Ministry assures support to Mukhtaran Mai
ISLAMABAD, March 09 2005: Ministry of Women Development will support Mukhtaran Mai in her appeal, she filed against the verdict of Lahore High Court (LHC) in the Supreme Court. Advisor to Prime Minister on Women Development, Nilofer Bakhtiar said this on the occasion of launching of two research reports prepared by Professor Dr Sultana Baksh and Shabnam Shakil on the ‘International Women Day’, celebrated on Tuesday.
Director General on Women Development, Sohaila Asif, Secretary Ministry of Women Development, Sohail Safdar and Deputy Secretary, Sultan Khan were also present. Dr Sultana Baksh in her research paper focussed on women issues portrayed in 50 years of Urdu fiction.
Nilofer Bakhtiar appreciated her courage as she being illiterate herself is heading a school in Multan and said that now women are more aware about their rights, it can change the scenario of the society.
After returning from United Nations, she said that Ministry of Women Development had submitted two reports; Beijing +10 and NGOs report.She said that in the meeting of UN, almost all countries appreciated our efforts to pass the bill on ‘honour killings’.
Advisor to Prime Minister appreciated the research work from two ladies researchers and said the ministry would print and send it to all universities specially where women studies is being taught as a subject.
She said that the ministry would translate these research studies and will send these papers to all embassies to remove the misconceptions from their minds about Pakistani women.
Nilofer Bakhtiar urged upon the women writers to write more on current issues that women are facing nowadays, adding that the writers should highlight religious, cultural and economic issues of the female population.
Dr Sultana Baksh said that government must reduce the prices of fiction books because people have less purchasing power to buy costly books. She said the government must make availability of fiction books possible in the country, especially in remote areas because book is a source of awareness and knowledge.
Source: Business Recorder
Date:3/9/2005
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