Women parliamentarians, representing different political parties in both the Senate and the National Assembly, have resolved to work for sustainable development. The resolve was made at the meeting of "Women Parliamentary Council for Sustainable Development," a forum facilitated by Sustainable Development Policy Institute here on Wednesday.
Arifa Khalid Pervaiz of PML-N, Mussarat Ahmad Zeb, PTI, Shahida Akhtar Ali, JUI-F, Naeema Kishwar Khan, JUI-F, Shahida Rehmani, PPPP, Nafeesa Inayatullah Khan Khattak, PTI, Rukhsana Jamshed Buttar, Ex-MNA-PML- N, Khalida Parveen, Senator- PPP-P, Suriya Amiruddin, PPP-P, Romina Khurshid Alam, PML-N, Farah Aqil, Senator-ANP, Shahjehan Muneer Magrio Rajpoot, PML-N, Sajida Begum, PTI, Asiya Naz Tanoli, PML-N, Saeeda Iqbal, Senator-PPP-P participated in the meeting.
Elaborating the objectives of the Women Parliamentary Council for Sustainable Development, Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri, Executive Director, SDPI, said that the WPCSD would extend support to women parliamentarians in areas of research and legislation. He maintained that the SDPI's legal wing would also extend its support to the women parliamentarians on legislative drafting. Dr Suleri said the SDPI's contribution would not only strengthen the role of women parliamentarian, but also democratic process in the country.
He said the SDPI would share its research work on different areas with women parliamentarians on the forum of the WPCSD for policy orientation and draft legislation and on any other matter the women parliamentarians considered they need support on sustainable development in the country.
Research Co-ordinator SDPI, Mome Saleem, assured the women parliamentarian that SDPI would present its impartial, fact based and result-oriented findings to the council in its monthly meeting on the topics selected by the women parliamentarians. The launch meeting of the WPCSD was attended by over 20 women Senators, and MNAs belonging to all political parties represented in the parliament.
The women parliamentarians were of the view that the initiative would open a window of opportunity to them to learn from the experience of SDPI team on state of social services delivery besides the methods to improve it further, urging the SDPI to work along with them to curb domestic violence and crimes against women.-PR