BY RAFIA ZAKARIA
It was a hot twenty-four sixty minutes menstruum inward mid-July when Salman Sufi found out that he had been fired. Until then, Sufi had been a senior fellow member of the Punjab primary minister’s Special Monitoring Unit, where he had, amid other things, developed too implemented the Punjab Protection of Women Against Violence Act inward 2016. The police was controversial, non to the lowest degree because it allowed for speedy hearings on cases, made particular provisions for the evolution of women’s shelters, expedited procedures that allowed for the removal of abusive men from homes, too sought to implement GPS tracking of abusers. The country’s ruling party, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), was committed to getting the reforms through inward the province of Punjab, too Sufi was at that spot to assist it exercise so. The days before the nib was finally passed inward 2016 were hard ones for Sufi; religious hard-liners fired shots at his house. At the lastly minute, manlike somebody members of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the political political party of the one-time cricket star Imran Khan, walked off the assembly floor, refusing to vote for the legislation. The women of the political party stayed, inward protest. Later, when the vote was called, the men never returned. In the words of ane woman somebody lawmaker, the men “feel they are beingness plotted against.” Still, the nib passed.
Sufi, who had drafted the master legislation, was relieved when it passed inward Punjab. Somewhere inward the process, he had approached Khan, the PTI’s chairman, hoping to convince him to innovate similar legislation inward Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the province where Khan’s political party controlled the government. According to Sufi, Khan seemed reluctant. Then, instead of moving the legislation forward, he referred it to the Council of Islamic Ideology, an advisory trunk of religious scholars. Muhammad Khan Sherani, the caput of the council, declared the police against the “spirit of Islam” because husbands are permitted to “lightly beat” their wives.
Muhammad Khan Sherani, the caput of the council, declared the police against the “spirit of Islam” because husbands are permitted to “lightly beat” their wives.
In the years after the bill’s passage, Sufi focused on its implementation inward Punjab equally an unpaid volunteer. He opened shelters too established the Women Protection Authority too fifty-fifty introduced gender violence equally a topic inward the high schoolhouse social studies curriculum. When he learned of his firing on July 15, 10 days before the full general election, he was shocked.
These were tumultuous days inward Pakistan; a niggling over a calendar week earlier, on July 6, a courtroom inward Islamabad had found Pakistan’s deposed prime number minister, Nawaz Sharif, too his missy Maryam Nawaz Sharif guilty of graft. The conclusion to burn downward Sufi was made merely a few days later. On July 13, both Sharifs were arrested too thrown inward prison. Although Nawaz’s brother, Shahbaz—the premier inward Punjab province—would nonetheless competitor the elections, it was clear that the PML-N could non recover. Many alleged that Pakistan’s powerful armed forces was behind the verdict, too the 371,000 soldiers who were deployed to render safety lend roughly acceptance to this argument.
When Pakistanis voted on July 25, Khan’s PTI came out ahead, paving the way for him to acquire prime number minister. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 twenty-four sixty minutes menstruum after the polls, Khan declared victory, promising to create a province inward the icon of Medina, the outset Islamic city-state, governed past times the Prophet Mohammed inward the 7th century. In the meantime, the election observation mission from the EU declared at that spot had been “systematic attempts to undermine the ruling party” too that at that spot was no “equality of opportunity.”
The victory of ane political party over roughly other should non herald the terminate of progress inward the realm of women’s rights, non to the lowest degree because Pakistani women are hence far behind inward price of literacy too progress. More than 60 percent of the country’s poorest women acquire married before they are 18. Nearly 100 percent of the poorest are deprived of education, nearly of them inward Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the province Khan’s political party has led since 2013.
The fact that Khan too his political party opposed domestic violence legislation inward 2006, failed to dorsum the Punjab Protection of Women Against Violence Act inward 2016, too deferred to the Islamic council on Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s police the same twelvemonth doesn’t bode well.
The fact that Khan too his political party opposed domestic violence legislation inward 2006, failed to dorsum the Punjab Protection of Women Against Violence Act inward 2016, too deferred to the Islamic council on Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s police the same twelvemonth doesn’t bode well.
For the 2018 elections, his political party selected just half dozen women to run, barely coming together the 5 percent quota that the Election Commission of Islamic Republic of Pakistan required of all parties to compete inward the election. Only two of them won, equally opposed to 114 PTI men.
