ISLAMABAD, Feb 22: The National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) on Wednesday demanded the repeal of Hudood Ordinance on the plea that it had been introduced by the late military dictator General Ziaul Haq on his own.

The commission chairperson, Dr Arifa Syeda Zehra, told reporters at a press briefing here on Wednesday that the ordinance was discriminatory. She also spoke about the research projects and drafts the commission had been working on in order to improve the status of womenfolk.

These include women employment, child-mother health, malnutrition, deployment of women police, prevention of honour killing, qisas and diyat, working conditions for women, 10 per cent quota for women in the central superior services, abolition of the tradition of marriage with Quran, girl child labour, women education, recruitment of women at meagre salaries in the private educational institutions etc.

To a question, she said the commission had only sent proposals to the government adding that it was not in a position to take a decision on any issue. The authority to implement these proposals rests with the Ministry of Women Development, she said. She said the main task of the commission was to give women the status they deserved.

Dignity and the status of women and men as equal citizens of Pakistan was a moral imperative, a constitutional obligation and a guiding principle of an egalitarian and a progressive society, she said.

She said the commission was endeavouring to overcome obstacles to achieve gender equality. The commission will promote initiatives for empowerment of women and facilitate creation of an environment in which women could equally participate with men to create and sustain a social order envisaged by the enlightened values enshrined in Islam, she said.