PESHAWAR: Call it a lack of political will or prioritising women`s issues on agenda of any political party, legislators, especially women MPAs, stayed away from a discussion here on the much-delayed domestic violence bill foronereason orthe other.

As all over the world the United Nation`s campaign to end violence against women and girls begins on Nov 25, Aurat Foundation (AF) also held a study circle to develop a cross-party consensus on the pro-women laws here on Wednesday. During this study circle the legislators were supposed to be tempted and enabled to form an action plan. However, not to the surprise of many, none of the legislators turned up for the discussion.

`All the 22 women MPAs, three male MPAs and Arif Yousaf, special assistant to the chief minister, were invited to take part in the discussion on the bill and issue of violence againstwomen, but no one turned up on time to take part in the study-circle formed by the Aurat Foundation,` said Shirin Javed, regional coordinator Policy, Advocacy and Capacity Building Project at thefoundation.

The participants, mostly political activists of PML-N and rights organisations and young lawyers, felt the need for laws to protect women inside the four walls of home and in society in general. However, many voiced how `political will` was most needed to implement the already existing laws, including pro-women laws, to make a real difference in the society for women victims of violence.

Shirin Javed highlighted how the data collected from newspapers (JanSept 2015) showed that in 270 days some 319 women became victims of violence with Peshawar having the highest number of such cases (36 per cent). She, however, decried the fact that police which registered the FIR of such cases was often not sensitised and the society often tried to turn a blindeye to such cases as violence against women as a domestic issue.

Saima Munir, working with AF, explained how since 2012 there was a struggle to table a domestic violence bill in the KP Assembly, and the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl and PML-N`s would block it. She added that when reservations of these political parties were removed, the law department became a hurdle.

The law department objected that since there were already clear injunctions there was no need for a new law on domestic violence, claimed Saima Munir while sharing how the tabling of this bill and its treatment by politicians and bureaucracy exposed how women`s issues were on the lowest on the agenda of any government.

Shaheen Habibullah, a PML-N activist from Mardan, said that she would take up the issue with her party leadership. She said that there was a need for legislation and its implementation to protect women. Some of the MPAs turned up when the discussion had ended long ago.