This is in response to your report “President signs two women’s rights bills into law” published on 23 December 2011. These two bills seek to punish severe offences and crimes against women in Pakistan.
I would like to put light on a more unfortunate aspect of this process. If we look into the past, certain bills and laws have been formulated to protect and secure women rights. But unfortunately, most of them have proved impractical regarding their implementation. According to certain human rights reports, physical and mental abuse against women in Pakistan has increased. Not only that, most of the women are unaware of these laws and bills, hence unable to benefit from them.
To eradicate these two problems, the government needs to get realistic with their targets, starting with a base policy, which once functional, would pave way for further developmental policies to be formulated and implemented.
Besides this, the governmental women welfare organisations should be assigned their roles in creating a communicational bridge between the policymakers and the women for trickling down of laws into women’s consciousness. Using this two-tier formula, the government, without waiting for the next national day for working women, can cope with the problem of violence and lack of awareness.
SIBTAY HASSAN HYDER
LUMS, Lahore