Pakistan lags behind in women’s rights, says PTI leader

PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) provincial leader Meraj Humayun on Thursday said that Pakistan has failed to protect women’s rights despite proper legislation for gender equality in the country.Speaking at a press conference here, Meraj Humayun said that the Gender Gap Index Report 2018 had ranked Pakistan 148th. She said that women’s role had been acknowledged for development.The former provincial lawmaker added that the UN also stressed women’s empowerment for sustainable development. She lamented that Pakistan had always shown lack of seriousness to this effect.Meraj Humayun said that Pakistan’s approach towards women’s empowerment had been a cause of concern for the rights organisations inside the country and abroad.She also suggested means to the government for implementation of the legislation for women’s empowerment. Meraj Humayun asked the government to identify weakness at the departments, ministries, and commissions level and take remedial steps.She said that proper data should be collected at the district level to identify the provinces that lag behind and thus damage the country’s image at the international level.The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader said that the government should take civil society into confidence and take sincere steps for gender equality.KP launches digital policy: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Thursdaylaunched ‘Digital Policy’ for the next five years with focus over four areas including access, governance, economy and skills. KP Minister Finance Taimur Saleem Jhagra was the chief guest on the occasion.Special Assistant to Chief Minister on IT Kamran Bangash, KPIT Board MD Dr Shahbaz Khan and Milanda Good of the World Bank were present on the occasion.The policy also specifically stresses over provision of digital access to the people of newly merged districts (defunct Fata). Some of the aspects of the policy are overarching and cut across the areas of financial inclusion and equitable digital dividends for women and marginal communities. It also focuses on increased public-private partnership for facilitating the province digital transformation. The policy emphasises rapid implementation in the newly merged districts i.e. the built of defunct Fata and provision for the provincial share in ICT services from the federal government.Addressing on the occasion, Taimur Saleem Jhagra said that internet was introduced in the province in 1995 but the whole work of the government organisations was still conducted through the old age papers and files. He said that sticking to that obsolete system was a wastage of both time and resources and also hampers service delivery.

from The News International - Peshawar http://bit.ly/2A9cAGd