Minister for Women Development and Youth Affairs Sumaira Malik on Friday asked women to strengthen hands of the incumbent leadership through votes in the next general elections to sustain women development process.
Talking to APP, she expressed the hope that women who constitute half of the country's population would vote for the present leadership in the upcoming general elections as she added, this government was committed to providing equal opportunities to women along with men.
She said the present government under the leadership of President General Pervez Musharraf had translated the vision of women empowerment into reality, which would go a long way in national prosperity. "It is a matter of happiness that dream of women empowerment has come true due to vision of the President Pervez Musharraf", she remarked.
Describing government's steps for women uplift as unprecedented, the minister said that whatever was done for women empowerment, had never happened during the last 60 years. But she added " There is a still a long way to go and the government is committed to overcome all hurdles in this regard".
The minister said her ministry was pursuing several programmes to make womenfolk self-reliant while referring to Women's Political School, Media Campaign to Prevent Violence Against Women, Gender Action Reform Programme and the recently concluded IT training programme for women councillors, besides other programmes.
About the result of these programmes, she said all these programmes especially Women Political School project was very much popular with women councillors for it had been designed to moulding them as agent of change at the grassroots level through its comprehensive syllabus.
She said that media was an effective tool to make opinion about some issue that was why the ministry was taking steps to invite its services to eliminate violence, especially its domestic form against women who, she added, were serving as binding force in the family unit to keep it intact for society's healthy development and prosperity.