Authorities urged to review laws on women’s rights

PESHAWAR: Participants at a consultative meeting have said that still there are many lacunae in the pro-women laws in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and urged review of the laws for expeditious justice to this deprived segment of society.

They said that even the two successive governments of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in the province have not passed the two long-awaited proposed bills on Domestic Violence against Women and Child Marriages.

Currently, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has no law on domestic violence, while the child marriages law of 1929 is in vogue in the province.

They said that there were many pro-women laws in Pakistan, but the situation was not improving due to non-implementation of these laws.

The one-day consultative meeting of stakeholders was organised by the Blue Veins in collaboration with Democracy Reporting International (DRI) on Friday.

The representatives of KP Commission on the Status of Women, National Commission on Human Rights, Human Rights Directorate, KP Child Rights and Welfare Commission and Civil Society Working Group participated in the meeting.

Qamar Naseem, programme coordinator, Blue Veins, highlighted the importance of GST (Generalised System of Preferences) plus for Pakistan. However, he said that Pakistan has got this facility for access to European markets but it was linked to 27 International Conventions including seven conventions on human rights.

He said that Pakistan could lose GST plus facility if human rights and gender rights situation and laws did not improve in the country.

Qamar Naseem took input from the stakeholders about weaknesses and gaps in the pro-women laws and factors that impeded the implementations of the laws.

Imran Takkar, KP coordinator for the Group Development of Pakistan, said that resources and political is must for implementation of pro-women laws, which are almost absent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Muhammad Ijaz, acting chief of KP Child Protection and Welfare Commission, said the commission had so far successfully resolved 30,474 child rights cases in the province.

However, he said that financial resources are must for implementation of the laws. Shama Niamat, secretary, KP Commission on Status of Women, said that

the old customs and taboos are impediments in way of pro-women laws in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Ghulam Ali, regional director Ministry of Human Rights, said the government was trying to overcome all the women related issues across the country.