Political Empowerment of Women in Pakistan

“No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your
women are side by side with you; we are victims of evil
customs. It is crime against humanity that our women
are shut up within the four walls of the houses as
prisoners. There is no sanction anywhere for the
deplorable condition in which our women have to live.
You should take your women along with you as
comrades in every sphere of life.”
(Muhammad Ali Jinnah, 1944)
With the advent of the Pakistan Movement, women’s
participation in the freedom struggle became a dire necessity,
both for increasing the Muslim vote bank and for displaying
numerical strength at the Muslim League’s political rallies. In
1940 Mr. Jinnah announced, “Women are supposed to create a
sense of general political consciousness. They should stand
shoulder to shoulder with men in practical politics.”1 This saw
the removal of cultural and social restrictions on their traveling
for purposes of attending political gatherings. Unfortunately, in
spite of the Quaid’s personal views, 1948 saw an abrupt end to
this temporary political freedom. However, a few determined
women continued to play very important roles in the political
empowerment of the women of Pakistan. This article seeks to
record and eulogise their successes, while simultaneously
analyzing the effects of their failures on the body politic of
Pakistan.
The first such lady was Miss Fatima Jinnah who was an
inspiration to the women of Pakistan and continues to be held in
high esteem even today. She formed the Women’s Relief
Committee, which played a vital role in the settlement of
refugees in the new state of Pakistan.2 After the Quaid’s death,ഊ142 Pakistan Vision Vol 10 No 1
she assumed the mantle of the Protector of Public Interest. She
fearlessly pointed out the lapses of the rulers on a regular basis,
and continuously beckoned the Nation back to the Quaid’s
cherished principles. In 1964, after Khawaja Nazimuddin died,
the Combined Opposition Parties (COP) nominated Miss Jinnah
as their presidential candidate.3 By agreeing to challenge Field
Marshal Ayub Khan at the height of his dictatorial power, she
not only electrified the Nation, but also took a massive step
towards the political empowerment of women. This, one
courageous decision, raised the threshold of political ambitions
amongst the female politicians of the Subcontinent to the very
highest levels. It may well be worth researching what role her
decision may have had on motivating Mrs. Indira Gandhi to
become Prime Minister of India a few years later. Her
candidature also put an end to the knotty question of a woman’s
right to become the head of a Muslim State, as even the Jamat-i-Islami
gave her its grudging support, albeit under the concept of
it being “the need of the hour.”4 Surprisingly, the APWA and its
leaders, including Begum Raana Liaquat Ali Khan and Begum
Fida Hussain, opposed Miss Jinnah and actively campaigned for
President Ayub Khan.5 This was all the more unfortunate as
Begum Raana Liaquat Ali Khan had been taking a leading role
in women’s movement ever since the creation of Pakistan.
In 1948, in the immediate aftermath of Independence, two
very determined lady members of Pakistan’s Constituent
Assembly, Begum Shaista Ikram Ullah and Begum Jahan Ara
Shahnawaz, managed to achieve a phenomenal level of political
success for the women of Pakitan.6 Through dedicated and
focused hard work, they succeeded in getting the Muslim
Personal Law of Shariah passed under which women were
granted the right to inherit property, including agricultural land.7
The irony is that, even after this law became fully effective in
1951, it was seldom practiced, as it could not change the deep-rooted
male custom of denying this right to their women,
especially in the interior of the country. Although, in an even
greater irony, Islam had granted women the right to inherit
property fifteen hundred years earlier. Muslim men in the
subcontinent have continued to negate this as they feel they must
protect their property from falling under the control of the men
of another family into which their sisters and daughters were toഊPolitical Empowerment of Women in Pakistan 143
be married. Therefore, the achievement of these two ladies was
truly phenomenal as they had debated and ensured the passage of
this law in an Assembly largely populated by the landed gentry,
in a country dominated by male chauvinism.
