Beyond Victims #2026 - Pakistan Edition
Our fourth edition of Beyond Victims 2026 Series brings you stories of inspiring women political leaders from India.
Dive in to read stories of Krishna Kumari Kohli, Sumera Shams, Sharmila Sahiba Faruqui Hashaam, Hina Pervaiz Butt & Mehreen Razzaq Bhutto.
Krishna Kumari Kohli
(Former Senator, 2018–2024)
As a member of the Senate of Pakistan hailing from the remote Tharparkar region, Kohli channelled her grassroots activist background directly into legislative gatekeeping and oversight on women’s rights, labor protection, and religious freedoms. She acted as an assertive legislative advocate pushing for the strict implementation of existing statutes governing workplace sexual harassment, the abolition of bonded labor, and underage marriage protections. She has also utilized formal floor walkouts to protest the legislative dismissal of minority protection bills, ensuring that the vulnerabilities of marginalized communities remain a prominent focal point within national legislative debates.
- Multiple Sources
Dr. Sumera Shams
(Former Member of the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa)
As the first woman member of the Public Accounts Committee, she conducted fiscal audits of provincial government spending. As Chair of the Standing Committee on Health, she directed legislative updates to expand health infrastructure, introduced a bill on HIV/AIDS awareness, and audited health department resource allocation.
A doctor and the youngest MPA in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s history, she founded and chaired the Assembly’s Young Parliamentary Forum (YPF) and worked actively within the Women Parliamentary Caucus to drive gender-responsive policy. She used these platforms to lobby for the passage of the landmark KP Domestic Violence against Women (Prevention and Protection) Act of 2021, establishing formal legal protections against domestic abuse.
- Multiple Sources
Dr. Sharmila Sahiba Faruqui Hashaam
(Member of Parliament)
She authored and piloted three major statutory reforms targeting systemic violence, child rights, and public health.
As a sitting MNA, her legislative contribution is the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill, 2025, passed by a joint sitting of Parliament in January 2026, which established a legal framework for the capital territory by expanding the definition of abuse to cover psychological, emotional, and economic deprivation alongside physical harm. Simultaneously, she introduced the ICT Child Marriage Restraint Bill to establish statutory age protections, and authored the ICT Compulsory Thalassemia Screening Bill, passed by the National Assembly in March 2026, turning preventive genetic screening into a mandatory premarital health standard to curb hereditary blood disorders.
- Multiple Sources
Hina Pervaiz Butt
(Chairperson of the PWPA & Member of the Provincial Assembly)
In the assembly and through her executive role, Butt led high-stakes statutory protections, human rights advocacy, and institutional safety mechanisms. Combining her MPA and PWPA roles, she successfully pushed the Punjab Acid Control Bill through the assembly, introducing strict legal regulations over substance distribution to counter gender-based violence. To modernize state-level crisis management, she directed the establishment of a provincial Rapid Response Cell, integrating swift medical and legal assistance protocols for survivors of acid attacks.
- Multiple Sources
Dr. Mehreen Razzaq Bhutto
(Former Member of the National Assembly)
She moved the Acid and Burn Crime Bill, 2021, to specifically criminalise acid and burn violence and ensure fair and speedy trials for such offences. Utilizing her background in healthcare policy, she co-moved the landmark Pakistan Medical and Dental Council Bill to reform medical regulations.
- Multiple Sources
Credits:
Project Manager: Riya Hira
Contributors: Gauri Tiwari, Shashwat Shukla & Riya Hira
Edited by: Akhil Neelam & Sugandha Parmar
Design: Riya Hira
Template: Vida Seraphina (https://vidaseraphina.dk/)
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