Member National Assembly Dr Attiya Inayatullah Sunday termed the passage of 24 women and child friendly laws during the last four years as historical achievement of the parliament and will help ensure socio-economic uplift of these vulnerable segments of society.
“Women and children are most vulnerable to the disastrous affects of poverty and these legislation will help empower them to live a protected life”, she said in an interview with APP.
Attiya attributed passage of these laws to the struggle of legislators and parliamentarians how they focused on specific agenda with such deep concentration and achieved success.
It was the platform of Women Parliamentary Caucus (WPC) through which the women parliamentarians joined hands under the leadership of Speaker National Assembly Dr Fehmida Mirza and contributed a lot in the passage of these laws, keeping aside the party politics, she said.
The caucus took all the stakeholders including representatives from the government, civil society organizations and National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) on board and proved that women parliamentarians are enough capable to get such revolutionary laws passed.
She appreciated the role of Speaker NA in this legislative process saying that “Dr. Fehmida remained neutral and encouraged the women parliamentarians, setting a precedent that how a Speaker NA should fulfill her or his responsibilities with such dedication”.
Attiya said the parliament has passed positive laws and abolished the discriminatory practices regarding women and now the passage of remaining bills of Domestic Violence, Child Rights, Corporal Punishment and Right to Reproductive Health is a big challenge for the women parliamentarians. Domestic Violence Bill for federal territory, after our untiring efforts, could not passed in the joint session of the parliament and now the women legislators will have to initiate efforts to get it passed at priority basis, Attiya stressed.
Unfortunately these remaining bills become the victim of the political prejudices and “we must work together for passage of these legislation to further ensure the rights of women and children”, she said. The 24 laws which have been passed unanimously from the parliament will be acknowledged as golden achievements of the parliament whenever the history will be written, Attiya said. She said that the legislators have fulfilled their responsibility to formulate the laws and now it is the duty of executive government to implement these in true spirit as “mere forming legislation is not the achievement unless the benefit of these laws are ensured at the door steps of the women and children”.
Attiya informed Dr Fehmida Mirza has constituted a committee to achieve the six Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and international commitments which are related to the well being of women and children.
She said the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has also been asked to conduct local government elections so that women councilors can play role to get these laws implemented through Union Councils.
The 24 laws which have been passed mainly include Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act 2009, The National Commission on the Status of Women Bill 2012, Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University Bill 2011, The National Commission for Human Rights Act 2011, The Prevention of Anti-Women Practices (Criminal Law Amendment) Act 2011, National University of Modern Languages (Amendment) Act 2011, The Women in Distress and Detention Fund (Amendment) Act 2011, The Benazir Income Support Programme Act 2010 and The Protection Against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act 2010.
