e-Newsletter

I. Gender

II. Democracy Watch

III. Governance at Large

IV. Geo-Political
Dynamics

Vol - IV Edition - II
May 2008

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Gender

Pakistani Women Parliamentarians

Faryal Talpur Elected Unopposed

Faryal Talpur, former Nawabshah nazim and sister of PPP Co-chairman Asif Zardari, was elected unopposed to the National Assembly from NA-207 Larkana. 14 aspirants had submitted nomination forms for by-election for NA-207, which fell vacant after Benazir Bhutto’s death. Nomination forms of PPP-SB candidate Mumtaz Ali Gopan were rejected on technical grounds. All other candidates of various political parties and independent candidate Abdul Majeed had withdrawn their nomination forms. Returning officer for NA-207 Jan Muhammad Kalhoro therefore declared Faryal Talpur as the unopposed winner.

With the success of Faryal Talpur, the number of directly elected women Parliamentarians has reached to 16. Overall (both on General and Reserved Seats) there are 76 (22.22%) women Members in National Assembly which is the highest ever representation of women in the history of Pakistan’s Parliament.

Sherry Rehman on Women’s Empowerment

Information Minister Sherry Rehman said on May 25 that Government land allotments will be made to female family members according to a proposed five-point programme for women’s empowerment. Addressing the International Conference on Women’s Leadership, she said her plan — yet to be presented to the cabinet — would also obligate 20 percent participation of women in public limited and autonomous organizations. Sherry, who also holds the portfolio of Women’s Development at the federal level, said the government would empower women in the households in the new fiscal budget. It would bring them into the mainstream and would give them the opportunities to make choices. She added that the Constitution gave equal rights to women and women’s rights were part of the fundamental human rights. The Minister also said domestic violence is a major problem for women not only in Pakistan or the South Asian region, but internationally. She said that the PPP had already put together a domestic violence bill, which would be tabled in the National Assembly for legislation. Sherry said the government would set up burn and crisis centres for women for relief, help and legal advice.

Tauqir Fatima Bhutto to take steps for Women’s Empowerment

Sindh Minsiter for Women Development Tauqir Fatima Bhutto has said that all-out efforts are being made to provide facilities for the welfare of women and Rs 30,000 would be provided as loan through the micro-finance scheme on easy installments to women who want to start business at their homes and earn livelihood. She was addressing an open katchery at Government High School Naudero, District Larkana on May 5. She said that there are limited resources while the problems are unlimited. Sindh Minister for Women Development Ms. Tauqeer Fatima Bhutto said her Ministry plans to establish working women’s hostels in all districts of the Province. She said that her Ministry is considering various proposals for women’s welfare to be included in the forthcoming budget and one of the proposal pertained to the establishment of working women’s hostels. She said women centres would be established in Larkana, Sukkur, Hyderabad and other districts for the rehabilitation of women in distress adding that these centres would work to create public awareness about violence against women and provide free legal assistance in addition to accommodation, vocational training and psychological counseling to the needy women. The Minister said display centre will be established in which locally made handicrafts and articles will be placed for sale. Besides, she said the closed girl’s schools will be opened and tuition centres will be set up under the Department’s literacy programme, which could accommodate thirty ladies to get education free of cost. Its expenses will be borne by the Women Development Department. She stressed the need for greater skill development to open further avenues of gainful employment for women in rural areas. The Minister exhorted the women to use their political power for addressing and resolving the problems of their community especially in areas of education, health and sustainable development. The Minister said the problems presented by the womenfolk here in the open katchert included family problems, unemployment and financial assistance from zakat funds and bait-ul-mal for the poor womenfolk.

Government to take steps for ending Gender Discrimination: Shazia Marri
Sindh Minister for Information Shazia Marri has said that women in the rural as well as urban societies are facing harassment and gender discrimination and the present PPP government will take steps to ensure end to it. She was speaking as chief guest at a workshop on “Provincial Consultation on Women Rights Strategy 2008” organized by Action Aid society. Female activists from various parts of Sindh & Balochistan presented papers in the workshop on situation analysis towards women status in the society.

Ms. Shazia Marri said that women are being crushed due to male domination and in rural areas their sufferings are at higher level. She said ‘pardah’ is not an issue of the day and we must not compel women to separate themselves from the values of our society but we have to encourage them to follow good morals & values She emphasized upon change of attitudes towards women at house hold level by taking them on board to form a new strategy for them. She assured that the Government is committed to give a reality to the dreams of Mohtrarma Benazir Bhutto regarding women rights and called upon the civil society to come forward and help government to get rid of bad values from our social life.

Fehmida assures Punishment for Perpetrators of Crime

National Assembly Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza assured 'Certainty of Punishment' for perpetrators of crime linked to domestic violence. Talking to media during her visit to Burns Centre at Civil Hospital - Karachi, the speaker said legislation would be among the top priorities of the public representatives to protect the marginalized sections.

