Committees formed to prevent domestic violence

Four years after the passage of legislation, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government has finally established committees to end violence against women in the province.

Due to the lack of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) female Members of the Provincial Assembly, the committees will be headed by woman members from the opposition, with one committee to be headed by the Deputy Speaker.

The K-P Assembly had passed a law in 2021 to prevent domestic violence against women.

At the time, a female assembly member from the Pakistan Peoples Party, Nighat Orakzai, had proposed an amendment to the law to ensure that committees formed under it would be headed by woman members of the assembly.

The House had approved the amendment.

In 2023, Nighat Orakzai had raised the issue of the law's non-implementation. The issue had also been raised in the Standing Committee on Social Welfare.

After Orakzai had raised her voice on the matter, the government had made rules of business which had been approved by the then provincial cabinet.

Orakzai's initiative mandating woman heads of committees had been aimed at ensuring the law's effective implementation.

The matter of formation of the committees, however, was kept pending for several years, with the provincial government now finally approving them. Under the law, a committee is to be established in each district of the province.

According to the announcement, committees have initially been formed for six districts.

Deputy Speaker Suraya Bibi has been named for Chitral, Rehana Ismail for Peshawar, Asma Alam for Swabi, Sobia Shahid for Lower Dir, Shehla Bano for Abbottabad and Neelo Babar for Nowshera as chairpersons of the committees.