In 1955 Prime Minister Mohammad Ali Bogra took a second
wife,8 which instigated women organizations to launch a
campaign against his second marriage.9 The United Front for
Women’s Rights (UFWR) was formed under the leadership of
Begum Jahan Ara Shahnawaz. Under pressure from UFWR and
APWA, the Government formed a commission headed by the
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Mr. Justice Rashid, to study
the existing laws of marriage, divorce, maintenance and custody
of children and recommended modifications to bring them into
conformity with the dictates of Islam.10 The Rashid Commission
finalized its report in 1956, which included a detailed dissenting
note by its religious member Maulana Ehtesham ul Haq
Thanvi.11 As a result of sustained pressure and dissent from the
orthodox religious elements, the report was unfortunately
shelved.12 However, five years later it was to form the basis for
the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance, 1961. 13
“Equality of status, equality of opportunity, equal pay for
equal work and guarantee of rights for Muslim women under the
Muslim Personal Law of Shariah” were apart of the Charter of
Women’s Rights, prepared by Begum Jahan Ara Shahnawaz.14
The Charter was passed by the Constituent Assembly with an
overwhelming majority, in spite of the fact that Mr. Zafarullah,
who was chairing the meeting, opposed the bill. It was his
contention that a newborn state could not afford this “luxury”,
especially as British Prime Minister even Mr. Churchill had
refused to agree to equal pay for equal work for women in
Britain.15 Therefore, the adoption of this charter was certainly a
great victory for both the lady parliamentarians in particular, and
the women of Pakistan in general.
However, the landmark legislation of that era was the
acceptance in the 1956 Constitution, of the principle of female
suffrage for the seats reserved for women, allocated on the basis
of special territorial constituencies. This, in effect granted
women dual voting rights – one for general seats and the other
for the reserved women’s seats.16 The importance and potential
of this right towards the political empowerment of women wasഊ144 Pakistan Vision Vol 10 No 1
apparently not fully grasped by the framers of our subsequent
constitutions. Hence it was abolished in the 1962 Constitution,
which replaced it with a system of indirect elections.17 This
stipulated that henceforth the elected members of the Assemblies
would elect women members for the reserved women seats. As
voting would obviously be on party lines, women candidates
would therefore be selected by their party bosses rather than
elected by their real constituents i.e. the women of Pakistan. This
in fact turned women members into “token representatives”.18
Unfortunately, this concept of indirect elections was retained in
the 1973 Constitution.19
During the 1970 Election campaign, Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto
emerged as the clear front runner in the Punjab and Sind,
particularly among the poorer segment of civil society. His
message had a special fascination for women who were
encouraged to believe that, in a PPP regime that would provide
“Roti, Kapra aur Makaan,” they too could develop as dignified
human beings in their own right.20 Thus, for the first time,
women voted for the candidates of their own choice, irrespective
of their husband’s desires. This was a big step in the political
empowerment of women at the grass roots level.21
On assuming power in December 1970, Mr. Bhutto gave top
priority to drafting a new constitution. Begum Nasim Jahan and
Begum Ashraf Abbasi were the two lady members of the
Constitution Committee who played the same role that Begum
Jahan Ara Shahnawaz and Begum Shaista Ikram Ullah had
played in 1956. 22 It was largely due to their efforts that the 1973
Constitution brought about greater gender equality, declaring all
citizens to be equal before the law and stipulating that there
would be no discrimination on the basis of race, religion, caste or
sex for appointment in the service of Pakistan. It also guaranteed
reserved seats for women in Local Bodies and mandated that
steps be taken to ensure the participation of women in all spheres
of national life. As a result, women now entered those superior
services from which they had hitherto been barred such as the
CSP and the Foreign Service.23
However, as mentioned earlier, in spite of forceful demands
put forward by APWA and other women organizations, and a
determined effort made by Begum Nasim Jahan in the National
Assembly, the principle of female suffrage for the reservedഊPolitical Empowerment of Women in Pakistan 145
women’s seats, was not revived in the 1973 Constitution.
