Day: July 20, 2011

By: Maha Mussadaq

ISLAMABAD: Approximately 41% of Pakistani girls fail to complete primary schooling, according to a report published by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) and American NGO Results.

“Girls in Pakistan lag behind due to social and cultural restrictions in a patriarchal society,” Syedul Hassan, girls’ education programme coordinator for Oxfam, told The Express Tribune.

The report says that one of the primary issues concerning education in the country is the nominal budget for education and its low priority. In the last four years, GDP allocation for education has remained below two per cent. The current budget covers operational costs and salaries but nothing significant for educational development, including construction of new schools. Out of a total of 146,691 primary schools, an estimated 43.8% are for boys and 31.5% are for girls.

According to the report, governments and international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank need to redress the balance and give girls a fair deal. It added that despite strong gender research, multiple strategies, policies and much rhetoric about gender equality, the World Bank often fails to translate these into concrete reform in the way they invest.

On the positive side, the report highlighted how in the last decade more girls have been able to start school, but they remain more likely than boys to be forced out again. It also says that the best means of protecting girls from early marriage is to keep them at school.

Officials working in the development sector say that Pakistan’s education ministry never adopted the concept of gender sensitivity and responsive budgeting. “The ministry needs to chalk out sensitive and responsive budgeting with allocation for boys and girls in different brackets,” Hassan said.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, India, Iraq, Nigeria and Pakistan are among those countries failing to respect the rights of girls to an education, says the report.

Source: The Express Tribune

Date:7/20/2011

VEHARI: A women was killed by brothers-in-law for honour in Basti Hakim Wali near Luddun here on Tuesday.

Khadim and Safdar, brothers of her husband Nadeem, had been suspecting her of having illicit relation with someone.

On a tip-off, the police arrested the accused while they were burying the dead body without autopsy after gunning down the victim. It took the body in custody and sent it to the DHQ hospital.

Source: The Nation

Date:7/20/2011

ISLAMABAD: National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) decided to engage NGOs, particularly those working for women rights to have most of the women folks on national database not registered earlier.

In this regard a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on Tuesday between NADRA and Aurat Foundation (AF) through which the foundation facilitate unregistered women of the country in acquisition of computerised national identity card (CNIC).

Tariq Malik, Deputy Chairman NADRA, signed the MoU on behalf of his organisation while Naeem Mirza, Chief Operating Officer, Aurat Foundation, signed on behalf of the foundation. Simi Kamal, Chief of Party from Aurat Foundation, Gareth Aiken, Country Representative from Asia Foundation, Younas Khalid, Director Monitoring Evaluation and Research from Aurat Foundation, Amena Raja, Objective Manager Aurat Foundation, and Bushra Jafar, Deputy Chief of the Party Asia Foundation, and senior officials of NADRA attended the ceremony.

Under the agreement, the Aurat Foundation would help NADRA in running public awareness campaign for encouragement of women folks who have not been registered on national database so far. Aurat Foundation will provide grants through competitive process to local NGOs and CBOs, who will, in turn, mobilise their resources to achieve the objective in close coordination with NADRA.

“In the past three years NADRA has increased women registration by 74 percent, however, we need to reach out to more women and that is why we have approached the NGOs to help facilitate women in obtaining the CNIC”, said Tariq Malik while addressing the ceremony held at NADRA headquarters regarding the signing of the agreement.

Elaborating the NADRA strategy for increase in women registration, Tariq Malik said that CNIC will enable women to access their social, economic and political rights. NADRA has already registered 92 per cent population of the country by issuing 86 million CNICs out of which 37 million women have been registered so far, he added.

Malik hoped that Aurat Foundation would help NADRA to register the remaining women, especially in far-flung and marginalised areas, where registering them is a challenge for NADRA due to lack of awareness about their rights and CNIC benefits.

NADRA has decided to sent female-staffed mobile units to register female population of the selected districts, Malik said, adding that NADRA may waive some conditions of documentation for eligible deserving citizens under the applicable law for processing of their CNIC applications if needed, however, NADRA will ensure strict verification of the credentials of the citizens to ensure that database authenticity is not compromised. 

Source: Business Recorder

Date:7/20/2011

Karachi: The decomposed body of a young woman was found in a drain near the afghan camp on the super highway in gulshan-e-iqbal maymar on Tuesday.

Some passers-by saw the body and informed police, who took the deceased to the abbasi shaheed hospital for legal for-malities.

Source: The News

Date:7/20/2011

Karachi: A woman was murdered and her mother, father and brother sustained stab wounds in clashes at her residence in the New Karachi police limits on Tuesday.

Haleema Bibi, 25, daughter of Abdul Rehman, was stabbed to death and her father Abdul Rehman, mother Munawwar Sultana, and brother Gulfam got stabbed wounds, when her brother and father got into a fracas. When Haleema and her mother tried to intervene they too came under attack.

Haleema died while Abdul Rehman, Munawwar Sultana and Gulfam received were injured.

After hearing the hue and cry, people from the neighbourhood rushed to the house in Sector 11/1 and saw them in a pool of blood.

They immediately informed police, who took the dead and the injured to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for legal formalities.

According to the police, the woman was killed over a family dispute.

Source: The News

Date:7/20/2011