National Assembly speaker prior to her talk with media went to the centre's ICU and enquired well-being of Zakira, mother of seven children admitted with severe acid burns. She was a victim of homicidal with the perpetrator presently behind the bars. There was also Nagina from Hyderabad with 84 percent burns who told the speaker that injury was inflicted to her 36 days ago due to stove burst. The women recuperating fast was brought with ventilation injury and her lungs were severely affected. The Speaker answering a question said her visit to the Burns Centre was intended to acquire first-hand information about the exact nature of problems faced by doctors and staff as well as patients visiting the facility. Dr Fehmida, herself a qualified medical doctor, said the media need to educate masses about prevention as well as about emergency first-aid to burns victim. Taking notice of the fact that burn victims even from remote areas of Sindh and Balochistan were brought to the facility. With varied degrees of injuries, she said public-private partnership was required to establish relevant medical facilities in Civil Hospitals Hyderabad, Sukkur etc.

Women Job Quota to be increased by 2 percent

Deputy Speaker Sindh Assembly Shehla Raza said on May 6 that the PPP government is doing all out efforts to empower women in the country adding that job quota for women will be increased from ten percent to twelve percent in all departments. She said this while addressing a reception held by Women's Action Forum (WAF) in the honour of newly elected women members of provincial assembly. She said that the government has chalked out strategy to increase the number of leady health workers at least up to 0.3 million. She further said that government has adopted the reconciliation policy to run the system in democratic way.

Women & Economics

The Dismal State of Female Home-Based Workers

Home-based female workers constitute 60% of the total labour in Pakistan’s informal sector and makes a significant contribution to the national economy, but neither their work is recognized nor they enjoy any legal status. The level of official apathy towards these workers can be judged from the fact that the Government has so far not ratified the International Labour Organization (ILO)’s Convention 177, which recognizes the rights of home-based workers for social security benefits, gratuity, medical facilities, increase in wages, and calls upon the state to give legal cover to these rights. As a result of persistent struggle by the workers’ bodies, the Pakistan Government acknowledged the presence of home-based workers in its 2002 labour policy. However, no action has been taken so far to translate those policies into a law. Moreover, there is as yet, no provision in the Labour Laws of Pakistan that applies to these workers. The definition of the payment of Wages Act 1936, West Pakistan Shops and Establishments Act 1969, Industrial Relations Ordinance 1969, the Maternity Benefits Ordinance 1958, and the Employees Old Age Benefit Act does not cover the home-based workers at all. Consequently, these workers, especially the female ones, have become the worst victims of injustice and exploitation by the sub-contractors. Unprotected by law, these female workers are constrained to work in the widespread, heterogeneous and unorganized informal sector and remain at the mercy of the sub-contractors, both for work and for payment of wages. Further, their work is of casual and temporary natureand often they remain without employment for prolonged durations. On an average , working women in the informal sector earn less than half the salaries the men get. Due to growing inflation and unemployment, the financial condition of these workers is getting worse. The treatment being meted out to the women workers is contrary to the provisions enriched in the Constitution. Article 3 binds the state to “ensure elimination of all forms of exploitation” while Article 25(2) clearly states that “there shall be no discrimination on the basis of sex alone”. But, practically very little seems to have been done during the last six decades to give the home-based female workers their due rights.

According to conservative estimates of organizations like ActionAid, CIDA, Women Workers Helpline and Labour Education Foundation, there are about 20 million home-based workers in Pakistan, including 12 million women. The absence of enforcement of minimum wages, in accordance with the national law, on the female workers in the informal sector will leave them at the mercy of middlemen and influential employers. Civil society organizations have drafted a Social Protection Billfor female home-based workers, which they intend to present to the members of National Assembly for consideration and adoption. The bill envisages social benefits like sickness benefits, maternity benefits, family benefits, injury benefits, disablement benefits, gratuity, death, grant and survivor’s pension for home-based workers of various hues and colours.

Women & HR

Malaysia Drops Idea of Travel Restrictions for Women

Malaysia rejected on May 5 a proposal to impose restrictions on women travelling overseas on their own following an outcry from women’s groups. Home (Interior) Minister Syed Hamid Albar said his ministry could not impose conditions requiring women to get written consent from their family before they can travel abroad alone. When a person applies for a passport, we don’t ask them where they are going. A person who wants to travel, makes his or her own decision to travel and how they are going to do it is up to them.

Using women to smuggle drugs: Foreign Minister Rais Yatim said on May 3 that both the Foreign and Home ministries mooted the idea in response to a string of cases where international drug syndicates used women travelling alone to smuggle drugs across borders. The Foreign Ministry clarified on May 5 that Rais’s proposal only related to children and women below 21 years of age. The ministry in a statement said that the proposal to facilitate young people with parental letters of intent would not be a violation of human rights since it would, if accepted, only apply to those who are still under the legal guardianship of their parents to begin with, The proposal is not in any way intended to belittle or violate any rights.