Bhutto’s Law Minister, Mr. Abdul Hafeez Peerzada, felt that as
in the past the political parties had been unable to find suitable
female candidates beyond the big cities, an election based on
female suffrage would produce unhealthy results. He was also
influenced by the fact that, although women had played a
remarkable role in the 1970 Election Campaign, none of them
was able to get elected. In his view this proved that the better
category of women politicians were adverse to fighting a direct
election. He therefore thought that the interests of women would
be best served by a system of indirect elections, which would
attract a better breed of women politicians.24 However, Begum
Nasim Jahan was of the view that as the electorate for this
indirect form of elections (or more appropriately the nominating
authority) would comprise entirely of males, the women
parliamentarians would be reduced to being mere token
representatives.25
The period of Gen Zia’s Martial Law, which followed after
the overthrow of Mr. Bhutto, was a rather lean period for women
politicians. In fact, after the Bhutto ladies had been forced to
leave the Country, women politicians seemed to have virtually
disappeared from the landscape. However, in the wake of the
promulgation of the Hadood Ordinances, this vacuum was filled
by a class of educated women activists who had emerged to form
pressure groups committed to protecting women’s rights. These
laws, wittingly or unwittingly, reduced the legal status of women
through the Qanoon-e-Shahadat on the one hand, and virtually
tyrannized them by the faulty interpretation of the Zina
Ordinance on the other hand.26 Whereas the first barred them
from giving evidence in cases of rape, qazf, bodily harm or
property, the second resulted in a rape victim being jailed for
Zina unless she could produce four Muslim male witnesses to
prove that she had been raped.27 Thus was born the Women’s
Action Forum (WAF), which continues to be active even today
in its struggle for ensuring basic rights for women.28
Although, relatively speaking, the Musharraf era proved to
be a political boom for the women of Pakistan, unfortunately it
also did not restore the principle of female suffrage for women’s
reserved seats on the basis of special territorial constituencies as
envisaged in the 1956 Constitution. The effects of this lapse canഊ146 Pakistan Vision Vol 10 No 1
best be judged by an analysis of the elections held in 2002.
Although Gen. Musharraf very boldly increased the number of
reserved women’s seats to an unprecedented 20% in the
Assemblies 29 and 33% in the Local Bodies, reportedly as many
as 31% of the women in NWFP, Baluchistan and Southern
Punjab were not allowed by their men to vote.30 If the principle
of women voting for the reserved women’s seats had been
included in the LFO, even MMA Party leaders would have been
“encouraged” to ensure that their womenfolk went out and voted
for MMA women candidates. The alternative would have been to
surrender the 20% reserved women seats to their rival parties.
This would also have had the advantage of making candidates
for the reserved women’s seats accountable to their women
voters, thus forcing the candidates to devise political agendas
conductive to resolving women’s problems and helping them to
achieve their due rights.31 In other words, women’s demands
would have been presented and fought for in the assemblies by
women parliamentarians, who would have had to demonstrate
their dedication and record on women issues as an essential
requirement for seeking re-election.32 This would have been in
stark contrast to the position that has persisted ever since the
abrogation of the 1956 Constitution, whereby women
parliamentarians have been beholden to their party leaders, who
have virtually “nominated” them for occupying the reserved
women seats.33 Thus, even today, their political subjugation has
not been fully eliminated. It is worth pondering whether women
parliamentarians would have allowed themselves to be
manipulated into behaving with such lack of decorum, as was
witnessed during May 2003 in the Punjab Assembly, if they had
been directly elected and did not have to do their master’s
bidding.34
However, all said and done, women owe a lot to Gen
Musharraf. Besides the increase in reserved women seats in the
Assemblies from 2 to 20% women now also constitute 33% of
the Union, Tehsil and District Councils.35 In addition, many
women have been sent as ambassadors to various countries.
These are very bold and positive steps that herald the beginning
of a whole new chapter in the political participation of women in
Pakistan. It is now incumbent upon the women parliamentarians
to take meaningful steps for gaining a deeper understanding ofഊPolitical Empowerment of Women in Pakistan 147
women’s issues and problems. As this knowledge and awareness
increases, it is hoped that women parliamentarians will rise
above party affiliations and gravitate towards forming an “intra
party bond” for jointly devising appropriate measures in support
of women’s rights. This would be the most effective way of
enhancing the political empowerment of women, as envisaged
by President Musharraf in his inaugural address to the National
Conference on Women’s Political Participation in January
2003,36 where he had stated that, “The women members of the
Assemblies must rise beyond party affiliations… influence
decision-making… (and) become effective in legislation to
ensure that no law detrimental to their rights and interests is
passed.” It is heartening to note that subsequent development in
the Punjab Assembly, where women members of the Opposition
broke ranks with their male colleagues and joined their female
counterparts from the Treasury Benches in supporting the
provisions of the Punjab Prevention of Domestic Violence Bill,
2003.37 Similarly, the subsequent passage of the Honour Killing
Act and Women Protection Act (that has considerably reduced
the anti women bias of the Hadood Ordinances) have helped
bring to surface a new breed of women politicians such as Sherry
Rehman PPP, Nilofar Bakhtiar PML(Q), Kashmala Tariq
PML(Q) and Fauzia Wahab PPP. Their roles in the passage of
these Acts have definitely proved that there is light at the end of
the tunnel.
