Seminar on culture of democracy in Pakistan held
FAISALABAD: Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation (AWAM) has demanded that the government must make flood relief operation transparent in order to restore the trust of Pakistanis and international community on the government of Pakistan. Addressing a seminar in connection with International day of democracy titled “Culture of Democracy in Pakistan: Prospects and Challenges”, at Essa Nagri in Faisalabad.
Speakers demanded that all political parties should avoid politics of criticism and should adopt policy of dialogue for the stability of democratic system; government must respect and ensure implementation on all verdicts of judiciary. Naseem Anthony (Executive Secretary-AWAM), Shazia George (Coordinator-AWAM), Suneel Malik (Executive Secretary-PHD), Nazia Sardar, Anjum James Paul (Director-Shadow), Mumtaz Nayamat, Nasreen Nelson and other speakers demanded that appropriate steps must be taken in order to remove social, cultural, religious, legal and political barriers in the way of women’s progress; discrimination in the laws and constitution against women and religious minorities should be removed and class division must be eliminated through ensuring rule of law and supremacy of the constitution, in order to establish culture of democracy in Pakistan.
Naseem Anthony said, “Democracy is the best system of governance which guarantees representation of all groups, allows difference of opinion and encourages legislatures to frame pro-people laws and policies.” Shazia George said, “The key condition of democracy is to: give priority to humanity over other recognition of citizens, provide equal opportunities and human rights irrespective of any discrimination, because it is impossible to build democratic society without respect and defence of human rights.”
Suneel Malik said, “There is discrimination and prejudice among people of Pakistan on the basis of creed, sex, colour, language and caste, therefore promotion of democratic values and principles on family, community, society, institutes, political parties and government level and negation of non-democratic traditions is pertinent for building culture of democracy in Pakistan.”
Nazia Sardar said, “The ultimate purpose of the democracy is to uplift the living standard of people through sovereign and responsible government, but people are facing economic problems due to rising inflation in Pakistan for last two years, therefore government must impose tax on industrialists and must utilise that money in order to control inflation.”
Anjum James Paul said, “A country is called democratic where rulers frame laws and policies bearing in mind the will, needs and problems of people”. The seminar was arranged in collaboration with Liaison for Enforcement of Human Rights (LEHR) and Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD), which was joined by at least 105 Muslim and Christian participants.
Source: Business Recorder
Date:9/17/2010
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