KARACHI,February 05,2005: President Pervez Musharraf has given a sum of Rs100 million for a fund created by the federal women development ministry for social uplift and economic empowerment of rural women.

This was disclosed at the Beijing Plus 10 Consultative Conference, jointly organized by Sindh government and Sindh-based non-governmental organization here on Friday.

Addressing the conference, Premier’s Adviser on Women Development Nilofer Bakhtiar said that the National Action Plan 2005 was mainly focussing on rural women and girls.

She claimed with certain pride that Pakistan had made considerable leap in attaining the 13 major objectives chalked out at the UN-organized Beijing Conference in 1995 with regard to women welfare as well as rights of disabled women.

According to her, it was during the last 10 years down the line that local women raised the issues like honour killings, provision for reserved seats for themselves at all levels of policy making; economic empowerment and elimination of certain discriminatory laws.

In the same breath, she acknowledged that much more was yet to be done and for that close coordination between government and civil society was required so that policies formulated with mutual consultation at national and provincial levels were enforced through sensitization among the masses and positive changes in public mindset.

“While people from both rural and urban sectors have to realize the significance of measures adopted and policies introduced for their well-being, the local NGOs working in the field ought to provide necessary guidance to the policy makers regarding the needs in area and their urgency,” she added.

Source: Dawn

Date:2/5/2005