CHITRAL: With the financial assistance of Global Affairs Canada, Aga Khan Rural Support Programme has launched an awareness programme about civil registration keeping in view the fact that a large number of people are indifferent to the process.

Talking to mediapersons here the other day, the project coordinator Shamim Akhtar said it was the duty of every citizen to register the events of birth, death, marriage and divorce with the village council without delay.

She said different types of interventions were afoot to promote the process of registration which included dissemination of information through all available means, imparting training to village council staff and provision of facilities required for the process in far-flung villages.

“Both the local support organisations (LSOs) and village councils are the representative bodies in a village which have their roots deep into the people, so the representatives of both the bodies were being imparted training,” she explained.

“The offices of the organisations are being strengthened by providing them with missing equipment like computers, printers, generators and stabilisers which are required in the registration process,” she said.

Ms Akhtar claimed that the process of civil registration had considerably improved after launching of the process as more and more people were going to the respective village council offices for registration of birth, death, marriage and divorce.

WORKSHOP: The police officers were given extensive awareness about human rights in the special context of Afghan refugees living in the country during a workshop organised by Society for Human Rights and Prisoners Aid.

Held with the financial assistance of International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC), the workshop was addressed by Chitral district police officer Furqan Bilal, team leader Qazi Sajjad Ahmed and litigation officer of Chitral University Mir Tanzilur Rahman.

The police officers were sensitised to the human rights in the context of Afghan refugees as were entitled to the same rights as did the native people as per the international conventions.

The district police chief advised the police officers to refrain from transgressing their powers. He gave away certificates to the participants.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2019