Govt committed to safety of women: Sanaullah

Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said on Saturday that the government was committed to ensuring safety and protection to women.

Talking to a private news channel, the minister said the Punjab protection of women against violence bill had re-defined “violence” by including “any offence committed against a woman including abetment of an offence, domestic violence, emotional, psychological and verbal abuse, economic abuse, stalking crime”.

Sanaullah, to a question, said that women had been facing certain problems in the country and it was the responsibility of the government to ensure their ultimate safety and protection.

The minister said the section about trackers in the bill was not only specific to wife and husband, but also covered all places, including workplace. He said the trackers would only be worn by a man who had earlier tortured a woman, served imprisonment and was now free. It was aimed at stopping him from this practice in future, he added.

To another question, the minister said that a woman would only be shifted to a protection centre after exhausting all other options like reconciliation and mediation efforts.

He pointed out that the bill had registered violence against women as a crime, adding that “this was unfortunate that there was a mindset which considers torture by blood relation on a woman as mandatory”.

Sanaullah said the government did provide funds to lawmakers after pinpointing development schemes in their respective constituencies, while women lawmakers did not have a constituency as they were elected directly on reserved seats. He however added the government was ready to provide funds to women lawmakers, if they came up with uplift schemes in their areas.