The Ministry of Women Development (MoWD), which is responsible for making policies and programmes for the welfare of women and protection of their rights in the country but its own female staff has been working in most unfriendly atmosphere.
It has been learnt that the female staff in the ministry is in minority and on the major posts only four female officers have been appointed. On the post of secretary, after years a female, Sarod Lashari has been appointed whereas nearly it has been a year that no one has been given the portfolio of the ministry.
It is worth mentioning that Fatima Jinnah Awards, which are given to the women who have made their mark in different fields, could not be held for the last two years. The ministry also failed to organise Benazir Bhutto Awards that it had announced to be held on June 21. The only function that the ministry managed to arrange was a convention, on March 8 to commemorate women's Day at Prime Minister Secretariat, which many term a cosmetic activity.
For easy commutation to ministry, no pick and drop facility has been arranged especially for female staff. Whereas office vehicles most of the time remain in use of senior staff. "Whenever I asked the drivers to drop me off back home they always excused, saying that the vehicle is use of Senior Joint Secretary", said a female official of the ministry.
State Minister for Industries and Production Dr Ayatullah Durrani said the present government is committed to generate two million jobs while another two million unskilled people would be imparted skills.
He said Shaheed Chairperson of Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto came to Pakistan despite threats to her life to realise this dream. This would be materialised by the PPP government now that lot of poor would be given jobs and vocational training, he added. Similarly, he said every married woman would get a roof of her own so that she could live in her house in a respectable manner which is another dream of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto to be fulfilled by the present government.
He further said the dependence of the industry is mostly on banks, demand and cost of inputs. On all these counts, he added, the things moved against the industries as the banks world over had a severe crisis due to dwindling economies, demand for industry products was adversely impaired due to shrinking purchasing power and finally the price of inputs especially electricity plunged the industrial sector to new depths.
There were other factors involved in financial crunch in Pakistan like the policies of the previous regime which initiated and promoted the consumer financing, making the luxury goods part of every household. He maintained that the gradual increase in number of refrigerators and air conditioners multiplied the consumption of the electricity that widened the gap between supply and demand.
Consequently the gap was too big to handle and the authorities had to resort to loadshedding that impacted upon the industries as well as business and general life in Pakistan. He said high bank interest rates, inflation and inability of the previous government to pay off Rs 450 billion which it owed to Independent Power Projects (IPPs) and oil companies aggravated the situation. "We had to pay off this amount instead of diverting it to the development budget or injecting the same into the national economy where it could have caused multiplying effect," he argued. During all this time, no serious effort was made to increase the generation and present government had to plan out in emergency for overcoming the power crisis, he said.
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