MULTAN, Nov 10: An international conference on women organized by the Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) opened at the the State Bank auditorium here on Thursday.

Opening the tree-day moot, chief guest Governor Khalid Maqbool said that Islam had given equal rights and assigned equal obligations to men and women.

Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli and Punjab Minister for Special Education Qudsia Lodhi also spoke on the role of women in nation-building, the topic of the moot.

The governor urged the need to wage a war on gender discrimination, adding that the government of President Pervez Musharraf had taken concrete steps in empowering women and bringing them to the mainstream of national life.

Khalid Maqbool said women’s voice was now being effectively heard in government circles and an injustice done to any woman was seriously taken notice of.

—APP