Gender justice: Women’s issues low on Punjab’s priority list

Bureaucratic tussle, duplication of projects mar progress on tackling gender discrimination.

LAHORE:

A bureaucratic tussle in the government of Punjab’s Social Welfare, Women Development and Baitul Maal Department has left hundreds of distressed women in the province shuttling between offices for help, The Express Tribune has learnt.

“Women who are facing discrimination are now confused as to which office to contact for resolution of their issues as two offices with the same agenda are working in one department,” an official from the department said, requesting anonymity.

Two offices within the department, maintained by the provincial government at an annual cost of Rs260 million, are fighting over administrative control of the Gender Reform Action Plan (GRAP). In the current fiscal year, Rs100 million was provided to run the GRAP. The GRAP was launched by the government of Pakistan in August 2002, with technical assistance from the Asian Development Bank. The federal government too provided Rs610 million for execution of specific tasks.

The provincial government established a programme management unit at GRAP as a policy chamber to ensure that all public sector operations in the province promote gender equity and reduce gender inequality. This unit was established in the Social Welfare, Women Development and Baitul Maal Department.

After the unit was established, some officials began lobbying for a parallel directorate to exercise administrative control over the GRAP.

Meanwhile, the department established a new office where Sajjad Haider Sipra was posted as the director for women development and two others were appointed his deputies. In essence, the office had the same responsibilities as that of the DG as far as GRAP was concerned.

Meanwhile, the provincial government refused to adopt the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women Crisis Centres, set up the now-devolved Ministry of Women Development, to provide legal help to women in distress.

The government has written to prime minister’s office that it cannot share the financial liabilities of these centres. The letter also implied that the crisis centres would be unnecessary as Darul Amans (shelter homes) were already working in Punjab, with the same aims and objectives.

The Punjab government has also requested the Inter-Provincial Coordination Ministry to withdraw the notification issued by the Women Development Ministry which says that this project will be devolved to the provincial government following the 18th Amendment.

In 2009, 26 centres were established by the federal government, under the women development ministry, out of which 12 are operating in Punjab. The cities where these centres are located are Lahore, Sahiwal, Muzaffargarh, Multan, Vehari, Bahawalpur, DG Khan, Mianwali, Khushab, Faisalabad, Sialkot and Rawalpindi. The move was opposed by the Punjab government at that time as well, on the grounds that Darul Aman shelter homes were already functioning in the province.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 25^th, 2011.