HYDERABAD, Oct 18: The deputy country director, UNDP Pakistan, Ms Mikiko Tanaka, said that the UNDP was playing a great role in the rehabilitation of Khebrani and Rais Mureed forests in Matiari district.

She said that the villagers had also shown great enthusiasm and worked wholeheartedly in planting of trees.

She said that the UNDP would continue to cooperate with the villagers and NGOs working for the rehabilitation of forests.

She was speaking here on Saturday at the inaugural ceremony of a project initiated by the the Indus Development Organisation in collaboration with the UNDP. The project envisages planting of trees on 2,300 acres of Khebrani and Rais Mureed forests in Matiari district.

Ms Tanaka said that after the rehabilitation of forests, villagers would be greatly benefited as the forest would also provide pastures for the cattle.

She said that her organisation could only extend help in the rehabilitation of forests but as far as land-grabbing by influential persons was concerned, it was beyond her domain and only the government could take any action against them. Villagers also presented her with the handicrafts of Hala.

Women uplift: The rights guaranteed to women in Islam have no parallel in any other religion and therefore it is the duty of every Muslim not only to protect the rights of women but also to honour and respect women.

This was stated by the Sindh Minister for Women Development, Touqeer Fatima Bhutto, while speaking at a discussion organised by the Strengthening Participatory Organisation on the alarming increase in the cases pertaining to violence against women and children in Sindh.

The minister said that it was the duty of not only the government but also of all those organisations, which were working for the rights of women and children to come forward and eliminate violence against women and children.