KARACHI, March 15: A seminar organised by the Social Welfare Deparment (SWD) of the Government of Sindh, started two hours late even if Pakistani standards of punctuality were kept in mind. The chief guest of the event, Minister for Culture, Tourism, Social Welfare Department, Rauf Siddiqui, did not turn up nor the audience told why. The event held to mark the women’s day was titled “Violence Against Women – A Challenge”.

After a short welcome address by Qurban Ali Memon, Rasheeda Patel, advocate and President Pawla spoke next. She said that there were many incidents reported in the media in which women were subjected to the wrath of feudal lords or waderas. To stop such incidents Patel said, awareness among women about their legal rights must be created.

Dr Rehana Mohammad Ali Shah, the first female orthopedic surgeon of the country, speaking on the occasion said, working women, whether educated or illiterate, had to put up with not only physical violence but also emotional and verbal abuse.

She remarked that in order to improve the attitude towards women the entire system needed to go through transformation.

Inspector of Schools, Sajjida Saleem and Vice Chairperson Newport Institute of Communications and Economics Huma Bukhari, in their speeches stressed on the need of the society to change its perception about women.

Secretary Tourism SWD Abul Qadir Mangi, the last speaker of the day said the only way to reduce violence against women was to empower women economically. He like many other speakers suggested that the government should hold such programmes at the grassroots level. Nargis Saeed offered vote of thanks in the end.