Women’s groups over the weekend had reacted with outrage, calling the proposal “ridiculous” and “regressive”. One of the groups, Sisters in Islam, declined to speculate a hidden religious motive but said the idea assumed women were less capable than men to make decisions. At the weekend, Bernama portrayed the proposal as an anti-crime measure rather than a religiously inspired idea and said it aimed to ensure that a woman’s family would “monitor her departure and serve as a preventive measure against being duped”. Rais was quoted as saying that the idea came out of a review of criminal cases involving Malaysians abroad. He said in 119 cases of Malaysian women being brought before foreign courts, around 90 percent were linked to drugs.

Women & Media

Uks Research Centre launched Pakistani Women Media Network Launched

Aiming to bring together women working in print and electronic media on to one platform, the Uks Research Centre launched Pakistani Women Media Network (PWMN) on May 16. The ceremony was attended by a large number of journalists who shared their experiences while encouraging each other in what was a friendly environment. The younger newswomen were briefed on the efforts and sacrifices made by previous generations of journalists in bringing women into mainstream journalism. Introducing the project, Uks Director Tasneem Ahmer said that PWMN project was the result of Uks’s decade-long struggle for fair and sensitive reporting on women’s issues. She said that struggle to form a platform for women journalists gained momentum with the publication of ‘Changing Images’ in 2001, a national study on monitoring and sensitization of print media on the portrayal of women. She said that the idea of forming the PWMN was crystallized in 2003 during the conceptualization of ‘A gender Sensitive Code of Ethics for Print Media in Pakistan that addressed journalists’ code and ethics for gender-just reporting.

She said that the network is also a tribute to the brave and pioneering women journalists who are no more with us among them Najma Babar, Najma Ahmed, Razia Bhatti, Amenah Azam Ali and Saneeya Hussain.

Highlighting the objectives behind launching the project, Tasneem said that it would address a number of issues with specific focus on factors behind the under-representation of women in the media and their absence at the decision-making level. She explained that this will be a part of Uks’s daily and regular media monitoring aimed at ensuring a fair and equal representation of women working in the media. She said that the forum would encourage induction of more women in journalism and would work for provision of better environment and facilities for them. Civil society activist Tahira Abdullah drew the attention of the participants towards the negative projection of women in the advertising sector. She pointed out that women are portrayed as a marketing object and there is a need to work in this direction. Television anchorperson Asma Shirazi said that women had to work harder than men to prove themselves. “There is so much discouragement, women have to face in this field and most of the new lot is given specific assignments related to women issues, fashion and art thus keeping them aside from hardcore journalism. She said that women professionals should not expect encouragement and praises from the society for moving ahead. “If you are talented, no one can stop you form rising in your profession. Senior journalists Shameem Akramullah and Farida Hafeez spoke about their struggle to bring about change in the mindset of the society and their employers at the time when journalism was not considered a domain of women. Highlighting the problems faced by women in journalism, the only female press photographer Sadia Seher said that when she started off with her career following the death of her husband, also a photographer, she was discouraged by male colleagues at the news agency her spouse used to work for. The male colleagues insisted that it was not the field for a woman especially in this society, she said adding that she took that criticism, as a challenge and worked harder to make a position in this field. Later, Tasneem said that women in major urban cities had become more or less acceptable in this profession but those living in less developed cities or in rural areas never got a chance to choose such a field. Rohi TV Anchorpersons from Multan told the participants about the opposition they faced from their ‘Baradri’ and family on choosing this profession.

South Asian Women Media Association

South Asian Women Media Association--SAWMA (working title) was launched on April 19 2008 at Lahore through a meeting of 40 Lahore based media-women. Subsequently, it was introduced in Karachi, Islamabad and Peshawar in May, forming local chapters in all 4 cities. SAWMA has been created after the realization that the number of women joining the media arena has not translated into equality in the workplace. Issues such as sexual harassment, equal wages, and maternity care still remain high and are not highlighted enough. SAWMA aims to serve as a platform for discussion on women related issues in the media. It also aims to facilitate networking among women in the media, national as well as regional and international media organizations, sensitize media organizations and the public to women related issues and ensure adequate representation of women in various sectors of the media. One of the association's major goals is to ensure equality of opportunity in media organizations and lobby for and introduce policies and clear guidelines for a gender-friendly working environment in all media organizations. SAWMA, being a South Asian association, will have chapters in all countries of the SAARC region, and work on it has already been started. The Pakistan chapter will hold its first national conference end summer 2008. SAWMA's website and logo are on hold only till finalisation of the title and can be expected end June 2008. South Asian free Media Association is the facilitator of the association and lends administrative and financial support to SAWMA. However, SAWMA is independent in all other matters. The core group making up the SAWMA secretariat consists of: Shehar Bano Khan from Dawn, Zebunnisa Burki from SAFMA, Munizae Jehangir from Geo English and Bushra Sultana from SAFMA.

