PESHAWAR, July 19: NWFP Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Law, Athar Minnallah, has said the women councillors must play their role in the uplift of the country hand in hand with their male counterparts.

He was addressing the concluding session of a workshop on “Role and responsibilities of female councillors under new local government system” at a local hotel here on Thursday.

Besides the elected women councillors, the session was also attended by Secretary Local Government, Baz Muhammad Khattak and Additional Secretary Local Government, Amjad Shahid Afridi.

The provincial minister said that showing respect to and maintaining the honour of womenfolk was our religious duty.

He said the government was making hectic efforts to empower women and a 33 per cent representation to them in the devolution plan was a step towards that direction.

He assured that the government would not ignore them in its affairs and their capabilities would be hired for the country’s development.

He regretted that those at the helm over the past 55 years worked for their personal gain instead of the nation’s good. He advised the workshop participants to work with devotion and refrain from having recourse to dishonesty.

Athar Minnallah promised that genuine issues, problems and bottlenecks identified at the workshop would be resolved on a priority basis.

Secretary Local Government, Baz Muhammad Khattak, said the purpose of the workshop was to get acquainted with the problems being faced by the women councillors and to devise a strategy for addressing them.

He said the District Citizens Information Centres at all the districts would be established and more workshops will be arranged for the guidance and education of the elected councillors.