CM Punjab orders bar rooms, daycare centres for women lawyers

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has ordered the establishment of bar rooms and daycare centres for women lawyers in three districts of the province.

This initiative comes in response to requests from women lawyers for the creation of ladies' bar rooms and daycare centres, highlighting the need for improved facilities in the legal profession.

On Saturday, CM Maryam directed the Department of Communications and Works to take immediate action to construct these facilities in Attock, Bahawalnagar, and Lodhran.

The Communications and Works Department has already prepared standard designs for the ladies' bar rooms in these areas.

The CM emphasized that it is crucial for women lawyers to have access to basic amenities in their workplaces.

Plans are also underway to assess the feasibility of establishing additional ladies' bar rooms in other regions.

Punjab's Advocate General, Khalid Ishaq, announced that ladies' bar rooms will also be set up in the bar associations of Jand, Fort Abbas, and Dunyapur, with daycare centers included to further assist women lawyers.

Furthermore, small kitchen facilities will be added for their convenience.

Meanwhle, earlier this month she inaugurated Chief Minister Transport Programme for Women with 76 buses for girls' colleges in the province.

In the first phase, 19 buses were given to women's colleges. The chief minister handed over the keys of buses to the principals of 19 colleges.

She inspected the buses and evaluated a proposal to provide air-conditioned vehicles for the girls' colleges.

During a briefing by Punjab Higher Education Secretary Dr Farrukh Naveed, the chief minister was informed that buses would be provided to 76 colleges in three phases.

In the first phase, buses have been given for 19 tehsils deprived of transport -- Bhakkar, Sialkot, Chiniot Kamalia, Hasilpur, Malakwal, Ferozewala, Shorekot, Jatoi, Fateh Jang, Hasan Abdal, Kot Momin, Jalalpur Pirwala, Kallar Syedan, Pindi Ghep, Manchanabad and Sharqpur.

In the second phase, the girls colleges of Nowshera Virkan, Dina, Yazman, Pindi Bhattian, Lalian, Bhawana, Kot Addu, Taxila, Sarai Alamgir and Pelaan will get buses. Allama Iqbal Town Lahore, Isa Khel, Raiwind and Sohawa girls colleges will also get buses by February 2025. By April 2025, buses and 32 coaches will be provided for 35 more tehsils.