Governor offers help to women inmates

The National Commission on Status of Women (NCSW) will work with the Sindh government to improve the state of affairs in the women prisons of the province, said the commission's chairperson Nilofar Bakhtiar on Thursday.

She was speaking at an awareness seminar on gender-based violence and child marriage. NCSW in collaboration with the Centre for Excellence in Journalism (CEJ), and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) had organised the seminar.

On the occasion NCSW, CEJ and UNFPA launched the National Media Fellowship to start 16 days of activism against gender-based violence on Thursday.

NCSW Chairperson Nilofar Bakhtiar said that during her visit to prisons, she was impressed by the artwork and paintings of women inmates. She said that prisoners told her that some of them are artists and some are learning.

She reminded the audience that in 1999, the UN designated November 25 as International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

"We need nothing less, nothing more, but human rights," she said and demanded to end gender-based violence and chanted the slogan, "end violence against women now." Helping women inmates Sindh Governor Imran Ismail has said that his government will, with the help of the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW), clear all outstanding dues of women languishing in jail for want of payment of fines so that they could be set free as soon as possible.

He said that the government has to recognize the problems and challenges being faced by women prisoners in Sindh and take action to help them.

Ismail told his audience, comprising journalists, members of the NCSW, women rights activists as well as students of media that it was the priority of his government to focus on helping women get justice. "It should be our target to reach out to the victims of violence," the Sindh Governor commented in his keynote speech.

Institute of Business Administrations CEJ Director Kamal Siddiqi, speaker at the occasion stated that media plays an important role and should act responsibly to report gender-based violence with the right choice of words and images without making it sensational.

Training of media reporters is necessary in order to report such incidents in the right way, he added, "We will sensitise a group of mid to senior-level journalists from all over Pakistan to reinforce editorial understanding and skills," Siddiqi informed while addressing the goals of the project.

"We particularly need to educate and train reporters from rural areas," he said. UNFPA gender expert Shabana Arif informed the audience about the training project. She said 35 journalists will be trained under the project for which eligibility criteria are set and the distribution of seats will be provincewise. For Islamabad 3 seats, Punjab 10, KPK 6, Sindh 8, Balochistan 4, AJK 2, GB 2. U N F P A C o u n t r y Representative Dr Bakhtior Kadirov also spoke on the occasion virtually.

CEJ Acting Head Ayesha Azhar Shah, Sindh Commission Chairperson Nuzhat shireen and Sultana Siddique also spoke on the occasion.