Women of the world celebrated across Lahore

HRCP and others call for greater gender parity across the board

LAHORE: International Women’s Day took centre stage in Lahore as authorities and activists across the board showed their commitment to educating and empowering all females in the country.

Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif said half of the country’s population was women and Pakistan could not make progress without their involvement.

He said the PML-N government had taken revolutionary and unprecedented steps to empower women. He said when the party came into power in 2008 in Punjab, it founded a unique education fund with a budget of Rs2 billion. Now armed with Rs20 billion, Shehbaz said the Punjab Education Endowment Fund (PEEF) was now benefitting 30,000 boys and girls.

The CM was speaking at a ceremony held at the Aiwan-e-Iqbal to mark women’s day.

Meanwhile, various seminars, rallies and talks were held to commemorate the day.



Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) called on authorities to recognise and protect women’s human rights activists. “They face similar threats to their male counterparts and are also discriminated against due to their gender.” The HRCP demanded concrete measures from the government to safeguard workers’ rights so they could continue their activities without any fear.

At the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore, Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Fazal Ahmad Khalid lauded some of the measures taken by the government. He said economic and social initiatives had made progress in eliminating gender disparity. “No country can be developed without empowering women”. He was addressing women faculty members and students at a seminar arranged by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and Zimal (Female) UET Students Societies.

National Swimmer Kiran Khan said that male dominance must be replaced with gender equality as it is essential to stabilise society. “This approach will enable Pakistan to compete with the rest of the world in every walk of life,” she added.

Professors Dr Neelum Naz and Dr Rehana Sharif of UET, Professor Dr Shazia of GCU Lahore and motivational speaker Tanzeela urged the youth to demonstrate their potential and excel in every field. An awareness walk was led by the UET VC on campus.

Meanwhile, at a three-day international conference held at the Lahore College for Women University (LCWU), speakers on Wednesday highlighted contemporary issues by covering diversity, gender equality, leadership and the media. Virtual University of Pakistan Academics Adviser Professor Dr Najma Najam said women had a unique ability of coping with difficult experiences in their lives.

LCWU Women Institute of Leadership and Learning Director Professor Dr Sarah Shahed said the empowerment of women must be done in a holistic manner so that it touches all aspects of their lives.



She added this would allow the space for them to develop strategies, reach their professional goals, achieve academic success and personal wellbeing.

LCWU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Rukhsana Kousar, in her concluding remarks, said the conference would create an opportunity for graduates, research scholars, faculty and staff to connect and create networks of support to make a social impact.

A separate seminar called Be Bold for Change on media and gender was by at LCWU’s Department of Mass Communication in collaboration with the Women Institute of Leadership. Naveed Iqbal, a faculty member, presented his research paper on the sociology of news production and the role of women.

Assistant Professor Faiza Latif shared her research on the depiction of women in television dramas. She said the actresses played a vibrant role in society by featuring as various characters. However, in her research on dialogues assigned to the characters, she found there is always some negativity associated with working women.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 9^th, 2017.