Equality: QWP believes in empowering women: Sikandar Sherpao

PESHAWAR:

Qaumi Watan Party provincial chief Sikandar Sherpao has said his party believes in empowering women and will continue efforts towards this end.

“Women constitute more than 50% of the country’s population and we shall empower them so they can play their role in the development process,” he told journalists at his residence in University Town on Thursday.

He said women have not been given a significant role in policymaking. Sherpao added although they have been given representation in local bodies, women have no say when it comes to the process of decision-making.

He also criticised the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government for its “discriminatory” attitude towards women, saying even the lawmakers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf are deprived of development funds for women for the past two years. He added the previous governments gave women lawmakers due funds. However, the PTI government has brought about “rather negative changes” to the system, said Sherpao.

Sherpao stressed on the participation of women in local government elections, saying they should not only be nominated on reserved seats but should also contest on general seats.

He said the Election Commission of Pakistan should also play its role in helping women come to the fore by establishing polling stations at places that are easily accessible.

The central general secretary of QWP, he said, is a woman which testifies the party’s stance on women empowerment.

To a question he said his party did not receive any application from women for the general seats but they nevertheless encourage women to come forward.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 24^th, 2015.