International Women’s Day is celebrated globally on March 8. In some countries it is celebrated now merely as a special day when men give flowers and gifts to women in their lives while in others it is the political day to audit gender equality in different spheres of life. In Pakistan, the celebration of IWD is highly politicized. The day is commemorated with a lot of political flavour.

Every year the theme of Women’s Day is designated by the United Nations and activities of the celebration are often reflected in this theme. This year the UN’s theme for 2008 is “Investing in women and girls”. It is interesting to note that gender and democracy seem to have emerged naturally as a theme in Pakistan. Without making any conscious or collective decision on this, most of the events are organized under this theme due to the specific transitional context to democracy in the country.

Women’s specific issues including gender based violence were put on the backburner in the year 2007 due to the national crisis that engulfed the entire nation. The attack of the military establishment on the judiciary, suicide bombing that took hundreds of innocent lives, ill-planned military operations in Wana, Swat, North and South Wazirstan that killed many innocent people as well, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the leader of the most popular political party of the country, and the crises of flour, gas and electricity overwhelmed every citizen of the country. These are the issues that concerned women equally. However the specific issues that violated women’s rights including incidents of violence could not get the public attention as much as is deserved.

Women’s issues during national election could not make the headlines either due to political conditions in which election was held. Issues such as exclusion of women voters on electoral rolls, nomination of women belonging to political elite families yet again on the reserved seats by all political parties, restricting women to cast their vote in many constituencies were largely ignored.

It has also gone unnoticed that an unprecedented number of 199 women contested the election on direct seats at the provincial and national level. The rise in women’s political participation can be attributed as a positive impact of gender quota. The presence of 28,000 women in local government and 232 in all legislatures brought a subtle change at the cultural and societal level. Women parliamentarians despite the structural constraints they faced to perform their roles effectively became the role models for many. Consequently, there were far more women who applied for party tickets to contest the election than political parties were willing to grant. Many who were refused tickets by their political parties decided to contest the election as independents. However, all of them with the exception of Robina Watto from Okara lost. This shows opposing trends in politics where political parties continue to resist the granting of party tickets to women candidates whereas women’s aspiration to become representative of the public are moving beyond constraints.

Out of 199 contestants, 15 women won national assembly seats and 9 won provincial seats. Of those who won election on general seats, with the exception of one, all of them had party tickets and all of them belonged to political elite families. The limited success of women candidates in the general election shows that political parties and the society is still far behind in meeting the challenging aspirations of the women and the pace of cultural change valuing women in public life is frustratingly slow.

In the post election phase, it is vital that the women’s agenda must be brought back and pushed at the forefront of political debates. At the political front it must be ensured that women representatives are not treated as extras. They should be given voice and say in the formation of the national government. Also they should be brought in the position of power, leadership and responsibilities in the upcoming government.

Simultaneously, it is important for the civil society organizations and women’s rights groups to ensure through an effectively lobbying and advocacy that women agenda is not forgotten by the elected government as well as women representatives. Women parliamentarians who come on reserved seats for women have the additional responsibility to represent women’s interest and work for women specific issues. In order to persuade women representatives to push for women agenda, women must show collective power outside the parliament. They should organize themselves better and should develop a realistic, doable women’s agenda that reflects the needs of all women across regions, class and both rural and urban.

As a nation we must understand that gender equality is an essential condition for the process of democratization and the sustainable democracy. If nearly half of the population is not empowered to participate in political processes and have equal political rights, the society cannot claim itself truly democratic.

It is expected that in a democratic dispensation, women will have more space to raise their voices and concerns as citizens and as public representatives. The impact of economic and foreign policies perused by the Musharraf government has differential impact on men and women. Women have suffered more due to increased poverty and rise in extremism, therefore, it will be critically important for the elected government to integrate gender perspective in national policies. Next IWD must be marked with concert achievement made during the elected regime. Every year women have nothing to celebrate except their own collective resolve to fight for gender justice in the society.