*** Wtll Benazir Bhutto’s ascension as Pakistan’s premier for the second time make a difference for the country's women? asks Kunda Dixit Of Inter Press Service. ***

ON the face of it. instalia tlon of Benazir Bhutto as Pakistan s prime minister for the second time would have been proof enough that women's rights are respected and intact In this Islamic nation.

But human rights and women s groups say Bhutto paid scant attention to reform Ing laws that discriminate against women during her first term in office from 1988-90. Faced with opposition from Pakistan's male dominated political and religious structure, she may not fare much better this time round.

Still. Bhuttos Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) did go into the October polls promising to scrap discriminatory laws, open special courts for women, set up a female police force and have a quota for women in the civil service

Women's groups say the stunning defeat of Islamic parties In the Oct. 6 natlbna! assembly polls may make it easier for Bhutto to push her gender reforms if she indeed forms the government.

The PPP won the national assembly elections by a razor-thin margin, and is better placed to form a central government than her rival. Nawaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML). But Sharif could still make things hard for her If he gets to form a government in Panjab. Pakistan's most influential province.

Indeed, the women took centre stage even in the state-con trolled media where activists debated practices that deprived women of voting rights and discriminatory hudood laws.

Women panelists on TV talk shows lashed out at interpretations of hudood that equated

rape with fornication and punished women instead of rapists. Hudood laws require a woman to produce four pious Muslim witnesses to get a rapist con victed.

Pakistan's Women Action Forum estimates that 80 per cent of the women in the coun try's Jails are charged under hudood ordinances

But. sayS Khalid Ahmed, editor of the Frontier Post newspa per here: The PPP has a good line on women, but the narrow margin of victory will make a Bhutto coalition government

very fragile and she may once more go on the defensive when political opponents blame her for being soft on Islam.'

During her last term In office. Bhutto failed to abolish the hudood laws.

This time around. Bhutto has said she will revive the system started by her father, former Prime Minister Zulfikar All Bhutto, of settling aside for women 20 seats in the 217-member national assembly.

The activist group Aurat Foundation is also pushing for 33, per cent women's represen-

tation in local bodies and they want political parties to have women's wings In the recent national assembly elections, only 13 of the 1.500 candidates were women. Two of them were the Bhutto ladles Benazir and her mother. Nusrat.

'womens concerns are marginalised in Pakistan .. their role status and image is understated." said the heads of UN agencies based in Pakistan in an open letter on the eve of the polls. "Women have been invisible to planners who recognise their reproductive role but disregard the contribution of the female labour force.'

"Pakistan's most urgent development priority is to educate women and girls." the letter added. •

Women's activists like Yameema Mltha say the place to start Is with legal reforms. "Pakistan is one of those countries which still legally discriminate against certain of its citizens if they happen to be women... hudood charges are a terror for women.'

After seeing the PPP cashing in on the women's vote during the October elections, even religious parties like the Islaml Jamhoori Mahaz started wooing the women's ballot, arguing that women had been deprived of their Islamic rights to inheritance.

But socio-cultural taboos for keeping women at home are so strong that less than 10 per cent of the female electorate voted in conservative areas like the North West Frontier Province.

For those like burly bus driver Syed Khan in the Afghan-border region of Kohat. the choice was elear: "I did npt vote for Benazir because she is a woman.