Empowerment: Women’s role crucial to national development, says Shahbaz

LAHORE:

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said on Monday the country could not progress until women were provided education and equal opportunities for progress.

The chief minister was speaking at a ceremony in connection with the launch of Punjab Gender Parity Report 2016 and the Gender Management Information System.

Governor Rafique Rajwana, Provincial Ministers Begum Zakia Shahnawaz, Ayesha Ghaus Pasha, Hameeda Waheeduddin and Raja Ashfaq Sarwar, Australian High Commissioner Margaret Adamson and Punjab Commission on the Status of Women Chairperson Fauzia Viqar were also present on the occasion.

“The provincial government has published the first Gender Parity Report in South Asia. Steps will be taken for women’s progress… so that they can contribute to socio-economic development of the society” Sharif said.

The chief minister said that it was an important day in Pakistan’s history as the provincial government had taken the lead by launching the report. He praised Viqar and her team on preparing the report.

Sharif said that Islam stressed women’s empowerment and equal rights for them. He said women’s right to ancestral property has been protected through legislation and land record management information system. He said that a women commission had been established to resolve their problems. A 15 per cent quota has been allocated for them in government jobs, the chief minister said.

He said that a three-year age relaxation had been announced for women for entering government service. He said that daycare centres were being set up across the province. He said that vocational training had been given to 140,000 girls under a skill development programme.

The chief minister said women had been included in a programme to provide interest-free loans under the self-employment scheme. A large number of families were benefitting from the scheme, he said. He said the recovery rate in the scheme was almost 100 per cent.

He said more than 11,000 cattle had been handed to needy women in villages.

He said that hostels had been established in all Punjab districts for working women. They had been given 33 per cent representation in the boards of government institutions. He said that merit and transparency had been ignored in the recruitment of lady health workers under a military government.

The chief minister said that Pakistani women were talented and had contributed to the national development. “Fatima Jinnah’s role in the national development will never be forgotten,” he said.

Sharif praised filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy for earning laurels for the country by twice winning the Oscars. “Women who have studied engineering and medicine should take up professional careers to help the country grow,” he said.

The chief minister ordered that a committee be formed under the chief secretary to submit recommendations in four weeks for the welfare and empowerment of women.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 8^th, 2016.