Centres soon for women councillors
KARACHI – Adviser to the prime minister on women development, Social Welfare and Special Education Nilofar Bakhtiar said on October 7, that women enclosures will be established in Ramazan Bachat Bazaars to facilitate the womenfolk.
The advisor said this while visiting the Sindh Women Development Department here. She said problems confronting the women, especially those living in rural areas, are being resolved on a priority basis.
She said efforts were being made to strengthen the working relations between the federal government and the women development department. She pointed out that though policies are formulated at the federal level, these are implemented in provinces.
The advisor said that during her meeting with the Sindh minister for women development Dr Saeeda Malik, she discussed the progress on implementation of various policies.
Referring to the last federal cabinet meeting, she said the meeting decided that special enclosures for women would be set up in all Bachat Bazaars and orders have already been communicated to all the four provinces.
She said that Pakistan is the first country where there is a separate department of women development which is a big honour. The Advisor to the Prime Minister for Women Development announced that provincial committees on violence against women will be set up in all four provinces to redress the grievances of women at initial level so that no woman is deprived of justice.
She said the committee will be headed by provincial minister for women development, the secretary women development will be its secretary and active women MPAs, lady councillors, women journalists, lawyers and social workers will be included in it as members.
Citing objectives of setting up these committees in four provinces, she said there was a dire need of these committees. She said crisis centres, complaint centres for women victims of violence, help line service for those women, who are exposed to any kind of violence, will now be inter linked with this committee.
The advisor said that the committee would monitor working of all these centres and submit a report to the federal ministry. She said in this way all women victims will have mental satisfaction and realization that there is a body which addresses their complaints in shortest period of time.
Talking about women councillors rehabilitation centres, Nilofer Bakhtiar said initially 10 such centres would be set up in the country at the district level. Elaborating, she said that two centres would be set up in Sindh, including one in Karachi and the other in Sukkur, to facilitate women councillors.
These centres will have all modern facilities like, telephone, fax, library, sitting room and computers with internet facility. The advisor also discussed measures being taken for upliftment of women of rural areas and said Rs100m announced by the president earlier have been received by her ministry which would be utilized for the betterment of skilled women living in rural areas.
Source: Dawn
Date:10/8/2004
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