ISLAMABAD: The president of PPP’s Human Rights Cell, Farhatullah Babar on Wednesday called for the setting up of ‘Women Parliamentary Caucus of Afghanistan and Pakistan’ and stressed that the first step towards that goal would be to ensure free and fair elections with level playing field to all.

“Women can play an important role in building bridges between Pakistan and Afghanistan,” he said and identified businesses, people-to-people contacts, art and culture and literature as areas where empowered women can play a great role.

Mr Babar said the need for building bridges between the two countries had never been as great as it is today as 1.7 million refugees, many among them women and children, without proper planning and at the stroke of the pen had been repatriated making even the western border more volatile and hostile.

Official channels have limitations to build bridges and civil society and NGOs need to explore non-official channels, said the former senator while addressing a seminar on “Empowerment of Pak-Afghan women for building bridges”.

Suggests women parliamentary caucus between two countries

He said, “Women by nature are peace loving, they shun war and destruction. They love their children more than the men do. In Pakistan, in Afghanistan indeed anywhere they yearn for peace. They are thus a potent force for building bridges for peace, for children for everyone”.

Mr Babar quoted former prime minister Benazir Bhutto as saying: “In a world where weapons and war too often define us, it is important that we discover our humanity in bringing the women together”.

He said women in Afghanistan had been victims of state repression and the most tortured group. “Before 9/11 for twenty-three years they suffered war and death. They were left as widows in their youths. These young mothers could not work or even leave their homes but had hungry children,” he pointed out.

When war, he said, ended after 9/11 women of Pakistan gathered to raise voice for their sisters across the border demanding rehabilitation of women and their inclusion in the new Afghan set-up. “Indeed there were demonstrations in over 60 countries in support of Afghan women showing the potential power of non-state NGOs to become force multipliers for Afghan and Pakistani women,” he added.

In Pakistan, he said, disenfranchisement of ten million women, child marriage, rape and honour killing, harassment at workplaces, lack of access to justice, etc are some of the critical issues that need to be addressed for women empowerment.

He called for raising a collective voice for the protection and education of Afghan women and reaching out to the international community with stories of repression of Afghan women.

About the repatriation of Afghan refugees, Mr Babar said they were welcomed and hosted for decades in pursuit of strategic agenda. “They were used as cannon fodder and political football and expelling them in this manner is unlikely to serve the cause of peace as some of them might be tempted to join the ranks of militants,” he cautioned.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2023