Salman Sufi to work as senior gender adviser to Sindh govt

The director general of the former Punjab chief minister’s Strategic Reforms Unit, Salman Sufi, has been brought on board by UN Women to work as senior gender adviser to the Sindh government, said a statement issued on Saturday.

Sufi led the Strategy Reforms Unit and spearheaded the drafting and passing of the landmark Punjab Women Protection Bill 2016 and Punjab Women Protection Authority Bill 2017. He also conceived and executed South Asia’s first one-stop Violence against Women Centre.

Women on Wheels, a programme that Sufi launched with the previous Punjab government, was also initiated by him in Sindh last November.

Under this new assignment, Sufi will be working to strengthen the implementation of Sindh’s women protection laws and establish violence against women centres in Sindh. New initiatives to strengthen gender reforms in Sindh will also be undertaken.

Sufi met Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah last October and was provided complete support of the Sindh government to launch the Women on Wheels in Karachi.

He is expected to work closely with Adviser to Chief Minister Murtaza Wahab and Minister for Women Development Shehla Raza in this new assignment.

Sufi was awarded the Mother Teresa Award for his work on women’s empowerment in South Asia and is also a member of the Hillary Clinton-led Vital Voices Solidarity Council. He started The Salman Sufi Foundation to expand women’s empowerment work across Pakistan last year.