Zardari signs women’s commission bill into law

President Asif Ali Zardari signed the National Commission on the Status of Women Bill, 2012, into law on International Women’s Day with the hope that the legislation would act as an effective watchdog for women’s rights. While signing the bill, the president reiterated the Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) commitment to continue working for the rights of women. He said Benazir Bhutto was the first woman ever elected to head an Islamic nation. “We have a vision for improving the conditions of women,” he said.
The president said the National Commission on the Status of Women had been made independent and autonomous. It has been empowered to protect the social, economic, political and legal rights of women, he said. “For the first time in our history we have, under the present government, a woman speaker, a woman as foreign minister and a woman as our ambassador to the United States. We have a separate ombudsperson for women,” the president said.