PESHAWAR, Jan 27: The government has not taken steps to implement the National Policy for the Development and Empowerment of Women in two years after its formulation, the participants at a workshop said on Tuesday.

The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal's women members of the national and NWFP assemblies, councillors and officials of the social welfare department participated in the workshop organized by the social welfare and women's development department.

Social Welfare Director Zarina Imdad said women were participating in legislation but a lot needed to be done at the provincial level for their social and economic empowerment.

She said a number proposals had been prepared under the Gender Reform Action Plan with financial assistance from the Asian Development Bank. "The establishment of a separate women's development department has been suggested and meetings in this regard are going," she said.

The participants discussed the measures taken by the government and gave recommendations for implementation of the policy announced in 2002. They discussed social empowerment in the education and health sectors, political empowerment, access to justice, violence against women, economic empowerment, role of women in sustainable development and their access to credit.

The parliamentarians said the policy was not discussed in the provincial assembly nor they were informed about it. MMA's Razia Aziz said she had tabled a resolution in the National Assembly for declaring honour killing intentional murder and a penal offence as recommended under the policy.

A summary had been submitted to NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani for the establishment of a women's development department, she said. Some MMA parliamentarians recommendation the proposed Hisba Act couldensure empowerment of women was opposed by other participants, who said the law was widely criticized by the lawyers and the civil society.

The MMA parliamentarians recommended that there should be proportional representation for women in the assemblies where as the other participants wanted the reserved seats to be filled through direct polls.

The participants recommended that conditions of age and educational qualification should be introduced for councillors. They called for training of women police officers and improvement of the women's police station.