Women & Education

75% Sindhi Girls have never been to School: WB

A World Bank mission led by Reema Nayyar and Senior Minister for Education and Literacy Pir Mazharul Haq disclosed on May 7 that fifty percent of children aged five in the rural areas of Sindh are not attending school and approximately seventy-five percent of girls have never attended one. The meeting’s main focus was on the Sindh Education Reform Programme (SERP). Haq assured the World Bank’s delegation that all transfers and postings in the education department will be made purely on merit and no political pressure will be accepted. The WB was also assured that closed schools would be reopened. The Education Minister was informed during the meeting that not a single school has been upgraded in his constituency district Dadu over the past five years. In response to this, the Education Department will be sending a written complaint to the Sindh Chief Minister for action against Zila Nazim Dadu Karim Ali Jatoi and than DCO Dadu Aijaz Mangi. Although the De-centralized Elementary Education Programme (DEEP) has wound up, the Sindh government has made other arrangements to continue providing scholarships to female students of Class 9 through intermediate.

Articles on Gender

The Gender Dimension

It is said that economic development automatically reduces gender disparities. This, however, has not been the case in Pakistan – despite several decades of economic growth, gender disparities remain as glaring as always in the country. Some may argue that poverty is similar to pandemic that affects everyone irrespective of the gender. After all, in 2005, Pakistan was ranked 136^th out of 177 countries on the Human Development Index (HDI) – a composite measure of human progress in terms of education, life expectancy and standards of living. A low HDI suggests that poverty has affected everyone indiscriminately and resulted in overall low standard of living. That poverty is pervasive an irrefutable truth, but it can be proved that it impacts women to a greater extend than men. Statistics such as the Gender Related Development Index (GDI) and the Gender Employment Index (GEM), cited in the UNDP’s Human Development Report 2007-2008 Report endorse this. Pakistan’s GDI which indicates the level of gender inequalities was ranked at 151 out of 153 countries. Similarly, the country’s GEM – which reflects the political, technical, professional and economic opportunities available to women – was ranked at 82 out of 93 countries.

Research has proved that narrowing the differences between men and women leads to economic development, which in turn reduces poverty. Substantial gender disparities manifest in Pakistan are symptomatic of a flawed social and economic structure. The entire economic matrix will have to be overhauled to purge it of such inequalities. For this to transpire, gender differences ought to be incorporated into the economic analysis and outcomes of public policies be assessed for impact on gender. Most importantly, fiscal policies and the national budget have to be formulated with a gender consideration. On the face of it, budgets are gender-or-class neutral policy instrument, because it deals with financial aggregates such as expenditures and revenues. But budgets appear to be gender-neutral only because they are prepared following a gender-blind approach. It needs to be remembered that Government expenditures and revenues have variable effects on men and women since both occupy different social and economic positions. The interaction between gender and budget can be demonstrated by the fact that governments which concentrate spending in policies for enhancing women’s employment achieve high growth rates.

To avoid the disparities caused by gender-blind budgets, policy makers have proposed that gender dimension should be embodied in the budgetary paradigm. In other words, Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) should become the norm. GRB should not be mistaken for being an ‘add-on budget for women’ or a policy that exacerbates deficits by allocating funds for gender whether the Government’s distribution of scarce resources is equitable and optimal so that the objective of gender equality is met. It ensures that budgets are aligned with policies and address the gender mainstreaming. In Pakistan, proposals for GRB were put across several times and the Ministry of Women Development demanded its introduction in a paper submitted for the Poverty Reduction Growth Facility (PRGF) in 2001. However the first step in this connection was taken with the inception of Gender Responsive Budgeting Initiative (GRBI) in 2005. The GRBI is a pilot project launched by the Government in collaboration with the UNDP and other donor agencies., including the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. It helped Ministry of Finance and Punjab Finance Department to prepare Gender Budget Statements (GBS), a document that specifies the planned projects and funds allocated for the current and next financial years. However, the GBS being presented with the budget for the last two-years were not without flaws. A major limitation was that only a few categories of spending had a pro-women component or were gender-specific in nature. According to actual expenditure figures of the Federal Budget 2006-07, only five percent of the development and one percent of the current budget could be classified as gender-specific. An analysis of the gender patterns in employment in the public sector reveals that women had a unemployment rate of 9.6 percent against 6.7 percent of men. The persistence of such glaring disparities requires the review of budgetary allocations. The concept of GRB can be promoted in the country if the Government partners with NGO and academic research on the issue. Currently only budget spending is being evaluated for gender effects. A more comprehensive analysis is possible if the gender impact of tax policies is also determined. The ultimate success of GRB should not only be gauged in terms of changes in the budget and its priorities. Rather, it should be determined by the extend to which women have started to participate in budget debates and decision-making.

Detailed article by Ambreen Saadat was published in The News on June 1, 2008.

Are Americans Aversed to Female Leadership?

A woman? Yes. But not that woman. It is the platitude of the moment, an automatic rejoinder to any suggestion that Hillary Clinton has struggled so desperately -- and so far unsuccessfully -- to grasp the Democratic presidential nomination in some measure because she is female. It isn't the woman part, the rationale goes. It's the Clinton part: That "polarizing" persona and "unlikable" demeanor. The unappetizing thought of President "Billary." The more inspirational quest by Barack Obama to become the country's first black President.

