Gender Apartheid: A Barrier to Women’s Political Empowerment

Muhammad Sabeel Khan

Democracy without fair representation of gender is a limping horse, lamed by gender apartheid. Gender apartheid, though not legally recognized, is as dangerous as a virus and is similar to racial apartheid in outcomes.

Gender apartheid has crippled numerous democracies around the world, as it has done in Pakistan. The patriarchal virus running in the veins of Pakistan’s political system has infected half of the population, women, who make up around 49% of the total population.

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Although there are numerous examples where countries began with male-dominated institutions, steeped in religious, social, and cultural norms embedded in society, they did not take long to make their political institutions inclusive of the opposite gender and close the gender gap in political participation and leadership.

Some African and European countries have been successful in achieving the critical mass of 30% seats held by women in national Parliaments, increasing the proportion of women in Parliament to 26.9% in 2023 from 11.3% in 1995 (IPU, 2023). Pakistan, like many South Asian democracies, including India, is an exception.

Gender quota in politics was an antidote to remedy the inequalities streaming out of political institutions, spreading towards other institutions, and hence keeping a huge chunk of the population, women, at bay from the decision-making apparatus.

Gender Apartheid: A Barrier to Women’s Political Empowerment

Some countries had laws in place even before the UN resolution stated in Article 7 of CEDAW that states should take measures to eliminate discrimination against women in public and political life and ensure, on equal footing with men, their right to vote in elections, referenda, and participate in the decision-making and implementation process at all levels of government (CEDAW, Article 7, 1981).

Pakistan had a nominal gender quota when it ratified CEDAW in 1995, but that remained stagnant for decades. Women’s quota seats (reserved) fluctuated between 3% to 10% until 1999 and went to the lowest of 0.9%, 1.8%, and 2.8% in the 9th, 10th, and 11th Legislatures from 1990 to 1999 (PILDAT, 2004). During the time, when Pakistan became the first Muslim country to have a woman Prime Minister for two terms in the last decade of the 20th century, Pakistan had not a single woman in the senate between 1990 and 1997 (Rubab, et al, 2020).

The new millennium saw an unexpected turn when a non-elected dictatorial rule emerged to cling to this feat of women’s political empowerment after Musharraf allocated 17% of reserved seats in the parliament and provincial assemblies and a 33% candidate quota to women in the Local Body Elections. This, too, has a separate base of criticism in civilian circles, but we are to investigate if that led to fruition.

After the 2002 elections, Pakistani national and provincial assemblies were introduced to a greater number of women, and in 2008 Pakistan topped the list of the Gender Index (GEM) among South Asian countries, jumping up to the 58th position from 100th (IPU, Women in Parliament: World Classification, 2008) with a total of 22.2% women in the National Assembly of Pakistan (National Assembly of Pakistan).

A huge increase in bills related to women’s rights was witnessed, which is generally associated with the positive outcomes of reserved seats for women. Nevertheless, the reserved quota could not serve the purpose of empowering women politically in spirit. Rather, it became a tool of dynastic politics and a soft entry to parliament for influential political families.

The reserved quota seats have offered a privilege to women hailing from wealthy political families, whereas the seats are predominantly distributed among kith and kin (Zakar et. al, 2018). Therefore, the majority of women legislators lack the experience to survive in the male-dominant suffocating political environment.

Research studies enquiring into the weak presence of women found that the majority of women legislators selected on reserved seats believed that they needed training on how to proactively navigate and engage through the technicalities of politics, the majority of whom came through the reserved quota, which proves the stance that women nominated on reserve seats lack political exposure (Khan, et al., 2020).

Moreover, the unelected nature of reserved seats further diminishes the aura of women’s presence in law-making bodies and weakens their agency to assert themselves against masculine norms in Parliament. The male-dominant directly elected assembly floor seems unwelcoming to women politicians who lack any accountability or link to their constituency.

They are sometimes referred to as holders of charity seats. Their opinions are subjected to those of the male caucus and party heads, which is the only reason behind their legitimacy as legislators. The sentiment of being selected and privileged airs feelings of exclusion, whereas their opinions are less likely to be considered on the floor.

