‘Female empowerment, leadership should be part of political manifestos’

Women’s Leadership Forum holds seminar on the eve of International Women’s Day.

KARACHI: Political empowerment and leadership should be ensured by the government and all political parties must make it a part of their political manifestos.

Female parliamentarians and experts shared these views on Thursday at a women’s leadership forum organised in collaboration with the Search for Common Ground (SFCG) and Insan Foundation Trust to mark International Women’s Day.

The participants pointed out that women had played a pivotal role in the last 10 years and proved that they could play a better role in the nation-building process. They criticised the authorities for failing to prevent the blasts in Abbas Town and Quetta. “The Balochistan government asked us to make our own security system,” said Rukhsana Ahmed from Quetta. “Everyone should withdraw weapons but such demands suit civilised societies, and we have lost that status for several years.”

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz MPAs Raheela Khadim Hussain, Saima Aziz, Munir Alam and Nasim Nasir Khwaja participated in the seminar along with Pakistan Peoples Party’s Sajida Mir, Summara Khan and Amna Zaidi, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid’s Saeeda Kehkashan Abbas and Nasreen Rehman Khetran, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf’s Sabrina Javed, and political analyst Dr Ayesha Siddiqa.



“Female parliamentarians need to connect with fellow bureaucrats to establish strong communication networking among themselves,” stressed Dr Siddiqa. “They should talk about women’s security issues in the parliament and political parties should have research wings and think tanks working with them round-the-clock.”

SFCG’s country director Ammara Durrani said that women’s political empowerment is fundamental and their socio-political leadership is inevitable. “It is hard to imagine a constructive and sustainable democratic change in Pakistan, unless women are included in the decision-making processes at all levels of governance.”

A nationwide campaign on ‘Women’s Initiative for Learning and Leadership (WILL)’ was also launched at the event.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 8^th, 2013.