Islamabad – Page 5 – Pakistan Gender News

February 20, 2014February 20, 2014

Dialogue between women MPs from 3 countries starts today

ISLAMABAD: A three-day dialogue between women parliamentarians of Pakistan, United Kingdom and Afghanistan will start in the capital today (Thursday).

The dialogue is being organised by Women Parliamentary Caucus (WPC) in collaboration with Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA-UK Branch). It aims to foster bilateral relations between women MPs besides strengthening their role in legislatures and broadening the understanding of issues impacting women across their respective countries.

During the course of their stay in Islamabad, women MPs would ponder over various issues, including education, maternal healthcare and socio-economic development.

The UK delegation is being led by Lord Speaker of the House of Lords Baroness D’Souza whereas Dr Golalai Nur Safi, an MP, would be leading the Afghan delegation. The Pakistani delegation would comprise women members of the National Assembly and Senate.

Dr Fehmida Mirza, the patron of WPC, will inaugurate the dialogue at Pakistan Institute of Parliamentary Services (PIPS), Islamabad by delivering a keynote address.

Federal ministers for national health services and regulations and education have been invited to give the participants an insight into the government policies and initiatives in respect of healthcare and education in Pakistan.

It may be recalled that WPC was established when Dr Fehmida Mirza was speaker of the National Assembly. Under her leadership, the Caucus had been actively engaged in building networks with colleagues from friendly countries besides initiating landmark pro-women and children legislation in the Pakistani legislature.

The WPC and CPA-UK branch considering the importance of promotion of women in all spheres of society to be fundamental for socio-economic development and political empowerment embarked upon the Parliamentary Partnership Programme in 2012. The current dialogue is the continuation of that programme.

Daily Times

December 24, 2013December 24, 2013

Anti-Sexual Harassment Law: Enforcing legislation in FATA effectively

ISLAMABAD: Since it was passed in 2010, not much has been done for the implementation of the Anti-Sexual Harassment Act in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

This was the crux of a two-day training workshop on Anti-Sexual Harassment Legislation that concluded here on Monday.

Five participants from Fata attended the session. They expressed the commitment to improve the work environment in their respective organisations.

Mehak Jamshed, a journalist said, “Whereas media holds everyone else accountable, it lags behind in the implementation of Anti-Sexual Harassment Legislation.” She added that with the help of the training she received at the workshop, she will be able to ensure compliance with the law at her workplace.

Salahuddin of Quaid-e-Azam University said the institute is complying with the law and there is a strong mechanism to report any case. “It is the responsibility of the management to ensure that the students, faculty and administration are all aware of the law as well as the Inquiry Committee members,” he added.

Maliha Husain, the lead trainer expressed the hope that all the participants of the workshop will strive to make their work environment more dignified.

She added that some of them had already adopted the Code of Conduct, but were facing challenges in implementing it.

The workshop was organized by Mehergarh Centre for Learning under its continued efforts to implement anti-sexual harassment legislation.

Express Tribune

December 7, 2013December 7, 2013

297 women in Pakistan die each year giving birth

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s maternal mortality rate (MMR) is 297 deaths per 100,000 live births, which is one of six countries contributing to half of all maternal deaths worldwide.

In effort to decrease the high mortality rates the government of Pakistan created a new cadre of skilled birth attendants and community-based midwives (CMW), said participants at a seminar held on Friday.

The University of Alberta, Canada, the Punjab Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health Programme and the Real Medicine Foundation jointly conducted the seminar and shared the findings of a research study titled “Are Community Midwives Addressing the Inequities in Access to Skilled Birth Attendance in Punjab, Pakistan?”

Senator Begum Najma Hameed said maternal health was of utmost importance for the government. Research Principal Investigator and University of Alberta Associate Professor Dr Zubia Mumtaz gave a detailed presentation on the subject. She said the present study was aimed at exploring whether the CMWs were achieving the objective of improving access to the full scope of skilled maternity care for poor, socially excluded women in Pakistan.

Daily Times

December 5, 2013December 5, 2013

‘Midwifery needs govt patronage’

ISLAMABAD: Asifa Rani, a Community Midwife (CMW) at Phagwari near Dina, has been providing services at homes for the last three years but she is not satisfied with her profession.

