Women protection law: Committee formed to seek opinion of clerics

Chief minister says health sector is a priority of the government

LAHORE:

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Sunday formed a committee to consult religious scholars for their opinion on the recently passed Punjab Protection of Women Against Violence Act 2016.

Law Minister Rana Sanaullah was named the chairman, Khwaja Ahmed Hassaan the co-chairman and Special Monitoring Unit’s senior member Salman Sufi the secretary of the committee.

Clerics from all major schools of thought were included in the committee. The clerics named in the committee were Hafiz Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi of the Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC); Maulana Abdul Khabir Azad, the prayer leader at the Badshahi Masjid; Zahid Muhammad Qasmi of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII); Maulana Hanif Jalandhri, the secretary general of the Wafaqul Madaris Al-Arabia; Maulana Fazlur Raheem, the Ulema Board chairman; Sahibzada Saeed Ahmed Gujrati; Raghib Naeemi; Allama Arif Wahidi; Hafiz Kazim Raza; Maulana Muhammad Khan; Maulana Yousaf Anwar; Hafiz Zubair; Maulana Abdul Haq Mujahid; Maulana Muhammad Amjad; Pir Mehfooz Mashhadi and Mufti Abdul Qavi.

SMU senior member Salman Sufi said the law had been prepared in view of Islamic teachings. He said all segments of the society should come out in support for protection of women becoming victims of violence. He said he hoped that the proceedings of the committee would help strengthen efforts to curb violence against women.

‘Provision of health facilities will be ensured’

The government is taking all out measures to ensure provision of health facilities to the people, Sharif said at a meeting to review arrangements at tehsil and district headquarters hospitals.

“The government will reward Health Department EDOs of districts that have achieved all targets. Officials of districts performing poorly will be held accountable,” he said. The meeting decided to computerise the system for provision of free medicines to patients at hospitals.

The CM said that a cabinet committee would be constituted for taking immediate decisions for achieving health sector targets. “The cabinet committee will be administratively independent and will take its decisions for the improvement of public health facilities and ensure their implementation,” he said.

He said that hospital waste should be disposed of in a proper manner. He approved the release of more funds for purchasing free medicines.

He said that an audit should be conducted of functional and non-functional machinery at hospitals.

Notice taken

The chief minister on Sunday took notice of the publication of offensive content in a book. He constituted a two-member committee, consisting of CM’s Inspection Team chairman Irfan Ali and Dr Zafar Iqbal Qureshi. The committee will investigate the content published in 2010 edition of the book.

It will recommend a way to remove the offensive content from the book. The committee will also review the existing mechanism to check the quality of content being published by private authors/publishers. The committee was asked to fix responsibility and submit its report within three days.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14^th, 2016.