PESHAWAR, May 15: The Provincial Commission on the Status of Women is a lame duck and should be empowered to manage its financial and administrative affairs for better functioning.
This was stated by PCSW chairwoman Zubaida Khatoon during a function organised here to mark the commission’s second anniversary. PCSW members and women rights activists showed up.
Currently, the social welfare and women development department oversees the PCSW financial and administrative affairs.
Ms Zubaida said during the first year of the commission’s formation, she had taken great pains to make team and plan things in absence of a proper office.
She said members of the commission often had to sit down on a piece of carpet in absence of furniture and held a meeting and that on many occasions, some members brought in personal computers for the commission’s work.
The PCSW chairwoman said during those difficult times, women rights activists and media put a barrage of questions to her about the commission’s achievements since establishment.
She said the commission, which was formed on May 12, 2010, held first meeting in July 2010 followed by monthly meetings to plan activities.
Ms Zubaida said there were no funds, no staff and no properly-equipped office for the commission between July 2010 and June 30, 2011 and that the commission’s office was equipped in February this year. She said she had regularly been organising the commission’s meetings on various issues since July 2011.
The PCSW chairwoman regretted that even today, the commission was without a fully-equipped office and proper staff as the social welfare department delayed the processing of the CVs of the candidates.
She demanded that like National Commission on the Status of Women, the commission be given the powers to manage its financial and administrative matters on its own.
Ms Zubaida said over the last two years, she and the commission’s members had learnt a lot, including the government procedures and loopholes in them.
“Since the commission’s establishment, we learnt a lot, especially from our bitter experiences. In a case, I nearly missed jail,” she said.
The PCSW chairwoman faced the Peshawar High Court’s annoyance after she along with other civil society activists took away the newborn baby of an alleged gang rape victim.
However, she was cleared after the baby was returned to mother and the court accepted her point that she and others took her away for security reasons without knowing it could land them in trouble.
Ms Zubaida, who worked with UN agencies over the years, said she and members of the commission had slowly developed a good understanding of government procedures and how to handle them. He expressed the hope that things would improve if the commission was granted empowerment.
The PCSW chairwoman demanded that the commission’s strength be increased from seven to nine for better functioning.
She said instead of political leaders or women MPAs, women rights’ activists should be made PCSW members so that they could work even after the change of the government.
According to her, the commission recently reviewed a draft bill on domestic violence, child marriages and internal trafficking of women; labour laws, and denial of due rights to women workers. It also contributed to the report on Convention on Elimination of Discrimination against Women by providing different suggestions to the social welfare department.
Zubaida Noor, who works in the non-governmental sector on women issues, said it took years for the NCSW to strengthen itself so hopefully, PCSW, too, would gain strength with the passage of time and with right kind of members and strategy and thus, delivering on women development.
PCSW members MPA Shazia Tehmas, Sajida Tabbasum, Noor Sahar, Zubaida Ehsan, Shagufta Malik and Uzma Khan, who were also in attendance, too, demanded that the commission be empowered for women’s development.