PM for political, economic empowerment of women

LAHORE: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that the government is focused on political and economic empowerment of women for harnessing a viable role for women in society.

“The empowerment of women will establish their social status and bring about a change to facilitate the process of development in the country,” he said while presiding over a meeting of the PPP women parliamentarians from the Punjab Assembly here on Sunday.

Gilani said that the elected women representatives have an important role in promoting and evaluating policies of the government as well as their party. Admiring the role of women parliamentarians and PPP workers in promoting the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), he said the BISP is primarily a women-focused project aimed at helping out the poor segment of the society and they should work whole-heartedly for the promotion and enhancement of the program.

The premier said that the data collected through the Poverty Survey under the BISP is a very important document which would help reveal the exact details regarding the economic status of the masses in various areas of the country, adding it would help the government to prepare policies and chalk out plans to reach out to the downtrodden and poor strata of society as well as work for their socio – economic uplift.

Regarding different government initiatives for women, he said that the women’s parliamentary caucus in the National Assembly of Pakistan and the Federal Commission on the Status of Women have played useful role in highlighting the issues concerning women in Pakistan.

The prime minister said that the government has already granted autonomy to the commission so that it could work independently for the betterment of women. Regarding the women development and minorities, Gilani said that the ministries of minorities as well as women development have been devolved under the 18th Amendment, reassuring that policy- making vis-‡-vis women will remain the prerogative of the federal government while the Ministry of Human Rights will look after women rights and minorities issues.

Source: The News

Date:7/11/2011