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Govt to combat violence against women: Jubaida

ISLAMABAD: The government has prepared a plan to strengthen institutions, legal reforms in vital areas to combat violence against women and provide a human judicial redress system.

This was stated by Education Minister Zubaida Jalal while addressing the last session of 'Natural Consultation on Beijing 5 Review' seminar here on Monday.

The minister said a national convention of women has been planned to be held in Islamabad to commemorate the International Women's Day on March 8, with participation of women, girl children and representatives from cross-section of the society to re-affirm faith and support to the task of gender equality.

The government assigns amongst the highest priorities to all issues relating to the condition and status of women and children, and "we have a firm resolve to equalise rights and opportunities between women and men, and remove all gender, discrimination and bias within the shortest possible time,", she added.

"We have also reviewed the current status of policy and action on these matters at the highest level, and already initiated time-bound action to consolidate all policy recommendations made so far in a single working document, distil the National Plan of Action into a prioritised work schedule, and undertake specific programmes and projects in the critical areas", the minister added.

She said concrete steps are being taken for poverty alleviation, better access to economic resources and rapid transformation of the social and cultural environment.

About the national convention, she said this will be an occasion to mark instant action as well as statement of short and long-term policy targets.

"It is our resolve to restore individual power and capability of every woman and girls in Pakistan to enable their active, visible participation in the political process and effective decision-making from the household to the highest levels of national public affairs", she added.

Zubaida said the government is fully committed to exerting alongside the world community to achieve the national and global agenda of gender equality for development and peace.

"We are fully aware and conscious that this momentous task requires a comprehensive and coordinated partnership with the non-governmental organisations, community-based institutions, groups, individuals and the public at large," she added.

She said the participative strategy adopted for the formulation of the National Plan of Action was a positive step towards achieving the agenda for women's advancement by involving all the stakeholders in the process of developing a strategy for implementation.

"As we prepare for the special session of the UN General Assembly in June this year, this indeed is a crucial moment for us to see what we as a nation have achieved in our commitment to the dignity, security and freedom of women at par with men", she said and added: "Judgement of our own initiatives and actions for implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action will, therefore, be a historic watershed of how we have planned our activities and capacity to fulfil the objectives of gender equality and balance as we enter the new millennium". APP