KARACHI, March 10: Speakers at a meeting on Friday demanded that all the laws that were discriminatory towards vulnerable sections of society, including women, children, minorities, etc, be abolished so that rights of all citizens could be safeguarded.

They were speaking at a meeting, organized in connection with the International Women’s Day.

The Friday’s meeting titled “Celebrating women’s struggle in Pakistan” was dedicated to a women rights activist, Shehla Zia, who died last year on March 10.

The meeting was organized by the Aurat Foundation to pay tributes to women activists who had struggled to get rights for other women. Pictures of Mohtrama Fatima Jinnah, Begum Ra’ana Liaquat Ali, Razia Bhatti, Dr Durreshahwar Syed, Maisoon Hussain, Saneeya Hussain, Shehla Zia, Najma Babar, Khairunnisa Jafery, Mumtaz Nizamani, Mumtaz Noorani and Zarina Baloch were also put on display.

The speakers urged the audience to follow the footsteps of these women activists so that they could secure the rights for all the women in the country.

Pointing out that the quota that was reserved for women in employment was not being implemented, they demanded its strict implementation.

They said that majority of the women were in prison owing to discriminatory laws which proved that rather than saving the rights of the women, these laws had been grossly misused to victimize the womenfolk.

They said that over the years the rights that the women enjoyed over a quarter of century back had been curtailed. They said that only good thing that had happened was that the government had increased the number of women’s seats in the parliament and the local bodies, but unfortunately the male-dominated bureaucracy was not allowing women representatives to play their due role in bringing about a change in the lives of womenfolk.

They also criticized the parallel judicial system in the country and said that though the superior judiciary had declared the jirgas illegal, such jirgas were still being held, and the government had failed to implement the writ of the court.

The participants also lit candles for the late women activists. Later, the participants, carrying candles, also took out a procession from the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs auditorium to the Karachi Press Club, where they sang a few songs highlighting the plight of the women in the country and urging them to continue their struggle till they achieved their rights.

Fromer judge of the Supreme Court Justice (retd) Nasir Aslam Zahid, Anis Haroon, Nuzhat Kidwai, Uzma Noorani, Sassui Palijo, Hina Siddiqui, Naheed Syed, Faiza Burney, Atiya Dawood, Marium Palijo, and others also spoke.