Fauzia Viqar, Chairperson Punjab Commission on the Status of Women, talks about the work of the commission and the challenges it faces

The News on Sunday: How successful has the Punjab Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW) been in changing mindsets in addition to pushing for more inclusive and pro-women policies at the provincial level?

Fauzia Viqar: I’m not so sure about changing mindsets at this stage because we’ve been in existence for only two years. I’m confident of starting conversations on gender issues on tables where there were none. The government departments that weren’t collecting data on women, and had not realised the need for gender-segregated data are more aware now. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) provided us gender-segregated data for registered women voters but was unable to provide us data for votes polled so we don’t know how many women voted. The ECP then assured that it would give us the complete data in the next election: voters registered and votes polled.

We also led a data-sharing initiative where we brought the police, prisons, prosecutor’s office, Lahore High Court, Punjab Info Tech Board to the table. As a result, the police promised to share the FIR data with all these departments. Somehow, we were able to convince these departments that staying tight-fisted doesn’t help people. Now, the Gender Management Information System (GMIS) that we’ve made that has the government data, is there for everyone to utilise. We may not be doing well in some areas but we’re working to improve things. I see the GMIS as a very big contribution because I haven’t come across a gender management information system or gender parity report made by any government in Asia. I can safely say there is none. This [Pakistan] is the only country and Punjab is the only province that has come up with that.

TNS: How does the commission’s work compliment that of other organisations or entities pressing for women’s rights in the province or even starting conversations?

FV: If you keep the conversations alive, you get good gains. For example, in Qandeel Baloch’s case, the police -- of its own accord -- added a Section 311 of Pakistan Penal Code. I feel that these discussions happening are not just due to us: There is a department called Women’s Development Department, there is the Ombudsperson’s Office to deal with sexual harassment of women at workplace. The Chief Minister’s Special Monitoring Unit is working on curbing domestic violence, and civil society has always spoken of domestic violence and women’s issues.

One thing we do is collect hard data so it no longer remains anecdotal. This is provided by relevant departments themselves so they can’t say this is incorrect data. Our helpline serves as a monitoring mechanism with respect to follow-ups on complaints. We also interact closely with districts through district monitoring visits. For instance, recently I went to Khanewal on a district monitoring visit. The idea is to talk to all line departments in the district and find where they’re at in implementation of women empowerment packages, in providing access to rights to women and also physically monitoring conditions of institutions in which women are kept, for example jails and the Dar-ul-Amaans.

There’s been a change in a sense because when I come back from district monitoring visits, we send a report to the concerned secretary with recommendations and they realise that somebody is looking at these institutions and things do improve after that. Recently, we’ve also started doing in depth exploratory research.

TNS: In terms of legislative reform, how closely is the commission involved in discussions on laws in the realm of women’s rights?

FV: We’ve engaged very closely with the family law reform -- marriage, marriage before 16, family laws, dowry, honour killings. For Punjab, we’ve been active members of committees and hosted meetings. We’ve tried to figure how to deal with the menace of honour killing. We’ve also been closely involved with Protection of Women from Violence Act of the Punjab government which fortunately has passed. We constantly give inputs in national and international treaties and reports. To date, we’ve given input in about 64 national and international policy documents. It could range from domestic violence to honour killing to policy on adolescent girls or it could just be monitoring international conventions. We directly monitor CEDAW, the Women’s Bill of Rights (convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women). So, the commission monitors it from women’s perspective and for the 16areas of CEDAW. We started to monitor sustainable development goals that Pakistan signed. So, those are substantive areas.

TNS: What kind of response has the commission’s helpline received?

FV: Whenever you start something, especially if it has social connotations, it takes time to take off. The helpline is doing really well. For about a year and a half that we have been working on this, we’ve had about 42,000 calls and over 400 complaints: very real complaints. We only call anything a complaint if it gets registered and we are taking full action on it (instantly approaching the concerned department as to what the complaint is about and asking them for a report and sending them a reminder every 10 days and then phone calls and follow ups). Ultimately we do get an answer from them. Women call with very real problems. So we’re getting lots of complaints.

The confusion at this moment is they think we are the first-level service provider. We want or envision the commission to be a very strong oversight body -- a watchdog that constantly watches whether state institutions are providing access to rights to their women citizens. It’s not a welfare project, it’s a rights project because women are citizens, and all citizens have equal access to and right over rights. I don’t want to do the job of the police or the health department. That is someone else’s job. What we can do is make sure women are not discriminated against based on their gender in getting all these rights and services.

TNS: How do you bring awareness among and reach out to women who need institutions for redress?

FV: When there was a publicity campaign, there were 7000 calls -- it’s that relevant! We market in various ways: employ local print media. My preference is always South Punjab. We target mainly local papers or regional editions of newspapers. We also advertise by sending SMSs to people or we’ll do robo calls. Our Facebook and other social media tools are quite active. We’ve had some tv and radio presence -- mainly through my own appearances on tv interviews. I’ve appeared in at least 46 tv programmes in the past year and a half to apprise people of the helpline and the services the commission is providing. I would say another 20 or so radio programmes are in the pipeline.

We have a very strong team of board members: These are nine representatives from the nine administrative divisions of Punjab plus a minority member and a member from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. They are the ones who talk in their own divisions. They communicate information and provide that connection between the people at the grass-roots level that we otherwise may not be able to maintain.

TNS: To what extent can the priorities/inclinations of the provincial governments influence the performance of provincial commissions for status of women?

FV: This government has taken a lot of ownership of women’s empowerment because of which doors have opened and things have become much easier. Everybody understands that this is the priority for the current government. I know that Sindh passed its law to make their commission in April 2015 -- it’s been a year and a quarter, they haven’t even appointed a chairperson. In Punjab, the law was passed on of February24^, 2014 and on March 8, 2014, the chief minister announced my appointment. So, you can take your cues from there. Balochistan has not even passed a law. The KP commission was formed much before us but they don’t have the resources or the support to do as much as they’d like to. So for a fledgling institution like my own commission, the government support is crucial to taking off.

TNS: What challenges does the commission face on a daily basis? What does the future look like to you?

FV: At times, processes slow things down. I would like to move at three times the speed. But I’m constrained by the processes which I understand are there for a reason. But at times I’ve noticed they can be expedited. That’s something related to the work of the commission; but, in terms of issues, we get apprised of new issues all the time or new needs.

For instance, through the helpline service I am finding out that legal aid is very important for women; counselling is very important for some women. When women call, they are traumatised. Invariably many women suffering abuse are depressed. We were apprised of the need for transitional homes because women have nowhere to go. When I announced this, everyone said, "Thank God, you’re doing it because this is what we were thinking about". I don’t know if it’s going to go well or not but we hope to make it work.

It’s a continuous learning process. You keep finding about the issues and how complex they are and how they play out. For instance, someone apprised us about the issue of no birth registration and consequently CNIC of female sex workers. Since, they don’t have a father per se, they can’t get CNICs because of which they can’t get access to services so that was a new area for me. I had not thought about it, to be honest. We wrote to NADRA and asked them to do something about it then. One of my challenges has been that once we develop a rapport with the head of a department, he or she gets changed and we have to start all over again. That is part of bureaucracy. That stays a challenge. It’s an uphill battle, I feel.