26 women MPAs, including 18 from PTI, in KP but not a single minister, adviser

PESHAWAR: Despite having higher academic qualification and professional experience, the women Members of the Provincial Assembly (MPAs) have neither been accommodated in the provincial cabinet nor given any important task by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.

On the contrary, the male MPAs with low educational qualification have been inducted as ministers and advisors in the provincial cabinet.

The PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in its previous term in office made seven MPAs the parliamentary secretaries. However, even at that time the female lawmakers often complained that they were not given adequate funds like their male colleagues for development projects. At the time, Nageena Khan was made parliamentary secretary for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Department, Khatoon Bibi was assigned the Health Department, Tourism Department was given to Bibi Fauzia, the Public Health Engineering department to Aisha Naeem, Nadia Sher was appointed as the parliamentary secretary for Home and Tribal Affairs, Dina Naz got Social Welfare Department and Nargis looked after the Relief, Rehabilitation and Settlement Department.

Presently, there are 26 women elected to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on women reserved seats but none of them has been given any important office. Among them, 18 women MPAs belong to the PTI. Three of them - Nadia Sher hailing from Swat, Maleeha Ali Asghar belonging to Abbottabad and Ayesha Naeem from Peshawar - were re-elected. In terms of their educational qualification, some of the female lawmakers are highly educated. Madiha Nisar has earned her M.Phil degree in Biotechnology while Dr Sumaira Shams and Dr Asiya Asad are doctors with MBBS degrees. Ayesha Bano, Zeenat Bibi and Asia Saleh Khattak are law graduates and by profession are practicing lawyers.

Shagufta Malik, an MPA affiliated with the opposition Awami National Party, has done her master’s in Political Science. Sobia Shahid having political affiliation with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has earned her master’s degree in Islamiyat and also done B.Ed. Baseerat Khan affiliated with Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) has done her master’s in International Relations and Political Science. Some of the PTI women MPAs, pleading anonymity, told The News that they were expecting that a woman would be given a berth in the provincial cabinet, but it did not happen. “A woman can well comprehend the issues being faced by the women. It would have been better had a woman minister been inducted in the cabinet to deal with the problems of the womenfolk,” argued a female PTI lawmaker.

A former lawmaker of the provincial assembly, Meraj Hamayun Khan said women have been ignored again during the KP cabinet reshuffle and expansion. In a letter to Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, she said that not taking women in the cabinet was a violation of the Constitution. She added that the constitution provides equal rights to all citizens without any distinction on the basis of gender.

Meraj Humayun said the women were almost 50 percent of the population and they have special needs. She said the women’s social, economic and political role should have been acknowledged by the government. She noted that women still have problems while accessing offices staffed by men. “They need women to listen to their grievances and help them to solve their problems,” she maintained. An analyst said it would be a pity if the PTI government completes its second tenure in the province without women in the 30-member cabinet.