PESHAWAR, Dec 7: Women councillors from Dera Ismail Khan have complained of lesser treatment being given to them by male councillors during sessions of local government institutions.

A number of women councillors were annoyed at the dominating attitude of their colleagues, during a training workshop organized by Sojhla Forum and VAW Forum at the Dera Press Club.

According to a press release issued here on Friday, the women councillors claimed that they were suffering mental stress due to the newly-introduced district government system. Chairman of a social organization DAY, Aamir Hameed Mughal (advocate) was facilitator of the workshop.

The speakers at the workshop were elected councillors including Bilquis Ara Begum, Shabana Andleeb, Naheed Bukhari, Dilshad Begum, Shamshad Gandapur and Gulshan Bibi.

They said that in the district, tehsil and union councils the role of women councillors was being ignored completely. They said the women councillors were as competent as their male colleagues. So there was no reason for them to be treated in such a degrading manner.

Some participants voiced the growing cases of violence against women. They said that even at work thy were being insulted, harassed, and assaulted.

Syed Qaiser Abbas, Aamir Zaidi (advocate), Aamir Latif (advocate), Mujibur Rehman (advocate), Dr Noman Hayat and Sakina Bukhari alleged that 95 per cent of the women faced custodial violence where law enforcement agencies personnel were involved.

Badar Farooq Mughal, bureau chief The Frontier Post, Abdul Shakoor Ustrana, President Dera Press Club, Muhammad Mujtaba Awan, general secretary, Matloob Ahmed, finance secretary, Muhammad Iqbal Bhatti, bureau chief Pakistan, Muhammad Aslam Quershi and Imran Hafeez blamed the media for promoting violence.

Uzma Khurshid, Tahir Aslam, Waseem Khan Kattikhel, Inam Khan and Muhammad Munir Marwat stressed the need for creating awareness among the people to curb violence against women.