As we see, women are quite less visible in politics and it is often heard that politics is not the work of women. But when we contrast today’s so-called men’s politics with the legend Benazir Bhutto, we will see the difference between her politics and men’s politics, understandably. She was a Pakistani politician and political figure who served as the 11th and 13th Prime Ministers of Pakistan.

Another prominent example is Dr. Fahmida Mirza, who served as the country’s first woman speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan from 2008 to 2013. Currently, 69 women out of 342 members are serving in the National Assembly in Pakistan. Women’s participation in politics has never been as divergent as it is in many countries today, and this data is found in almost 47 countries from the last year’s elections. The elections saw women take nearly 25.8 percent of seats, also representing an increase of 2.3 percent since the last elections. The global share of women in parliament is 26.5 percent as the new year has begun, but IPU noted that it’s the smallest increase in women’s participation and it will take lots of years to reach parity in parliament and in politics. In a country in East Africa, Rwanda, women control almost 60 percent of seats and in 2008 became the first country to have a female majority parliament. 

Such examples of women’s participation process are encouraging and do indicate some measure of the political parties’ concern for the struggle for gender equality. However, far more needs to be done and indeed can be done to bring about a sea change. One concrete step to bring female politicians is essential, which would be an appreciable footprint for the country’s prosperity

SABAHAT HASAN,

Karachi.