PESHAWAR: The provincial government has been urged to make further amendments to the proposed draft of Child Marriage Restraints Bill in consultation with the relevant stakeholders before its tabling in the assembly.
The demand was made by the speakers of a seminar organised at the conclusion of a USAID-funded project under its Gender Equity Programme implemented by Aurat Foundation and Blue Veins.
The speakers also called for proper awareness to prevent growing tendency of early-age girl marriages.
The project’s basic purpose was to strengthen District Bar Association Peshawar and provide free legal aid to women, and the victims of gender-based violence.
Members of legal fraternity, representatives of civil society, human rights directorate members, journalists and academicians attended the seminar.
Blue Veins programme coordinator QamarNaseem stressed the need for strict implementation of laws to ensure protection to women rights and end the growing violence against them. He added that civil society needed to stand against every kind of violence against women. TahiraKaleem, the project manager, said there were few laws on women rights, but they were not implemented in letter and spirit. She said the common people had no access to these laws.
Sharing with the participants the project’s objectives, its achievements, case studies and success stories, she said the project had not only accommodated hundreds of gender-based violence victims and trained more than 200 lawyers but also opened the road of justice for other women, seeking justice.
Amjad Ali, President Peshawar District Bar Association, said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was considered to be the heavily legislated province and it had laws regarding every grievance of common citizen, but unfortunately the knowledge remained in curriculum of law or in the documents, never reaching to the common people.
Radish Tony, member of Sikh community, talked about problems facing the Sikh community and urged the government to also focus on issues of minorities.
