ISLAMABAD, May 29: Minister for Women and Youth Affairs Sumaira Malik here on Monday said a women youth hostel would be set up in Chitral during the next fiscal year. She was speaking at a seminar on “Women’s rights with particular reference to the women of Chitral” organised by the Chitral Youth Welfare Association at a local hotel.

The minister said youth and women progress and protection were the top priority of the government and a handsome amount would be earmarked for this purpose in the forthcoming budget.

She said women councillors from the union council to the district levels would be allocated funds under a special quota in the local government budgets for development projects in their respective areas.

The government under the guidance of President Pervez Musharraf has taken revolutionary steps for empowering and providing equal opportunities to women of the country. She said a number of projects for women and the youth had been launched and more were in the pipeline.

“For the first time after creation of Pakistan we have been made politically empowered by the present government. Even the political parties having heavy mandate and a woman prime minister could not take purposeful steps for the political and economic empowerment of women in the country,” she remarked.

Other speakers including Qazi Fazal Elahi, Habibur Rehman, Shahida Chughtai, Nafisa Habib, Lakshan Bibi, Hamida Ayaz and Sirajuddin highlighted the problems faced by the women of Chitral in adjusting themselves with the outside world.

They said although women’s literacy and employment ratio had seen phenomenal growth in Chitral, they were facing untold hardships outside the valley due to the unique socio-cultural characteristics of the district.

They criticised the lack of educational and health care facilities for women in the district and said the area-wise largest district of the NWFP had only one degree college for women — that too without a hostel — and lacked primary health care facilities for women.