`Female lawmakers not considered equal to male counterparts in Pakistan`

Islamabad: A female lawmaker of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly has complained about facing discrimination at the hands of male counterparts.

While speaking on the floor of the house on International Women`s Day, PakistanPeoples Party (PPP) lawmaker Dr Faiza Rashid rebuked male parliamentarians. According to Express Tribune, she said they were not ready to consider female members as equals because they were elected on reserved seats. She asked for the discrimination to be put to an end, maintaining there is no law which said that being elected on reserved seats makes one inferior. K-P Minister for Information Mian Iftikhar Hussain said being elected on a reserved seat was a privilege and more prestigious than being directly elected, as it takes three to four lawmakers to select one woman on a reserved seat. However, he also pointed out problems which hinder women`s participation in the electoral process, saying currently it was difficult even for males to contest elections. Hussain said planned segregation in the society has also adversely affected the status of women. In his concluding remarks, Hussain said the protection of women`s rights was not only the duty of women, but also society`s collective responsibility, it added. ANI