KARACHI: One woman lawmaker’s campaign against misogyny in Pakistan’s impoverished Balochistan province has turned into a baby-sized ray of hope for working women as the provincial assembly announced this week that it would set up a daycare facility on its premises.
Liaquat Shahwani, spokesperson of the Balochistan government, said the daycare center would have qualified attendants, toys and “an environment where the children don’t miss their mothers.”
Pakistan’s National Assembly opened a daycare center in 2017 but this is the first time a provincial assembly will have a facility offering care for children of working parents.
The move comes after a campaign launched by Mahjabeen Sheran, a lawmaker who serves as the provincial secretary for law, parliamentary affairs and women’s development, and hails from Kech, one of Pakistan’s lowest ranked districts in gender parity.
In April, Sheran faced a child-care emergency when her babysitter couldn’t show up and she had to decide between taking care of her nine-month-old baby Ayan Sheran or attending a parliamentary session. She decided to take her baby to work with her.
The move caused an uproar on the floor of the house as Sheran was jeered at and taunted, and ordered to leave the assembly where men are in a 54:11 majority. When she demanded written orders, lawmakers from all political parties forced her out, her confused baby boy cradled in her arms.
“They were staring as though I had done something very wrong,” Sheran told Arab News. “The comments were so insulting for a woman and a mother.”
Devastated and embarrassed, Sheran didn’t show up to the next session.
“I was completely shattered, but when I saw social media flooding with messages in my support I stood up, not only for myself but for the right of every working woman whose natural attachment with her children is considered a hurdle by bigots,” she said.
Sheran belongs to the ruling Balochistan Awami Party, and in the weeks that followed her removal from the assembly floor, she held meetings with several top officials, including the province’s Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan, who finally said he would open a daycare center in the Balochistan assembly for representatives as well as employees.
Akhtar Hussain Langove, a male member of the Balochistan assembly, said with the exception of a few, most men in the assembly stood by their fellow female lawmakers in their campaign for social inclusion.
“What happened on the floor of the house should never have occurred,” he said. “Our female colleagues have double the responsibilities; they are legislators but they are also mothers who have to take care of their children.”
The new center is slated for opening in a few weeks but Sheran says she won’t stop there: her mission now is to have a new law passed to make it mandatory for offices and workplaces across the province to provide daycare services.
“Every building has mandatory services like restrooms and parking, so why shouldn’t offices have daycare centers to help more women be employed and contribute?” Sheran said.
“We, the ones being considered the most backward province, will prove this is possible, and others will follow,” Sheran said as she posed for a photograph with her son, the baby who has caused a small revolution in conservative Balochistan. “The future belongs to women. No one can’t strike us out through any excuse. Not anymore.”
In Pakistan’s Balochistan province, a baby-sized ray of hope for women lawmakers
In Pakistan’s Balochistan province, a baby-sized ray of hope for women lawmakers
- Impoverished province will be first to set up daycare facilities at its provincial assembly
- MP Mahjabeen Sheran was forced to leave the assembly floor in April for bringing along her baby
Pakistan says it is targeting militant infrastructure in Afghanistan as Kabul threatens to hit Islamabad
- Ata Tarar says Pakistan is carrying out ‘precise intelligence-based operations’ to avoid civilian casualties
- Afghan defense minister says the underlying dispute between the two sides is over the ‘Durand Line’ border
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Saturday it was conducting intelligence-based operations against militant infrastructure inside Afghanistan while attempting to avoid civilian casualties, as a senior Afghan Taliban official warned Kabul could retaliate by targeting Islamabad if Pakistani forces struck the Afghan capital.
The escalating rhetoric comes as cross-border fighting between the two neighbors intensifies following clashes that began last month when Afghan forces launched attacks on Pakistani military installations along the frontier. Kabul said the assault was retaliation for Pakistani airstrikes targeting what Islamabad called militant camps inside Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s defense minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said last week the situation had effectively become “open war” between the two countries.
“Pakistan is only targeting terrorist infrastructures and support system with precise intelligence based operations ensuring no collateral damage takes place,” Pakistan’s Information Minister Ataullah Tarar said in a statement.
He challenged the recent claims made by an Afghan defense ministry spokesperson earlier this week who said his country was making significant battlefield gains against Pakistan including the killing of 109 soldiers and the capture or destruction of 14 military posts in large scale attacks.
“These so called attacks by Afghan Taliban in coordination with FAK [Fitna Al Khawarij] Terrorists once again confirm the nexus of Afghan Taliban regime and multiple terrorist organizations operating from within their territory,” Tarar continued. “All such attempts are responded to, immediately and effectively with severe retributive punishment that is swift, precise and effective.”
“The imaginary numbers being floated by Afghan Taliban regime are however not worth any serious comment,” he added.
Tarar said Pakistan’s military campaign — described as Operation Ghazb Lil Haq — had inflicted heavy losses on Afghan Taliban forces.
According to figures shared by the minister, 527 Taliban fighters had been killed and more than 755 injured since the clashes began, while 237 check posts were destroyed and 38 captured and destroyed. He said 205 tanks, armored vehicles and artillery guns were destroyed and 62 locations across Afghanistan had been targeted by air strikes.
Arab News could not independently verify the claims made by either side.
CIVILIAN CASUALTIES
Earlier this week, the United Nations raised concern over the toll of the escalating conflict on civilians.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk said on Friday that 56 Afghan civilians — nearly half of them children — had been killed since hostilities between Pakistan and Afghanistan intensified.
However, Tarar questioned the UN findings, saying its assertions appeared to rely heavily on information provided by Taliban authorities and did not adequately reflect independently verified intelligence.
“Pakistan categorically reiterates that all counter-terrorism operations conducted by its security forces are carried out with the highest degree of precision, professionalism, and responsibility,” he said.
Islamabad has long accused the Taliban government of allowing militant groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), to operate from Afghan soil, a charge Kabul denies.
“Operations are meticulously planned so that civilian areas remain completely safe,” the minister said. “The locations targeted are remote terrorist hideouts and facilities far removed from populated zones, including sensitive areas such as Kabul’s Green Zone.”
AFGHAN WARNING
Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s Defense Minister Mullah Yaqoob issued a warning to Pakistan in remarks circulated by Afghan broadcaster TOLOnews.
“If Kabul lacks peace, there will be no peace in Islamabad. If Kabul is attacked, Islamabad will be attacked,” Yaqoob said in a promotional clip of an interview shared on social media.
Yaqoob rejected Pakistan’s justification that the presence of the TTP in Afghanistan warranted military action and suggested the underlying dispute was over the contested “Durand Line” border between the two countries.
So far, there has been no official response from Pakistan to Yaqoob’s remarks.
