A two-day training workshop for 50 female trainees of the union councils of Bahawalpur and Lodhran was held in the main secretariat of Goher Foundation. Titled 'women's pivotal role in democracy' the workshop was presided over by well-known scholar, social activist and chief executive of Goher Foundation A.G Chohan.
Addressing the concluding session Chohan lauded the efforts of the master trainers and said that in a democratic system, elections were the most effective, convenient and flexible way to bring what he said 'soft revolution'. Fair and free elections are the guarantee of having a true representative and promote and safeguard the rights, interests and benefits of the masses, he added.
"If our nation intends and is determined to have a true representative and people friendly government, we will have to assure that our elections system is free, fair and transparent and also that no political force is exploiting pre-election and post-election process," he observed. Political parties, he added, must realise their responsibilities and duties and work for assuring the integrity and transparency of there own cadres and of the apex body responsible to conduct the election, ie the Election Commission of Pakistan.
The appointment of Election Commissioner should not be on ad-hoc basis and he should be powerful, independent and autonomous, he observed. He said that the whole election process becomes meaningless if there is no equal participation of both men and women.
Earlier, the resource persons from the foundation, Noor-ul Ain, Nazulsaba, Nasir Iqbal, and Muhammad Yunus imparted the knowledge and awareness to trainees over the topics of good governance and democracy.
The participants were briefed about the importance of electoral process, the vision of a good leadership and trained them about the process of obtaining computerised national Identity Cards, name registration in voters' list, methodology of casting a vote, casting of ballots and transparency of elections.
They stressed upon the great need of concrete efforts to change anti-women cultural attitude which is the main reason for lack of women participation in electoral process in our country. They also made them aware about the vision of a good leader so that people can choose a perfect leader for their country. Later, A.G. Chohan, gave away certificates to the participants of the workshop.