PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Wednesday announced policy guidelines for the women’s empowerment in the province.

The announcement was made by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak during a ceremony organised by the social welfare department and Parliamentary Women Caucus Committee at the Chief Minister’s House here.

The guidelines were prepared by the social welfare department, Parliamentary Women Caucus Committee and UN Women.

The policy is focused on the greater role of women in legislation, provision of better employment opportunities and facilities in public transport to them and end to aggression against them.

Parliamentary Women Caucus Committee chairperson Meraj Humayoon said the policy guidelines would help eliminate discrimination against women in all walks of life.

The CM said a 16-day awareness campaign had been launched to sensitise the people to the rights of women throughout the province.

He added that discrimination and violence against women had to become a subject of the past.

CM calls for end to discrimination, violence against women

Mr Khattak announced the establishment of a daycare centre at the Civil Secretariat and said the government would make efforts to ensure provision of inheritance rights and access to justice to women and removal to hurdles to their development.

He said the government would soon legislate on domestic violence and burns prevention and rehabilitation.

The CM said the government had established a toll-free helpline ‘Bolo and Badlo’ at the Directorate of Social Welfare, Special Education and Women Empowerment in Peshawar for registration of the cases of gender-based violence in the province.

He said the government had drafted the women’s empowerment policy for creating an enabling environment for women to take decisions for own betterment.

Mr Khattak said the policy provided implementation level guidelines and actions for stakeholders to work towards its goals.

“I appreciate the efforts of the Women Parliamentary Caucus for elaborating on the policy document to make it implementable,” he said.

The CM said the cabinet recently approved the amendments to the ‘Protection against Harassment of Women at Work place Act, 2010,’ which would definitely reduce and check harassment of women at workplaces.

He said the government had already enacted the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Commission on the Status of Women Act, 2016, to make the women’s commission financially and administratively autonomous.

“For the welfare of widows and dispossessed people, we have enacted the Lissaail-i-Wal Mahroom Foundation Act, 2015,” he said.

The representatives of the Parliamentary Women Caucus Committee and UN Women appreciated the efforts of the government for empowering women and legislating to ensure equal rights for women.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2017