Parliament & Women Empowerment

Pakistan’s development is strongly coupled with women empowerment. We cannot decouple the former from the latter and the sooner we would understand this basic fact, the easier it would be for us to commence sustainable social and economic development, that would be resilient enough to withstand the challenges of today and tomorrow. It is a well-known fact that women manage homes and finances better than men. Warwick Business School points out that women focus more on a long term perspective and thus outcompete men at investing by 1.8 per cent. Keeping this in mind, women in Pakistan must also be given an equal chance to participate fully in the social and economic development of Pakistan. Here is an example. Do you know that Gallup Pakistan highlights that almost 35 per cent of women medical doctors are unemployed in Pakistan. Another report from BBC uses humour to describe “men as endangered species” in medical colleges in Pakistan. BBC then adds that 70% of the medical students in Pakistan are women however, unfortunately, only 23% of the registered medical doctors in Pakistan are female. This points out the dire need for us to encourage women to practise once they complete their medical studies.

Pakistan’s Parliament should make it mandatory that all female medical graduates would practise once they will finish their medical studies. Anyone who would create hinderance by not allowing women with medical studies to practise as a medical doctor would face either time behind bars or heavy financial fine. In the worst case scenario, the person causing hindrance can be punished with both imprisonment and economic penalty. Similarly, it is equally important to introduce a year’s time behind bars as punishment for anyone found guilty of harassing women both indoors (at home and at workplace) and out in public. Doing so, will help women to perform their duties without any fear and will certainly make Pakistan a safer and more sustainable place for all. Pakistan’s Parliament should also introduce a financial allowance of PKR 50,000 on monthly basis for each female fresh medical graduate to encourage her to practise once, she completes her medical studies. Both financial incentives as reward and the fear of punishment in terms of time behind bars and economic penalty would prove to be much needed steps in the right direction to encourage female medical graduates to practise once their medical studies are completed. We cannot afford a Pakistan where 70% of the medical students are females, however, only 23% of the registered medical doctors are women. We must bridge this gap to create a resilient Pakistan that could meet the health related challenges of today and tomorrow. We must understand that a resilient Pakistan needs a healthy population that could work, day in and out to create a socially equitable, financially viable and ecologically sustainable society for all. We have what it takes to make this happen. World Bank points out that Pakistan had only 1.2 medical doctors per 1,000 people in 2021. Do you know that Cuba had 9.5 medical doctors per 1,000 people and Greece had 6.4 medical doctors per 1,000 people in 2021? To increase the number of medical doctors per 1,000 people in Pakistan, we must encourage our women with medical academic background to start practise, once they complete their studies. We cannot compromise on this, and we cannot show negligence towards the health of masses in Pakistan. Most importantly, we must ensure that if a medical doctor works during night shift, he/she must hire a taxi to go back home instead of driving the private car. The workplace should be bound to compensate the medical doctor for taxi fare. Doing so, will help us in avoiding accidents related casualties for medical doctors in Pakistan. We need to act now to create a sustainable Pakistan for all.

When it comes to women empowerment in Pakistan, it is crucial for Pakistan’s Parliament to ensure the men and women would get equal salaries in Pakistan. International Labour Organization (ILO) highlights that women in Pakistan earn 25 – 30 per cent less than men in terms of wage. Pakistan’s Parliament must do all it takes to end this existing pay gap in Pakistan. If we really want to create a sustainable Pakistan where both men and women would be an equal part of society, we must put an end to existing wage discrimination. It is crucial to ensure that women in Pakistan would be waged on equal terms as their counterparts. Similarly, Pakistan’s Parliament must also ensure that whenever a job vacancy is advertised, it must contain a clause that both men and women would be given equal priority in terms of recruitment. Here is an example. If there are 6 vacant positions advertised, Parliament must ensure that 3 men and 3 women would be recruited against these 6 vacant positions. Another crucial step that Parliament can execute is to offer tax relaxation on monthly salaries to women. It might prove to be a much needed step in the right direction to encourage women to be an affective part of economic development in Pakistan. We cannot take our women for granted and it’s our moral responsibility to ensure that our women will commence progress on equal terms. As a society, we must understand that there is no difference between men and women. An equally important step in ensuring gender equality is to offer either heavily subsidized or completely free education for females (regardless of age and location) in Pakistan. When women have adequate education, job opportunities and decent salaries, only then Pakistan would achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We cannot achieve the latter goal, if we would compromise on the former. Here are two examples. Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was the first female Prime Minister of Pakistan. Similarly, Mohtarma Maryam Nawaz, the current Chief Minister of Punjab province is also the first female Chief Minister in Pakistan. These examples are enough to elaborate that our women are not less than anyone and if given chances, they can even run the whole country and its most populous province. We must learn to treat women on equal grounds and give them the rights and respect that each women deserve. We cannot compromise on this, and we cannot take this for granted.

To conclude, Pakistan is a people-rich country, and it has a lot of human potential which if utilized properly can help us to commence rapid and sustainable social and economic development. However, we cannot achieve this potential, if we would ignore women in our society. How can we expect Pakistan to commence sustainable social and economic development, if we would keep on ignoring almost half of our population in the country? We can make better choices. Educating women, offering them equal salaries and giving them their rights are few excellent examples to create a resilient Pakistan, strong enough to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. We can make this happen as it is both realistic and possible, provided we invest enough public policy attention and financial resources in this direction. Choice is ours and will always be.