KOHAT, Oct 18: Speakers at a workshop on Wednesday emphasised the need for involving women in development activities and taking steps to utilise funds accumulated since 2001 to resolve community issues.

The workshop on ‘women community council boards and development’ was informed that about Rs15 billion allocated for registration of Citizen Community Boards (CCBs) had been lying unutilised for the past six years.

District nazim Gohar Saifullah Khan, who was chief guest on the occasion, said the government would leave no stone unturned to engage women in development activities.

He urged women to come forward and help the government in its efforts, saying that society could not prosper without their participation.

He asked women to play their role in settling petty domestic issues, which usually grew into feuds claiming precious human lives.

District Coordination Officer Arshad Majeed Mohmand said that in Kohat 45 CCBs had been registered of which 50 per cent belonged to women. He said there was harmony of views between the elected representatives and the heads of the government departments.

The national manager of field operation teams of Devolution Trust for Community Empowerment (DTCE), Sultan-i-Room Swati, said that over Rs15 billion had been accumulated during the period between 2001 and 2006 under the CCBs’ head and added that funds were lying unused in various districts for different reasons.

Recently, he said, new strategies had been made to mobilise people, especially rural women, to utilise these funds in a proper way.

He pointed out that ‘community empowerment desks’ had been set up in Kohat and Karak in collaboration with bar associations and press clubs.