‘No socioeconomic development sans women’s empowerment’

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said Wednesday that no society could achieve success without giving rights to the women. Socioeconomic development and the dream of prosperity could be materialised only through women empowerment, he added.

In his message on International Women’s Day, the chief minister said the PML-N had taken historic steps for women protection and giving them due respect and honour in the society. “The Punjab government has adopted an effective strategy to bring the women into the national mainstream,” said Shahbaz as he listed various initiatives launched by the government.

“The government has made effective legislation to eradicate violence against women and a state-of-the-art centre has been established in historic city of Multan for providing prompt legal assistance to the women in need. These centres will also be established in other districts of the province,” he added.

The chief minister said women had been given 33 per cent representation in Boards of Directors and other committees of the public sector bodies and women quota has also been increased from five percent to 15 percent in government jobs.

Separately, Shahbaz said the sit-in group promoted the politics of deceit and baseless allegations and wasted precious time of the nation as they had no interest in solving the people’s problems.

However, the PML-N government had served the people selflessly, he added, describing the tenure as most transparent and the best period in the country’s history. On the other hand, Shahbaz said, the sit-in group could face the people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as they were fed up with the hollow claims of change.

In a statement, the chief minister said the PML-N government’s performance was evident before the people, which had achieved important milestones by completing development projects with speed, transparency and quality.

Shahbaz said public service and provision of relief to the masses were the basic ingredients of the PML-N’s policies. He said less-developed areas had been given especial importance under a strategy of ensuring composite development of the province. During previous tenures, southern Punjab was badly ignored and the people of these areas were deceived through formalities, but the PML-N government had allocated more funds to the region than its population ratio. “That is why, the PML-N achieved spectacular success in Lodhran by-election,” he noted.