There is roughly hope. One of the ii women elected was 33-year-old Zartaj Gul, a political newcomer, who unseated a longtime feudal candidate belonging to a powerful clan. Gul, who lost her blood brother inward a terrorist attack, connected amongst a population that has been plagued past times both terrorism too armed forces operations. Campaigning tirelessly, Gul held 5 or half dozen events per twenty-four sixty minutes menstruum inward the lastly days before the election. Her husband, Akhwand Humayun Raza, ran for a provincial spot from the same constituency, too the ii regularly campaigned together. While her win is sure enough a stimulate for celebration, her relative political inexperience too lack of back upwards inside the political party may hateful that she does non accept plenty clout to force women’s rights initiatives that many of the powerful men, non to the lowest degree Khan himself, oppose.
In Punjab, at that spot is a PTI adult woman who does accept political experience too the clout needed to genuinely build a difference. Yasmin Rashid, a longtime activist too leader, lost her national assembly spot but did handle to win her Punjab provincial assembly spot inward a unopen race. There was fifty-fifty speculation that she could acquire the PTI candidate for primary government minister of Punjab. After the election, an informal social media campaign pushed her candidacy, amongst many people declaring support. In the days since, a political party whose back upwards the PTI requires for its ruling coalition has demanded the post service of primary government minister equally part of the deal—and that could hateful the terminate of Rashid’s chances.
Finally, at that spot is Shireen Mazari, ane of the nearly song too visible women inward the PTI too ane of Khan’s closest advisors. Mazari is a longtime supporter of the Pakistani armed forces too a fixture inward Khan’s immediate circle. She has fifty-fifty defended him against allegations of sexual harassment. Last year, Mazari addressed an all-women press conference inward which she refuted then-National Assembly fellow member Ayesha Gulalai’s allegations that Khan had been sending inappropriate text messages too had propositioned her. Calling the charges a “disrespect to all PTI women,” Mazari branded Gulalai an “opportunist.” While the charges were never proved, Mazari’s loyalty sure enough was. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 repayment of that exhibit of loyalty could come upwards Mazari’s way inward the grade of the Ministry of Information portfolio inward the novel government.
But no affair how many senior offices women occupy, it remains an opened upwards inquiry whether whatsoever of these woman somebody PTI members tin john assist Pakistani women struggle a regressive social guild that does non prioritize their progress. After all, Pakistani women accept never voted equally a bloc. Patriarchal beliefs ensure that women primarily spot amongst manlike somebody politicians’ interests too prioritize those interests over their own.
Pakistani women accept never voted equally a bloc. Patriarchal beliefs ensure that women primarily spot amongst manlike somebody politicians’ interests too prioritize those interests over their own.
This fact is largely lost fifty-fifty on urban women, who allege that their back upwards for Khan automatically agency that he is a pro-woman candidate. PTI women build a similarly round down argument; women such equally Gul propose that they are the embodiment of empowerment too proof that Khan is non “against women.”
The PTI has non yet formed a government, too it is besides early on to tell if Gul too her colleagues are beingness naively optimistic or if Khan volition testify them right. For regular Pakistani women, at that spot is a to a greater extent than pressing concern: At present, the Special Monitoring Unit inward accuse of protecting the 50 percentage of Pakistani women who seem upwards domestic violence is inward jeopardy. And laws removing abusers from the home, ever the principle of a homo inward Pakistan, are proving hard to exceed too fifty-fifty harder to enforce. Islamic Republic of Pakistan had been making progress inward this surface area inward the ii years since the passage of the landmark nib inward Punjab. But now, amongst past times champions such equally Sufi summarily too inexplicably removed from part too novel champions hard to find, that progress has stalled.
If the PTI, similar Pakistan’s hard-line religious establishment, embraces the premise that all progress for women is a Western intrusion, too hence Imran Khan’s Islamic Republic of Pakistan volition live a dark, dystopian, too regressive spot for all women—including the ones who accept hence fervently championed his candidacy.
Rafia Zakaria is the writer of "The Upstairs Wife: An Intimate History of Pakistan" too "Veil." She is a columnist for Dawn inward Islamic Republic of Pakistan too writes the "Read Other Women" serial at the Boston Review.
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