Yet the question remains: If not now, when? If not Hillary, who? The record suggests that if Clinton is not the nominee, no woman will seriously contend for the White House for another generation. This was the outcome of the 1984 Geraldine Ferraro experiment. After 24 years, Ferraro remains the only woman ever to run for national office on a major party ticket. And she was selected, not elected, as a vice presidential candidate. "Maybe a generation from now," says Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. "My feeling is, I don't see who's coming after Clinton and I don't feel like it's going to be easy for whoever comes next." The United States already lags miserably behind the rest of the world in electing a woman as head of state. To look around the globe is to see a stark truth: Americans seem peculiarly averse to female leadership. Women have had some success in gaining legislative office. Yet only eight women currently serve as governors, the springboard to the White House for four of the last five Presidents. So which woman, exactly, would be acceptable? Someone like Margaret Thatcher or Elizabeth Dole or Condoleezza Rice or Christine Todd Whitman or maybe Kathleen Sebelius, the Democratic governor of Kansas. The roll call itself illuminates the barriers.

Thatcher, for instance, never ran for executive office on her own. She became the first (and only) female Prime Minister of Britain by reaching the leadership of the Conservative Party. That is how many women heads of state have risen -- through Parliamentary systems that often use quotas to guarantee women legislative seats. Americans don't like quotas much. And we don't like political wives who strike out on their own. Yet around the world, presidential spouses, widows and daughters are elected with stunning regularity. Indira Gandhi of India, Corazon Aquino of the Philippines, Violeta Chamorro of Nicaragua, Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, Cristina Fernandez, the current Argentine President -- who succeeded her husband -- all rose to power through family connections. Here, though, revulsion often is expressed at the prospect of the Bushes and Clintons trading the White House among one another. But the "dynasty" argument didn't impede other American political families: not the Adamses, nor the Roosevelts nor the Kennedys. It sure didn't keep George W. Bush from becoming President. Though it never sparked the rancor attached to Clinton's White House drive, Dole's brief presidential bid in 2000 was a preview. Dole, now a Republican senator from North Carolina, served as a Cabinet secretary in two administrations and headed the American Red Cross. Yet a review of media coverage by Rutgers political scientists showed that when Dole received in-depth coverage, nearly two-thirds of the stories mentioned her marriage to Bob Dole, the former Senate Republican leader and presidential candidate. Elizabeth Dole's marriage to a powerful politician often drowned out discussion of her own record. No woman on the political horizon possesses the portfolio that Clinton brought to this campaign: national name recognition. A record as a prodigious fundraiser -- for herself and scores of other Democrats. Winner of two Senate races in New York, a rough-and-tumble state with a trove of 31 Electoral College votes and Democratic donors with deep pockets. And a huge, loyal base of support within her party. Who can compare? Not Secretary of State Rice. She's never run for elective office, and it's tough to run for President with no experience in those muddy trenches. Not Whitman. The former New Jersey governor has openly broken with conservatives who dominate the Republican Party. Not Sebelius. She heads a state with six electoral votes and limited fundraising potential. Clinton cleared the hurdles often cited as holding American women back, yet she is unlikely to surmount the final barrier. So you have to wonder. Is it something about Hillary, or something about us?

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Democracy Watch

Bye-Elections

Bye-elections on June 26

The Election Commission (EC) on May 7 announced a new schedule for the bye-elections, which will now be held on June 26. Political parties including those in the ruling coalition had protested against the EC’s earlier decision to delay the by-polls to August 18. The Election Commission (EC) of Pakistan had announced earlier that the bye-elections scheduled for June 18 had been postponed for two months until August 18, citing, among other reasons, a report received from the NWFP Home secretary.

The new schedule allows candidates to file their nomination papers from May 8 to May 13. The candidates who submitted their nomination papers on or before May 5 will not be required to file them again, but those who filed their nomination papers on May 6 will be required to file them again. The nominations will be scrutinized from May 14 to May 20. May 24 will be the last day for the filing of appeals against the returning officers’ decisions. Decisions on the appeals will be made by May 31. Candidates will be allowed to withdraw by June 2 and a revised list of candidates will be published the same day. 

Bye-elections will be held in eight constituencies of the National Assembly – NA-207 (Larkana), NA-147 (Shiekhupura), NA-147 (Okara), NA-11 (Mardan), NA-52 (Rawalpindi), NA-55 (Rawalpindi), NA-119 (Lahore) and NA-123 (Lahore). By polls will also be held for 17 seats of the Punjab Assembly, three of the Sindh Assembly, seven of the NWFP Assembly and three seats of the Balochistan assembly. Political parties welcome decision: PPP, PML-N and ANP hailed the decision.