This state of affair leads to silencing, further entrenching the glass ceiling, and sometimes to verbal assaults on women legislators. Hence, deep inside, the number does not matter (Khan et al, 2020). While inside political parties, there is a bold manifestation of patriarchy, even the leftist political parties are not absolved in this case. The central executive cabinets of Political Parties in Pakistan reflect no signs of inclusivity.

Instead, at the time of election campaigns, one can see a flood of female campaigners during elections, conducting door-to-door campaigns to garner female votes for their parties, but party decisions only come out with the blessings of males sitting at the top of the party pyramids.

Furthermore, the unequal geographical distribution of reserved seats and the lack of measures to oversee just distribution among districts further render them a mockery. The constitution is completely blind and toothless when it comes to just distribution of reserve seats among all geographic localities. The gender quota, seemingly meant to eradicate gender inequalities and empower women, is itself instrumental in causing inequalities.

The allocation of 14 reserved seats out of 60 to members hailing from Lahore in the National Assembly implies that 14 women represented a single region, Lahore, on reserved seats in the National Assembly. The same discrepancy followed in the provincial assembly of Punjab where out of 66 reserved seats, 39 were awarded to women coming from Lahore, the same region.

Other provinces of Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Quetta depict the same dilemma (FAFEN, 2023). Again, there are no constitutional requirements and/or restrictions provided by the constitution to keep the distribution of reserved seats equitable, regulated, and straight in terms of serving the purpose of women’s political empowerment, instead of party heads and the parties in government.

This criminally negligent attitude by the parties in government, and the absence of legal actions against blatant inequalities rightly puts it in match with gender apartheid.

On the other hand, legislating a 5% quota (Election Amendment Act, 2017) on party electoral lists could not promise any success towards this goal. It yielded negligibly, contrary to expectations. This was generally an imitation of more developed countries having strong political cultures. This, too, like reserved quota seats, lacked checks and balances and was limited to paperwork.

This legislation technically applies to those political parties fielding 20 or more candidates in the election, which inherently reflects its weak approach. Reserving tickets through political parties was not known to Pakistan’s political institutions in the 20th century. Contrary to other political systems around the world, this important amendment failed to rocket women’s political empowerment, rather putting it on the backtrack. T

he immediate election of 2018 experienced a deep dive in directly elected women candidates, at a time when an additional 5% quota was in place on the electoral list. The number of directly elected women candidates went to the lowest in the last two decades. Interestingly, none of the major political parties complied with the 5% candidate quota, including the Pakistan People Party Parliamentarian (PPPP) that moved this amendment.

Other political parties included PMLN, MMA, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Nazriyati (PTI-N), Pakistan Rah-e-Haq Party, and Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (Express Tribune, 2018). Unfortunately, neither action was taken nor any law enacted to be invoked in these circumstances. This failure on the part of political parties and the Election Commission of Pakistan could not draw any attention to avoiding the same in the future.

Surprisingly, only a few major political parties conceded to this legislation in practice during the 2024 general elections, and those who failed to do so followed no legal action, although some CSOs filed petitions (FAFEN, 2024; Aurat Foundation, 2024) against this blatant violation and lodged complaints, but all in vain.

With less than the critical mass of 30%, if combined, this hybrid gender quota system cannot carry the way with the stubborn norms. The non-compliance of political parties, toothless legislation of 5% quota on the electoral list, and the so-called charity seats, coupled with dense dark clouds of patriarchy in the top tiers of political parties, close the gates of innovation to politics. It is hard to see any women in the cabinets of the past three governments.

This state of deeply entrenched social, cultural, and patriarchal norms coupled with institutional tardiness is a hard nut to crack, but tightening the law and bringing encompassing legislations with a push for greater representation in party-level decision-making, fielding an equal number of men and women in the election can offer a lightbulb moment to women’s political empowerment.

Eradicating these hazardous social, cultural, and patriarchal norms and institutionalizing women’s political empowerment necessitates signing a new social contract on equal terms between the two stakeholders, i.e., men and women. This is the need of the hour. Regulating the existing laws through accountability measures would be the band-aid solution to crack the apartheid-like complexion of the current structure.

About the Author: Muhammad Sabeel Khan – Women Ascension Peace and Justice Fellow
http://linkedin.com/in/muhammad-sabeel-khan

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