Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is likely to announce a number of initiatives for bridging gap by empowering women in social, economic and political arena on International Women Day on March 8. Soon after promulgation of the Punjab Protection of Women against Violence Act (PPWVA), the federal government has reviewed a draft on Women Empowerment Policy, proposed by the Ministry of Human Rights in Islamabad on March 04.
Sources told Business Recorder that during a high-level meeting last week the federal government, in principle, decided to enhance quota for women in public sector employment from existing 10 percent. Besides, at least one woman shall be included in all selection and recruitment committees for regular and contractual employment. It was also decided to ensure a one-third quota for women in all educational scholarship schemes, including overseas, indigenous, or need-based scholarships.
To enhance interest of women in higher education, girls students at university level domiciled from under-developed areas of the country but enrolled in HEC-recognised universities shall be given a fee waiver. Earlier, provincial governments had announced their working on women empowerment packages as the Punjab government announced its Women Empowerment Package in 2012 and further initiatives for women in 2014. The government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa also announced its Women Empowerment Policy. It is worth mentioning here that most of the women related matters especially education, health, family and minor had been entrusted to the provinces under the 18th Constitutional Amendment.
Responding to the question of Business Recorder over the current status of Pakistan' ratification of global instrument for women rights, solicitor Hassan Mehmood, an expert on international law told that the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly and ratified by Pakistan in 1996 is described as an international bill of rights for women.
Hassan said that the government of Pakistan had launched National Plan of Action for Women in 1998 as a guideline document, which highlighted strategic objects for social, economic, political and legal empowerment of women followed by the National Policy for Development and Empowerment of Women, 2002.
Advocate Sharafat A. Chaudhry, Legal Consultant for Ministry of Human Rights, upon a question whether the federal government have powers to announce the women related policy at national level in wake of 18th Amendment, explained that under the Article 149 of Constitution, the executive authority of the Prime Minister also extends to the provinces. "The executive authority of every province cannot prejudice the exercise of executive authority of the federation and the Prime Minister is constitutionally fully empowered to announce any package or policy for women development and gender equality at national level," Chaudhry concluded.