Schedule for Bye-Elections

S. No.	EVENTS	DATES
1.	Dates for filing of nomination papers with the Returning Officers by the candidates	08-5-2008 to 13-5-2008
2.	Dates for Scrutiny of nomination papers by the Returning Officers	14-5-2008 to 20-5-2008
3.	Last date for filing of appeals against decisions of the Returning Officers rejecting/accepting nomination papers	24-5-2008
4.	Last date for deciding appeals by the Tribunals	31-5-2008
5.	Last date for withdrawal of candidature	02-6-2008
6.	Publication of revised list of candidates	02-6-2008
7.	Polling Day	26-6-2008

5 HC Judges to Decide Poll Pleas

The ECP has notified five Judges of the High Courts as Election Tribunals to dispose of appeals against the decisions of the Returning Officers. As many as 10 judges from all the four high courts including Lahore, Sindh, Peshawar and Balochistan have been appointed as tribunals with the approval of the President. According to a notification, two tribunals have been established for election appeals in Punjab. The first tribunal comprises Justice Mian Najam-uz-Zaman and Justice Tariq Shamim and the second includes Justice Akram Qureshi and Justice Hafiz Tariq Naseem. The Sindh High Court election tribunal comprises Justice Mrs Qaisar Iqbal and Justice Syed Pir Ali Shah. Peshawar High Court tribunal includes Justice Maroof Khan and Justice Ziauddin Khattak, while the Balochistan High Court election tribunal would have Justice Nadir Khan and Justice Mehta Kailash Nath as members.

The Election Tribunals would hear appeals against approval or rejection of nomination papers by the Returning Officers. These tribunals would dispose of appeals against Returning Officers' decisions of accepting or rejecting the nomination papers of the candidates vying to contest the forthcoming by-polls being held in 38 National and provincial assemblies constituencies across the country. According to Election Commission, in Punjab, Justice Mian Muhammad Najam-uz-Zaman and Justice Tariq Shamim, Judges of Lahore High Court have been appointed tribunals for the constituencies; NA-52 Rawalpindi-III, NA-55 Rawalpindi-VI, PP-10 Rawalpindi-X, PP-48 Bhakkar-II, PP-59 Faisalabad-IX, PP-70 Faisalabad-XX, PP-99 Gujranwala-IX, PP-107 Hafizabad-III, PP-118 Manddi Bahuddin-III and PP-124 Sialkot-IV. Moreover, Justice Muhammad Akram and Justice Hafiz Tariq Nasim, Judges of Lahore High Court have been appointed tribunals for the constituencies NA-119 Lahore-II, NA-123 Lahore-VI, NA-131 Sheikhupura-I, NA-147 Okara-V, PP-141 Lahore-XVIII, PP-154 Lahore XVIII, PP-171 Nankana Sahib-II (Old Sheikhupura-X), PP-219 Khanewal-VIII, PP-229 Pakpattan-III, PP-243 D.G Khan-IV, PP-258 Muzaffargarh-VIII, PP-277 Bahawalnagar-I and PP-295 R.Y. Khan-XI. In Sindh, Justice Mrs Qaiser Iqbal and Justice Syed Pir Ali Shah, judges of High Court of Sindh have been appointed tribunals for constituencies NA-207 Larkana-cum-Shikarpura-cum-Kamber Shahadkot (Old Larkana-IV), PS-30 Khairpur-II, PS-44 Matiari-cum-Hyderabad (Old Hyderabad-II) and PS-62 Tharparkar-III. In NWFP, Justice Maroof Khan and Justice Zia-ud-Din Khattak, judges of Peshwar High Court have been appointed tribunals for the constituencies; NA-11 Mardan-III, PF-20 Charsadda-IV, PF-45 Abbottabad-II, PF-59 Battagram-I, PF-75 Lakki Marwat-II, PF-81 Swat-II, PF-91 Upper Dir-I and PF-92 Upper Dir-II. In Balochistan, Justice Muhammad Nadir Khan and Justice Mehta Kailash Nath Kohli, judges of High Court of Balochistan have been appointed tribunals for the constituencies; PB-9 Pishin-II, PB-32 Jhal Magsi (Old Kachchi-III) and PB-44 Lasbela-I.

Faryal Talpur Elected Unopposed

Faryal Talpur, former Nawabshah Nazim and sister of PPP Co-Chairman Asif Zardari, was elected unopposed to the National Assembly from NA-207 Larkana. 14 aspirants had submitted nomination forms for by-election for NA-207, which fell vacant after Benazir Bhutto’s death. Nomination forms of PPP-SB candidate Mumtaz Ali Gopan were rejected on technical grounds. All other candidates of various political parties and independent candidate Abdul Majeed had withdrawn their nomination forms. Returning officer for NA-207 Jan Muhammad Kalhoro therefore declared Faryal Talpur as the unopposed winner.

Shahbaz Elected MPA Unopposed

PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif has been elected unopposed from PP-48 (Bhakkar-II), as according to the unofficial result all his rival candidates, on June 2, withdrew their candidature from the said constituency. The Returning Officer made an announcement to this effect here on Monday. The seat was vacated by Saeed Akbar Khan Niwani, who won the Feb 18 general elections from two constituencies.

