MANSEHRA: The head of good governance programme of the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) said on Thursday that they were spending 34 million British pounds to bring a real change in the political and social life of women and marginalised segments of the society in 45 districts of Pakistan.

“We have been working on a four-pronged strategy to bring a real change in the life of voiceless women and oppressed segments of the society and time is not far when women could play an active role in politics from grassroots to the upper house in the country,” said Katja Jobes, the programme manager of DFID, while speaking to community members, a select gathering of heads of public departments and social workers at the new Circuit House here.

A delegation of DFID led by Ms Jobes visited Attershisha area of the district, where it met with local community and reviewed progress of ‘Awaz’ programme, which is funded by DFID.

The men and women of the community separately told the foreign delegates that they had constituted women political participation committees, peace committees and social sectors improvement committees to address their issues related to domestic and other violence and conflicts, bring women to mainstream politics and monitor education and health services.

DFID official visits Mansehra to meet community members

Ms Jobes said that Awaz, which was initiated in seven districts of the country, had now been expanded to 19 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 26 in Punjab. She said that Awaz had been working on empowering women through their role in politics at the union council, tehsil, district and national levels.

Speaking on the occasion, district programme coordinator Mohammad Asif said that Awaz had constituted 100 village forums, 10 union councils forums, two tehsil forums in Mansehra and Balakot, a district forum and 10 Aggahi forums both for men and women.

On this occasion, the assistant commissioner lauded the efforts by Awaz for women empowerment.

HIGHER EDUCATION: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government has been working to promote higher education by establish more universities in the province, said adviser to the chief minister on livestock Mohibullah Khan while speaking to the faculty members at Hazara University (HU) on Thursday.

He also showed interest in establishment of a fishery department at the university where Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Fisheries Department and scientists of the university could conduct joint research on rare aquatic species.

He said that the university should prepare a case in this regard for approval of the chief minister.

Speaking on the occasion, HU registrar Dr Bakhtiar Ahmad said that though the varsity was established in 2002, it stood among top 10 universities of the country.

He said that that the university was destroyed in 2005 earthquake, but it still needed funds for complete reconstruction and the KP government should extend cooperation in this regard.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2014