PESHAWAR, March 8: Speakers at a function have expressed concern over problems being faced by women and urged both the government and public to give due status to the womenfolk so that they could play their active role in development of the society and country.

The function was jointly organised by Citizen Rights and Sustainable Development (CRSD), Action Aid, Blue Veins and Hawa Lor at Peshawar Press Club on Friday to mark the Intentional Women’s Day.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Information Mian Iftikhar Hussain was chief guest at the event, while MPA Shagufta Malik participated as guest of honour.

The information minister said that protection of human rights was part of the Awami National Party’s agenda and it did not differentiate on the basis of sex, race, etc. He said that the ‘child marriage restraint bill’ was opposed by the ANP in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly because of the social, cultural and religious challenges of interpretation associated with it and these must be addressed before such legislation was brought to the assembly. He said that the NGOs should work for social change so that evils like child marriages could be stopped.

CRSD executive director Idrees Kamal said that the United Nations began celebrating International Women’s Day on March 8 during International Women’s Year 1975.

Ms Farida Iqbal of Blue Veins said that the new millennium had witnessed a significant change and attitudinal shift in both women's and society's thoughts about women's equality and emancipation.

However, she said that the unfortunate fact was that women at work were still not paid like their male counterparts and they were still not present in equal numbers in business or politics. She said that globally women had been lagging far behind their male counterparts in getting health and education facilities. However, she said that great improvements had been made over time.

Aliya Rasheed of Action Aid said that the women should continue to aggressively pursue the skills, education and build capacity to contribute to the country’s progress and make it competitive in the world.

Shagufta Malik said that the provincial government had tried its best to provide opportunities to women in different fields. She said that Pakistan always had a decent level of female participation, with women elected to national parliament and high government positions.

Ms Khursheed Bano of Hawa Lor said that more work was needed on pro-women legislation, while the CSOs, political parties and other segments of society should give priority to implementing women-related legislation.

Qamar Naseem appreciated the pro-human rights approach of the provincial and federal governments, saying they had so far done remarkable legislations.

He said that the NGOs would keep pushing for child rights amendment bill.