It is not because she has no interest in her profession and wants to do something else, but because most of the people who hire her services do not pay her fee.

Midwifery is a health care profession in which providers offer care to childbearing women during pregnancy, labour and birth, during the postpartum period, and between pregnancies.

Practitioners also help care for the newborn and assist the mother with breastfeeding.

They also provide birth control, education and prescriptions for health care.“I am not the only one who has been facing that problem. Majority of CMWs do not get their fee because they deal with those people who cannot afford to pay the expenses of hospital,” he said.

Ms Rani was speaking to participants of a workshop on: “Are Community Midwives Addressing the Inequities in Access to Skilled Birth Attendance.”

The workshop was organised by non-governmental organization Research and Advocacy Fund in collaboration with the University of Alberta, Canada at local hotel on Wednesday.

Ms Rani said that her husband works abroad so she can afford to do social service but majority of CMWs earn their living from that profession so government should introduce stipend for them just like lady health workers.

Principal Investigator of the research and Associate Professor University of Alberta, Dr. Zubia Mumtaz, also agreed with Ms Rani.

She said that according to her findings CMWs usually charged around Rs3,500 for the delivery of a child but still they didn’t get their fee because the community which availed services of CMWs was very poor.

“CMWs provide services to women round the clock but still they are not recognized by the government. Pakistan, with a maternal mortality rate (MMR) of 297 deaths/100,000 live births, is one of six countries contributing to half of all maternal deaths worldwide,” she said.

“The study was aimed at exploring whether the CMWs are achieving the government objective of improving access to the full scope of skilled maternity care for poor, socially excluded women in Pakistan,” she said.

Senator Begum Najma Hameed, President, women wing of PML-N, said that government has been giving more importance to women and has been considering starting programmes for the empowerment of the women. She said that maternal health is most important.

Member National Assembly Chaudhry Khadim Hussain said that Basic Health Unit had been established in every union council and people would be encouraged to ensure childbirth at the Basic Health Unit.

DG Health Punjab Dr Zahid Parvez said that government had been taking steps to facilitate CMWs.

DAWN

December 2, 2013December 2, 2013

Senate to take up resolution on minor girls’ rape

By: Tanveer Ahmed

ISLAMABAD: The Upper House of parliament will assemble today (Monday) with a heavy agenda, which includes a key resolution against rape of minor girls in the country.

Apart from the regular agenda of the House, Senate is also likely to discuss the burning issues like drones strikes, spiralling inflation and foreign policy areas. Today being a private members’ day, the opposition side will likely speak out loudly on the drone strikes that have triggered hue and cry in the country. Although Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which is the most vocal on this issue, has no representation in Senate so far, the other opposition groups will raise their voices on this issue, although mildly because of their’ opposition to the PTI’s decision to record its protest by blocking the NATO supplies to Afghanistan traversing through Pakistan.

The last session of Senate witnessed a showdown between opposition parties, led by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan over the killing of people in incidents of terrorism. However, this will have no bearing on the coming session as the matter was resolved on the last day of the previous session when the opposition agreed to end its separate session in front of parliament building.

The agenda of the new session includes several items, including an important motion, submitted by PPP’s Senator Farhatullah Babar, which seeks discussion on the procedure laid down for appointments of judges in superior judiciary as well as another motion for reconstitution of the National Security Council. The House also has on its agenda the motion of Senator Saeed Ghani which seeks discussion on the alleged irregularities and rigging in general elections held on May 11, 2013.

One of the key resolutions, filed by PPP’s Senator Raza Rabbani, deals with increasing incidents of rape, particularly of minor girls, in the country. The resolution calls upon the federal and provincial governments to amend the laws to provide severe punishment to those found guilty of raping minor girls. Through another resolution, Senator Farhatullah Babar seeks the publishing of names of those judges in superior judiciary who have dual nationality. The House will also take up the Civil Servants Act 1973 when Senator Ilyas Bilour introduces The Civil Servants Amendment Bill 2013.

Daily Times