Pakistani Women: In search for genuine redeemer

Pakistan surpassed many countries by allocating women seats in parliament in 2002. Out of 342 seated in National assembly, women seats are reserved 72 that is the highest figure in South Asia. This is worth appreciating that such an initiative was taken by military regime that has never remained friendly with fair sex in the past.  The steps were taken in the face of changes in women's parliamentary representation across the world and since then gender balance in politics has become imperative to a nation's international image.
 

Simply allocating or increasing the seats of women in national or provincial assembly does not guarantee that women’s rights will be protected. It is welcoming that women are included into political realms of Pakistan. This will definitely increase women’s influence in politics. However, story in Pakistani politics is quite on the contraray. The inclusion of women into political realms has remained debatable in Media and society that empowering women through parliament was just window dressing to arrest the attention of world in the wake of 9/11 and it served no purpose to redress the grievances of marginalized strata of society I.e. Women. The reason why society is   skeptic about “women empowerment” is that mainstreamed political parties not elected democratically, but selected all women parliamentarians. If we cast glance on the women parliamentarians on reserved seats, we will come to know that all belonged to influential political families who have little knowledge about women living in remote areas.
 
It is widely believed that the system of quota delivers as a momentary special measure to attain gender balance in parliament, but it does not facilitate the genuine political empowerment and democratic participation of women. Some people have argued that women legislators are treated as mere rubber stamp devoid of any real political and economic power. Generally, it is believed in social and political circle that the system offers only symbolic representation to women. in preference to working on policy issues freely, the elected women through this system remain under obligation of the political parties, compared to the directly elected legislators who have their constituencies as their real power base. This thing, it is believed, comes into play in the power politics where political weight is associated with directly elected legislators compared to indirectly elected candidates or those elected on reserved seats.
 
Due to lack of knowledge and actual participation of women in political process, male chauvinist politicians  have awarded  great number of seats to their family members in order to strengthen  the of net their family-centric or dynastic  politics in the country. Ten years have elapsed since women are awarded reserved seats but no significant change in common women’s life has been seen so far. This truly reflects that women parliamentarians are mere dummy and have no power .Moreover, quota based parliamentarians enjoy little rights to influence the decision as they always remain under the obligation of their political leaders. Most of the women are reluctant to comment on women specific issue since it affects the public life of the male political leaders.f
 
The women in Pakistan comprise 52% of the total population and are leading miserable life .Therefore they require genuine redeemer to alleviate their sufferings. The oppressed women need justice and rights and if their gender fellows do not become their wound healer than it is futile to reserve more seats for women or setup ministries or departments. The issues are resolved by involving genuine people and genuine efforts not by cosmetic measures