NGOs demand implementation of pro-women laws

A number of non-governmental organisations working to combat violence against women have demanded that the government should ensure the implementation of relevant laws.
They say the gender discrimination still prevails in the institutions that are required to implement such laws and without ending it, the anti-violence movement cannot achieve its target. This demand was made during a culmination seminar called “16 Days of Activism on Violence Against Women”. The event was organised by Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO). Addressing the seminar, PML-Q lawmaker Amina Ulfat said that role of political parties against gender abuse was of great importance in a society dominated by men.
She claimed the PML-Q had been successfully working against gender discrimination in all walks of life and as an opposition party in the Punjab Assembly it always played its role. “Female shelter homes and ‘darul amans’ should be opened around-the-clock and we are working for legislation in this regard,” she added. The United Nation consultant in Pakistan, Shamshad Qureshi, called for more strong legislation to curb violence against women in Pakistan. He said since a relevant bill would be passed soon by the parliament, its implementation was of very crucial. Working Women Organization Director Aima Mehmood said she was very happy about the successful passage of the women’s rights bill from the national assembly. She said women should get equal rights in the society and in hence the society could be purged of violence against women. Salman Abid, the regional SPO director, said women were living a relatively better life presently when compared to the past.
He said civil society and media should play their roles against violence towards women. He criticised the media for projecting women only as a commercial façade. He urged all political parties to begin a joint movement against the norms and cultures that were ‘anti-women’.
‘AN ACRE FOR EVERY WOMAN’: Meanwhile, in the HRCP auditorium, Shirkat Gah, an NGO, also gave a presentation. The theme of the programme was ‘An acre for every woman: why land is a gender, human rights and survival issue’. ‘An Acre for Every Woman’ is a land-redistribution campaign run by Shirkat Gah who states that if women were given adequate resources and land of their own to grow food, they can feed their families and themselves without the need to depend upon anyone for that. The presenters said that if the environment and agriculture were to survive and sustain people, tomorrow’s cities could not get more overcrowded than they were at present. While rural areas were developed to include more urban comforts, people must have to make their cities green and make them more productive, in which women, the original farmers, will once again be in the fore. They illustrated this in a film and photos where Najma Saddique, the head of the Green Economics Initiative, presented the films and gave presentations on how women could, and were, making a difference presently.