Attaur Rehman Declared Winner from NA-25 Tank

The Supreme Court on May 5, declared Maulana Attaur Rehman, a candidate of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) from NA-25 Tank, as the winner. Earlier, on May 15, the Apex Court had reserved its judgment on the election petition of Maulana Attaur Rehman, which was filed against Habibullah Kundi, a candidate of PML-Q from the same constituency (NA-25 Tank). A three-member bench, comprising Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, Justice Ejazul Hassan and Justice Chaudhry Ejaz Yousuf, while allowing the petition of Maulana Attaur Rehman declared him as winner from NA-25, Tank. Maulana Attaur Rehman, younger brother of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, a central leader of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), had filed an election petition in the Supreme Court against Habibullah Kundi, a candidate of PML-Q, challenging the decision of the Peshawar High Court regarding recounting of votes at various polling stations of the constituency. Earlier, the Supreme Court had not stayed the recounting scheduled to be held on March 18 but restrained the Election Commission of Pakistan from notifying the election results of NA-25 until the final decision of the court. Abdul Hafiz Pirzada, counsel for Maulana Attaur Rehman, had argued that the Election Commission was not competent to order recounting of votes after issuance of results to all the candidates on prescribed form. Wasim Sajjad, senior counsel for Habibullah Kundi, had submitted that the Election Commission had not received the election results in prescribed time, which made the election doubtful; adding that delay in announcing the election results was a sheer violation of Section 39 of the Representation of People Act 1976. Sardar Latif Khan Khosa, counsel for a PPP candidate from the same constituency, Dabar Khan had requested for re-polling in the constituency, stating that the consolidation process had not yet taken place in the constituency.

Aitzaz Withdraws from Bye-Elections

Pakistan People's Party (PPP) stalwart and Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan (SCBA) President Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan on May 18 announced withdrawal of his candidature from NA-55 (Rawalpindi) and instead would lead the long march of the legal fraternity on June 10 as already announced by the Pakistan Bar Council. He further declared that the lawyers would start long march from Multan the hometown of Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani.

Coalition Government

PML-N quits Federal Cabinet

Federal ministers from PML-N on May 13 tendered their resignations to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who “politely refused” to accept them until PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari returned to Pakistan. He asked the ministers to continue to hold their offices meanwhile. The PML-N ministers also submitted the resignation of Commerce Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who is not in Pakistan. While addressing a news conference after the meeting, PML-N leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said Gilani asked the ministers to withdraw their resignations, and even talked to Nawaz Sharif on the phone asking him to withdraw the resignations, but he refused.

PML-N Ministers’ Slots to Remain Vacant

Co-Chairman PPP Asif Ali Zardari asked Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on May 14 not to accept the resignations of nine Federal Ministers belonging to PML-N. During the meeting, the two leaders discussed the overall political situation in the country that arose after the resignations of the PML-N ministers. They decided to keep the cabinet slots vacant in the hope that the PML-N ministers would soon rejoin it. It was, however, decided to allocate additional portfolios to the existing cabinet members so that the working of the government is not affected.

During the meeting, it was decided that in addition to present portfolios, Naveed Qamar will have the additional charge of the Ministry of Finance, Sherry Rehman will have the additional charge of Women’s Division, Shah Mehmood Qureshi will also keep the additional charge of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Resources, Ahmad Mukhtar will have the additional charge of the Ministry of Commerce and Nazar Mohammad Gondal will have the additional charge of the Ministry of Agriculture. It was also decided to appoint Hina Rabbani Khar as Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Finance and Economic Affairs and Shahnaz Wazir Ali as a Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Sector with the status of Minister of State.

New Punjab Governor Sworn-In

Salmaan Taseer was sworn in as the 27^th Governor of the Punjab in a ceremony boycotted by PML-N on 16 May. The Lahore High Court Chief Justice, Syed Zahid Hussain, administered the oath. Soon after taking the oath, Taseer, who was surrounded by charged PPP workers, said he would represent the Federal Government in the Punjab. Recalling his political struggle, Taseer said 25 years ago the PPP had struggled for the supremacy of democracy. Taseer, who landed into controversy following the PML-N’s reservations over his appointment, observed that as per the mandate he wanted the democratic process to continue. He said everyone no matter which political party he was affiliated to – the PML-Q, the PPP or the PML-N – was equal to him. He said once he used to believe that the Governor House was occupied by Nawabs but now the doors of the Governor House would be open to all and sundry. Taseer said the Bhutto family had won the hearts of the Punjabi people by addressing the problems of the downtrodden. Lauding the struggle of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto, Taseer vowed that the Punjab would never let the Bhuttos down. Concluding his speech, the new governor lauded the contribution of his predecessor, Khalid Maqbool, saying he had done a lot for the uplift of the province.

