KARACHI, Sept 27: The government should offer equal opportunities for employment to women so that they could play decisive role in policy making.

This was stated by Justice (retd) Majida Rizvi while addressing a two-day workshop on "Media and violence against women" on Monday.

She said that it was responsibility of the government to bring changes in laws, which were being used generally against women. Media should play positive role while reporting incidents of violence and abuses against women so that they could get justice, she added.

Justice Majida Rizvi said that Hudood Ordinance and other laws pertaining to women had been reviewed by a committee recently. According to its report, all such laws were not in accordance with teachings of Islam. She said that there were some sections in Nikahnama (matrimonial certificate), which were left blank and even not shown to bridegroom.

Rashida Patel of the Pakistan Women Lawyer's Association stressed that journalists should play role to bring changes in weak laws on abuse against women. She said that changes in police attitude towards women was imperative so that victims of violence and abuse could get justice. She said that culprits involved in honour killings should be given exemplary punishment to check this growing menace.

Owais Aslam Ali of the Pakistan Press Foundation said that the objective for organizing the workshop was to solve problems through effective coordination between representatives of civil societies and journalists beside creating awareness among the masses about violence against women.

He urged non-governmental organizations and journalists to play practical role for highlighting problems of their respective areas and draw attention of government for solving the same. During the workshop, Fazal Qureshi of PPI gave training to the participants about reporting and articles writing on violence against women. -PPI