04 July 2004	Sunday	15 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

ISLAMABAD, July 3: The Islamabad crisis centre for women in distress, the only facility in this entire region, has stopped working since June 30, as the project completes its five-year term.

However, the ministry of women development, which had started this project in 1998, has plans to start a project of the same nature under its Family Protection Programme.

Originally, the project was started for five years, however, it worked for another year on the basis of the savings secured on the money earmarked by the then government. It was being run under the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) management committee.

Talking to Dawn, one of the four members of the management committee, requesting anonymity, said over the last six years, the project had earned a good name, and women from the far-flung areas had started coming for redressal of their grievances.

In response to a question, she said: "We are not suspecting the government's attention that it will not start the same facility under its planned Family Protection Programme, but we are concerned about the ongoing discontinuation," she said.

The management committee so far has sent three reminders to the ministry, drawing its attention to the expiry of the project but received no response. As a result, the staff that was running the centre for the last six years, has been issued notices for the completion of their contracts, she said.

When Ms Zaman Islam, Project Manager of the crisis centre for women in distress, was contacted, she confirmed that she and her staff had been conveyed that the project's time period was over.

Over the last couple of years, the number of women victims coming to the centre for help had increased manifold, as the centre provided them with medical and legal aid and shelter.

The project came to the limelight when it took care of Zahida Parveen, a well-publicised burnt victim, who was later on sent to the US for plastic surgery.

She further said that the woman victim coming from areas other than Rawalpindi and Islamabad did not know that the facility had been closed down. Therefore, the ministry should take measures so that it remained in operation, she argued.

Interestingly, she said, it was the model project of the ministry of women development and had earned a good reputation over a period of time, hence, it should have been given special attention.

During its time period, the centre received around 4,000 women victims and provided them treatment.

"We would provide them medical and legal aid and shelter besides micro-credit and skill development opportunities," she responded to another query.

She was all praise for Tehmina Daultana, the sitting Member of the National Assembly of PML-N, who initiated this project and would personally sit at the centre to oversee its proper running.

It is worth-mentioning here that at present there are three crisis centres (including Islamabad centre) at Sahiwal and Vehari in the country.

The advisor to the prime minister on women development and social welfare, Ms Nilofar Bakhtiar, has been quoted as saying that ten new such centres would be set up in the country whereas in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2004-05 for women development, no budgetary allocations have been made for this purpose.