Profile

After having joined the party in 1982-83, Salman was elected member Punjab Assembly on PPP ticket in 1988. He also took part in 1993 election, and contested on a National Assembly seat from Lahore, but could not make it to the National Assembly. He has also served as party's central secretary information. He worked as Editor daily Musawat from 1992 to 1994. Later, Sajjad Bukhari replaced him. Son of a renowned educationist Prof MD Taseer, Salman is also writer of a book, titled "Zulfikar Ali Bhutto-bachpan se takhta-e-dar tak", a biography of the party founder. His remarks were mistakenly considered as negative by certain party leaders, he added. Taseer is closely related to famous poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz. Salman's German mother, Christabel Bilquees and wife of Faiz Alys Faiz, are real sisters who came to Pakistan for promotion of Marxist ideas just before partition, but did not go back. Salman Taseer is owner of "Pace" chain of departmental stores, a telecommunication company. "World Call", a "Chartered Accountancy" firm and "Hayat Regency" chain of international hotels. One of his companies is also in the business of publishing two newspapers both in English and Urdu languages.

PML-N Rejected Taseer as Punjab Governor

Terming the appointment of Salman Taseer as Punjab Governor controversial and part of another move orchestrated from the Presidency to destabilize the PML-N government in the province, the PML-N leadership has sought explanation from PPP government to clarify its role and position on the matter. However, the PPP said it consulted PML-N leaders over the appointment. Terming the new Governor unacceptable, Nisar made it clear that the PML-N would treat the new Punjab Governor in the same way as the party treated President Pervez Musharraf. He said this while addressing a hurriedly-called Press conference held at the residence of PML-N Quaid Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif at Model Town here on May 15.

Balochistan Cabinet – 45 out of 65

The volume of Balochistan Cabinet swelled to 44 on May 21 with the induction of three more members of the provincial assembly. The new ministers belong to the PML-Q. Balochistan Governor Nawab Zulfikar Magsi administered oath from the newly-inducted ministers: Salim Khosa, Ruqaya Hashmi and Raheela Durrani. In a house of 63 members, the total strength of the cabinet has reached to 44 and Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raeesani enjoys the support of 61 members. Initially a 38-member cabinet was announced but later three ministers were inducted and it was the second time that the cabinet is expanded unnecessarily. It worth's mentioning here that about 13 ministers are without portfolios but are enjoying the protocol. Sadiq Umrani, Deputy Parliamentary Leader of the PPP and Provincial Minister for communication and works, expressed concern over the cabinet expansion and said that the matter was not discussed in the party meeting. Newly inducted minister Salim Khosa was elected on a ticket of the Jamhoori Watan Party in 2002 elections but he joined the PML-Q after military operation in Dera Bugti and killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti. The PPP Deputy Parliamentary Leader said Salim Khosa had presented a turban to Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain during his visit to Dera Murad Jamali after Bugti's killing. Ruqaya Hashmi and Raheela Durrnai were MPAs during the PML-Q-led coalition government in 2002 to 2007.

Observers believe that there was no need for cabinet expansion and the decision was taken under pressure as the establishment was trying to induct its own people in the cabinet.

Election Observers

FAFEN Election Observation Report

Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) released its findings about the February 18 General Elections on May 20, revealing that each contesting candidate had spent 7 percent to 8 percent more money than the prescribed limit in the election campaign. The network has also furnished certain recommendations, proposing a ban on candidates from running for more than one National Assembly or provincial assembly seats. Addressing at a briefing at, the FAFEN Secretary General Sarwar Bari said a parliamentary committee might be formed to consider the network’s recommendations. FAFEN emphasized that the voter lists should be prepared afresh and pointed out that as many as 1.4 million persons had been registered at least twice and one person in Karachi had been shown voter in 14 different locations. There were several other discrepancies in these voter lists as well.

About the network’s demand for restricting a contestant to contest from only one constituency, Bari said that among other things this would reduce the number of constituencies in which bye-elections have to be held. He explained that after the recently held elections, out of eight National Assembly and 30 provincial assembly seats some 30 seats had been vacated by candidates who had won from more than one constituency. And for these, the bye-election is slated for June 26. He noted that a similar policy was in vogue in India, as it helped curtail wastage of resources and encouraged others who otherwise could not take part in the electoral process. In this connection, Bari believed that political parties should also bar its candidates from taking part in elections from more than one constituency. And even if they issue more tickets to a particular candidate, it should be binding on him to bear bye-election campaign expenses, as in bye-elections, usually a candidate of a ruling party wins. The network also recommended to the Election Commission not to assign election duties to officials from the lower courts, saying this should be carried out by the electoral body itself. Similarly, the lower court judges should be engaged in hearing cases in the election tribunals. About the network findings he said it was also noticed that certain caretaker ministers, the police and intelligence agencies’ officials had influenced the election process in several districts.

FAFEN report and recommendations are based on observers’ statistical evidence and narrative reports from May 2007 to February 2008 elections, covering all aspects of the electoral process. The network’s Election Day data was collected by as many as 18,829 observers including a parallel vote tabulation in 256 National Assembly constituencies. When contacted, a senior official of the Election Commission of Pakistan told ‘The News’ that an expert committee was already reviewing the electoral laws and related rules and the recommendations by the network would also be given consideration.

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