September 19, 2008	Friday	Ramazan 18, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Sept 18: Federal Minister for Women Development Sherry Rehman has expressed her concern over the reports of threats by Taliban to administrations of various girls’ schools in Charsadda in NWFP and directed the ministry officials to take appropriate action in this regard.

“This culture of open threats and forced directions is unacceptable,” Ms Rehman said responding to the reports of the Taliban threat. “This is a democratic government and no acts of intimidation against our citizens will be tolerated,” Ms Rehman said in a statement here on Thursday.

The minister said she would be communicating her concerns to the NWFP government over the issue. “It is a principled stand and we cannot allow non-state actors to hound citizens and force them to follow their edict. The state has a mandate to act against such elements because we have a constitutional responsibility to safeguard the public interest,” she added.

Ms Rehman said the Ministry of Women Development had alerted the Gender Crime Centre of the Ministry of Interior and the centre would be presenting its report on the issue in the coming days.

The minister said following the Islamabad meeting on gender crimes on Wednesday, the consensus among all elements of the state on the issue of gender discrimination had come to the fore.

“We are setting up institutional structures to respond to the incidents of crimes against women and our decision to demonstrate zero tolerance towards such acts is a principled stand,” the minister said. As a civilized society, we must renew our battle against elements that threaten our women and there is need for every citizen to participate in this drive, she said, adding that only a combination of social resistance, strong legislation and stricter law enforcement would help bring down the number of atrocities committed against the women.