KARACHI, Aug 12: Speakers at a consultative meeting here on Saturday said that a country could not progress in true sense if half of its population was denied opportunities to play its due role in the day to day life.

They were expressing their views at the regional consultation to share experiences of the election campaign organised by the Aurat Foundation during the local government elections in 2005.

Members of the coordination committees from 22 districts participated in the discussion.

They said that women had now become more aware of their rights and responsibilities and wanted to play an active role in political decision-making. They noted that this time, more women had contested for the posts of nazim and naib nazim.

They observed that women councilors were now able to talk about the important issues, like honour killing, relating to womenfolk.

They also stressed the need for further empowerment of women, besides bringing more of them at higher levels of decision-making. They declared that political empowerment of women in this 21st century was inevitable.

Secretary Pakistan Election Commission Kanwar Dilshad, Justice (r) Shaiq Usmani, Nuzhat Shirin, Aslam Brohi and Hasan Pathan were among those who spoke.

Later, certificates were distributed.