Pakistan renews commitment to women empowerment

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has reaffirmed its firm commitment to achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aimed at ending poverty, protecting the environment and ensuring prosperity for all, while highlighting steps taken by the government for women’s empowerment.

Speaking at the 62nd Session of the Commission on Status of Women, Shezra Mansab Ali Khan, MNA and head of Pakistan’s delegation said, SDGs Task forces, both at the Federal and the Provincial level, have undertaken well resourced and concrete action plans for achieving women’s empowerment across all SDGs.

“Pakistan has also enacted a spate of laws for prevention of customary practices, and strengthen laws to punish rape and honour crimes,” she added.

Achieving Sustainable Development Goals and full realization of the rights of rural women and girls, Ms. Mansab Ali Khan said, would require renewed commitment, increased investment and significantly greater financing from all sources, including official development assistance and by the national governments.

The Commission on the Status of Women is the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. The priority theme for this year’s deliberations is, “Challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls”.

She told the Commission that Pakistan’s constitution guarantees equal rights for all its citizens without discrimination. It also ensures full participation of women in all spheres of national life. “None of us can move forward if half of us are left behind,” she added.

Highlighting Pakistan’s Vision 2025 as the blue print for Pakistan’s own long-term, sustainable and inclusive development, Ms Mansab Ali Khan said, the vision prioritises gender equality and women development, through institutional restructuring; policies and fiscal reforms; women employment in public sector; and women’s political participation.

“One of the biggest priorities of the government is to reduce the feminisation of poverty, especially among rural populations,” she added. Recounting various government schemes Ms Mansab Ali Khan mentioned the Benazir Income Support Programme as the largest social safety-net programme in Pakistan, aimed at empowering some of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable rural women, benefiting approximately 5 million.

She also told the UN about government schemes specifically tailored at providing women with opportunity to harness loans in order to participate in promotion and development of the agricultural sector.

“Special Schemes like “Women Employment Scheme” has been introduced for rural women across the country,” she said, and added, rural women’s access to financial services is being expanded as part of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy. In addition, over fifty institutions in Pakistan are providing credit and micro-credit facilities to rural women entrepreneurs”.

Ms Mansab Ali Khan said, women across the world continue to face multiple and intersecting inequalities. For rural women, these challenges are accentuated by entrenched gender-based stereotypes and discriminatory practices, denying them equitable access to opportunities, resources, and means of advancement.