ISLAMABAD
Minister of State (MoS) for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage (IB&NH) Marriyum Aurangzeb has said that women can be emancipated and empower through education and educating of girls is the best investment in future.
Addressing national consultation on “Implementation issues and challenges of women protection laws in Pakistan” here on Thursday, Marriyum Aurangzeb said that legislation done for empowerment of women so far could not be integrated with the educational curriculum.
She said now the curriculum was being revised under PM educational reforms programme and issues related to women empowerment would be made its part. She said that the women enjoyed equal rights and opportunities in the Constitution and the government was taking practical steps for empowerment of women and protection of their rights.
The Minister said that during past few years legislation has been done to empower the women as the legislation directly affects the society. In order to ensure the rights of women the federal government enacted a number of laws which include Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace (Amendment) Bill, 2014, Anti-Rape Laws (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, 2013 and Anti Honour Killing Laws (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, 2014, she added. She stressed the need for better implementation of the laws enacted for protection of women rights and their empowerment.
Marriyum Aurangzeb said that the issue of harassment of women at workplace was a sensitive matter and committees have been constituted in various organizations to deal with the complaints, but there was need for creation of awareness and training.
She said that all political parties were unanimous on the issue of granting rights to women and no one objected to women-specific clauses of the electoral reforms bill recently finalized by the parliamentary committee.
She said that under the draft law result of a constituency can be declared as null and void if less than 10 per cent of registered women votes are cast and the political parties will allocate quota for female candidates in elections on direct basis.
The Minister said that the Parliament has been working for women rights and women parliamentary caucus was playing very good role in that regard. Pakistan’s parliament was first in the world to have a secretariat on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), she maintained.
She said that the males of the society will have to play their role in ensuring protection of women’s rights and their emancipation and empowerment.