Notes and References
1. Khawar Mumtaz and Farida Shaheed, Women of
Pakistan: Two Steps forward, One Step back? Lahore
1987, Khalid Imran Printers, p-49
2. All the leading daily newspapers covered Miss Fatima
Jinnah’s social work and political activities. Dawn
newspaper specially carried a detailed coverage of her
efforts to help settle the refugees specially the women
and children.ഊ148 Pakistan Vision Vol 10 No 1
3. Hamid Yousaf, Pakistan in search of Democracy
1947-77, Lahore 1980, Published by Afrasia
Publications, Printed by Rippon Printing Press, p.71.
4. The question that can a Muslim woman become the
head of the state was discussed in almost all the
leading dailies of the country at the time when Miss
Jinnah was being considered for the candidature of
Presidentship. Maulana Moududi, a leading religious
scholar, initially declared that it was unislamic for a
woman to become the head of an Islamic state. Later
he opted to second Miss Fatima Jinnah;s candidate,
calling it “the need of the hour”.
5. Dawn, November, 28. 1964.
6. Jehanara Shahnawaz, Father and Daughter: A
Political Autobiography, New York 2002, Oxford
University Press, p-256.
7. Anis Mirza, “Women’s Role in the Pakistan
Movement and the Formative Years” Paper read in the
Soroptomist Club Seminar, “Women in Public Life”
October, 1972 Lahore, p.4.
8. Nabeela Afzal, Women and Parliament in Pakistan
1947-1977, Lahore 1999, Pakistan Study Centre,
University of the Punjab, p-63.
9. Ibid. p.63.
10. Fareeda Shaheed and Khawar Mumtaz, “Two Steps
Forward, One Step Back”, p.56.
11. See the Report in the Gazette of Pakistan, August, 30.
1956.
12. Ibid. August, 30. 1956.ഊPolitical Empowerment of Women in Pakistan 149
13. See the text of the Ordinance in the Gazette of
Pakistan (Extraordinary), March, 2. 1961.
14. Begum Nasim Jehan, Status of Women in Pakistan,
(Part II) unpublished paper, 1976, p.14.
15. Anis Mirza, “Women’s Role in the Pakistan
Movement and the Formative Years”, paper read in the
Soroptomist Club Seminar “Women in Public Life,
October, 1972 Lahore” p.4. This Front was
particularly active in Karachi, which was then the
Capital of Pakistan.
16. Jehanara Shahnawaz, op. cit., p.140.
17. Constitutional Documents Vol. III Articles 162 and
169.
18. Begum Nasim Jehan was a great advocate of women
suffrage for women candidates on reserved seats. Her
argument was that women would be elected to
represent the females. Her arguments are recorded in
NACD, Vol. I No. 33, April, 7. 1973. p.2175-76.
19. Safdar Mahmood, “Constitutional Foundation”, p.805-920.
20. Shahid Javed Burki Pakistan Under Bhutto 1971-1977,
p.51-130.
21. Fareeda Shaheed and Khawar Mumtaz, Two Steps
Forward, One Step Back, p.62.
22. Ibid p.63.
23. Safdar Mahmood, Constitutional Foundation, p.805-
920.
24. NACD Vol. I, No. 33, April, 7. 1973, p.2178-79ഊ150 Pakistan Vision Vol 10 No 1
25. Nabeela Afzal, Women and Parliament in Pakistan,
1947-77, p.34.
26. Fareeda Shaheed and Khawar Mumtaz, Two Steps
Forward One Step Back, p.119.
27. Ibid. p.112.
28. Ibid. p.74.
29. News, December, 22. 2002.
30. Dawn, May, 13. 2005.
31. News, August, 24. 2005.
32. Friday Times, March, 6. 2003.
33. NACD Vol. I, No. 33, April, 7. 1973, p.2175-76
34. Daily Times, May, 15. 2003.
35. To reserve seats for women from 2% to 20% in the
Assemblies and 33% in the Local Governments made
headlines in all the newspapers and news bulletin on
television. It was discussed in all the talk shows.
Everyone, even the political opponents praised the
President for this bold and much awaited step.
36. News, January 2003.
37. Daily Times, October, 22. 2003.

source: pu.edu.pk