Legislators calls for more legislation on women issues

By Fahad Abbasi

ISLAMABAD, November 11, 2010:  Women legislators on Thursday stressed the need to do more legislation for the protection of the rights of women in the country with the help of civil society.

A seminar on the topic of “National & Provincial Legislative Initiatives on Women’s Rights Issues” held in a private hotel, in which the federal and provincial legislators shed light on various initiatives taken by the both assemblies for the rights of women.

MNA-ANP Bushra Gohar, chief guest of the seminar, said “we have done a lot for the rights of women but there is a need to do more in this regard”. She said that the women of the Federally Administrative Tribal Areas (FATA) need special support and care as they even don’t know about their basic rights. She further said that the women legislators need support from the civil society to do legislation on crucial and sensitive issues regarding women of the country.

She said that the representation of women in National Assembly is 22 per cent including the women reserve seats and the women elected in General Election instead of 33 per cent which were reserved for women. “The political parties should have a women quota in General Election in the parties” she added.

Zakia Shahnawaz, advisor to CM Punjab, said that 63 years had been passed since independence but the progress in women legislation was very slow. She said that primary education should be essential for every woman in the country. She further said that there should be harmony among the women legislators of different provinces to strengthen the legislation process for the rights of women. She said that the provinces should take urgent steps for the development of women care centers 

Provincial Minister for Women Development Sindh, Tauqeer Fatima Bhutto said on the occasion that protection of women rights was important in the country and we have to do more legislation to protect the rights of women. She said that the women of rural areas of Sindh even don’t know about the hospital. “The traditions of ‘Karokari’ and ‘wani’ are a big stigma on our society but we as women would fight against the bad traditions of society” she added.

Raheela Durrani, Minister for Prosecution from Balochistan said that the women of Balochistan were most illiterate in the country and she surprised the participants as she told that Balochistan was the as poor as it had no women hospital. She urged the parliamentarian to take urgent steps to help the flood affected women of the province as 12 districts of the province were devastated by the flood.