Secretary General Commonwealth, Kamlesh Sharma called on Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani here on Friday at PM’s House and expressed his deep sense of gratitude on for supporting his candidature for re-election as Secretary General of the Commonwealth at Perth.
The Prime Minister said that the Commonwealth Forum offered valuable support to member states for nurturing and strengthening of democracy. The Prime Minister said that the National Assembly had recently passed the 20th Constitutional Amendment Bill which would ensure free, fair and transparent elections within the country as nobody would raise finger about the credibility of he electoral process in the country. The Prime Minister asked the Secretary General to send Commonwealth Observers to monitor the forthcoming elections in the country.
Gillani said that the empowerment of the people at the gross roots level was important for beneficial trickle down effects in the country. Gillani agreed with Secretary General that the focus of Pakistan’s endeavours should be women, youth and the less privileged segments of society who constitute a major chunk of population of developing countries. The Prime Minister said that a number of legislations have been enacted in Pakistan to empower the women of the country.
Gillani stated that women and minorities constitute his constituency and the government has therefore successfully legislated to protect women in particular.