to Assembly rules either expired or were still ongoing at the end of the session.

The questions continued to be the sole intervention in which female MNAs outperformed their male counterparts in terms of response rate. During the year, women lawmakers (both in the Senate and National Assembly collectively) accounted for roughly 35 percent of the parliamentary agenda—32 percent on their own and 3 percent in conjunction with their male colleagues.

In addition to their contribution to the agenda, women lawmakers also actively participated in the debates on scheduled business and in raising Points of Order. On average, each female MNA contributed 18 agenda items to the Orders of the Day, against nine by male MNAs.

Similarly, each female senator contributed 12 agenda items to the Orders of the Day, against nine by male senators. Thematically, the women parliamentarians sought discussions on a range of issues of public importance, including inflation, energy supply and pricing, the performance of government departments, the protection of women, children, and human rights, and law and order in the country.