16 October 2004	Saturday	01 Ramazan 1425

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 15: Pakistan on Wednesday called on the international community to redouble efforts to end gender-based exploitation of women the world over.

"The exploitation of women, due to affluence as well as destitution, needs to be addressed as a matter of priority and in a spirit of cooperation," said Pakistan's delegate and member of parliament Dr Donya Aziz.

She was addressing the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly which deals with the social, cultural and humanitarian issues, on items relating to the Advancement of Women and Implementation of the Outcome of the Fourth World Conference on Women and on Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the 21st Century.

"Poverty eradication and education will always be fundamental step towards a world free of exploitation. For this, political and economic empowerment of women remains the most crucial tool," Ms Aziz said.

She told the delegates that "encouraged by affirmative action policies, women in Pakistan today are confident, dedicated, dynamic and progressive." "They have succeeded in achieving elevated positions in the social, economic, and political fields.

Women are now working in all sectors of the society including the media, education, health, performance and visual arts, law, planning and above all decision-making," she added.

She said: "The challenges are numerous, more so for countries like Pakistan labouring under the burden of underdevelopment, poverty and external debt. However, we are committed to persevere in realizing the vision of our forefathers to create a society free from discrimination and exploitation."

"The achievement of gender equality is, recognized as a cross cutting theme for all development programmes in Pakistan (and) in the Constitution of Pakistan, women are equal stakeholders in the process of development both political and economic and there is no discrimination on the basis of gender."

Responding to international concerns over honour killings, Ms Aziz said: "A legislation to curb the practice of honour killings will be tabled soon in the National Assembly."

Recounting the recent progress in Pakistan towards gender equality, Pakistan's delegate said: "The government has introduced a revolutionary devolution plan to bring power to the people, through revitalization of local bodies and the creation of district governments."

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women called for the ratification of the Convention dubbed "an international bill of rights for women" by member states.

The CEDAW noted: "Although much progress toward eliminating discrimination against women has been made since the convention was adopted, in no country in the world has women's full de jure and de facto equality been achieved, with discriminatory laws still on the statute books of many states."