ISLAMABAD, Mar 07 (APP):Federal Minister for Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety, Shazia Marri Tuesday called for providing a more conducive environment for women to move freely and contribute to the socio-economic development of the country at par with their men counterparts.

Addressing the event titled “Domestic Violence” arranged by the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR), the federal minister said domestic violence is not an issue limited to any home or family but to society.
“Any society can never achieve social and economic progress unless it provides equal excelling opportunities to its women”, she remarked.

She said that our religion and the constitution guarantees protection to women as well as space to contribute in all spheres of life.

She said domestic violence is an issue that is being faced by women globally. “If women are given their due rights, there would no women march or protests in the country”, she added.

The federal minister stated that she is happy to see pink buses exclusively for women to provide them safe travelling environment but she would be happier if women feel secure while sitting with men.

“Let’s make a pledge to ensure more conducive environment for women in our society”, she said.
“Let’s create such a society that embraces women and celebrates their achievements so that they can contribute to the progress of the country”, she added.

About the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP), Shazia Marri said that BISP has emerged as the biggest social protection intervention in the history of the country.

Around nine million women beneficiaries are being provided quarterly financial assistance under the Benazir Kafalat initiative, empowering them.

She said that transgender persons were also included in the program without the condition of PMT score considering their vulnerability which was a historic step in the history of the country.

ISLAMABAD, Mar 07 (APP): The women legislators from the National and Sindh Assemblies have called for reforms in the legal and regulatory framework governing elections to fully realize the constitutional guarantees of women’s full participation in all aspects of national life, including politics.

In a rare show of cross-party unanimity, legislators representing Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP), Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Pakistan (MMAP) and Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) agreed on a range of legal and regulatory measures required to address the challenges facing women’s electoral contestation and support their graduation from the reserved seats to general seats following the spirit of reservation, said a press release.

During a training workshop on the electoral framework, the women legislators urged the government, political parties, and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to prioritize women-specific amendments in the Elections Act, 2017, the Election Rules, 2017, and the electoral codes of conduct to enhance the quality and inclusiveness in the upcoming general elections.

The workshop was organized by the Trust for Democratic Education and Accountability (TDEA) under its Women Leadership Development Program, which sought to support reserved-seat women legislators to contest general seats. As many as 11 MNAs including Ghazala Saifi, Munawwara Bibi Baloch, Nafeesa Inayatullah, Nusrat Wahid, Saira Bano, Shaheen Saifullah, Shahnaz Saleem, Shahida Akhtar Ali, Syma Nadeem, Uzma Riaz, Zill-e-Huma and 12 Sindh MPAs including Adeeba Hassan, Ghazala Sial, Heer Soho, Hina Dastagir, Kalsoom Akhtar, Naseem Rajpar, Shahana Ashar, Rabia Khatoon, Seema Zia, Sarwat Fatima, Shazia Umar, and Tanzila Umi Habiba participated in the workshops. Free and Fair Election Network’s (FAFEN) Chairperson Mossarat Qadeem and TDEA’s Trustee Dr Anoosh W. Khan addressed the participants.

The women legislators urged ECP to proactively and assertively exercise its constitutional and legal powers to hold honest, just, and fair elections as required under Article 218(3) of the Constitution. Drawing the Parliament’s attention towards a gender gap of more than 10.6 million on electoral rolls, the legislators emphasized urgent measures to enable women without National Identity Cards (NICs) to exercise their right to vote in the upcoming general elections.

They called for a one-time provision in the Elections Act, 2017 for supplemental electoral rolls comprising all eligible-age yet unregistered women identified through the population census data to enable them to vote.

They proposed that the Elections Act, 2017 be amended to provide for gender-disaggregated counting of ballots at the combined polling stations to ensure the availability of accurate and complete information on women’s political behaviors, which are currently considered to be influenced by the political choices of men.

They also proposed an amendment to the law to provide for legal consequences of incomplete and inaccurate filling of counting forms by the polling staff.

The women legislators suggested restricting the arbitrary powers of the Returning Officers regarding the recount of ballots before the consolidation of results as well as overriding the legally prescribed limits of assigning 1,200 voters per polling station and a one-kilometer distance between a polling station and voters assigned to it.

Additionally, the legislators recommended amendments to Form-45 in the Election Rules, 2017 to provide for documentation of polling agents’ comments on the integrity of the counting process.

They asked the Commission to proactively monitor the polling areas where women turnout remained less than 10 percent of the polled votes during the last general elections, and exercise the powers given to it under Section 9(2) of the Elections Act, 2017 to proceed against persons restraining women from voting.

Additionally, they said the ECP needs to improve women’s representation among its officials as well as polling staff to create a more conducive environment for all genders and classes of voters at polling stations.

The women legislators also called for strict regulation of campaign finance and enforcement of election expense limits.

They termed the excessive use of money for campaign advertisements, illegal gratification during elections, and transport as a leading barrier for women to compete with male candidates in general seats.

They emphasized the need for introducing affirmative measures regarding the financing of election campaigns of women contesting general seats such as binding the political parties to contribute to the women candidates’ campaigns.

In addition, the legislators urged the mainstreaming of women within the political parties’ structures and demanded measures to include women in leadership positions and decision-making roles.

ISLAMABAD, Mar 07 (APP):The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday suspended the non-bailable arrest warrants against PTI chairman Imran Khan and directed him to appear before the trial court on March 13, in the toshakhana case.

Chief Justice Aamer Farooq announced the verdict which was earlier reserved on the petition challenging the decision of the session court.
The court remarked that the accused had to appear before the court in a personal capacity for indictment in the case.

The chief justice remarked that the warrants were issued just to produce the accused before the court to run the case trial, adding that the bench wouldn’t pass any out-of-practice order. Imran Khan should have appeared before the court, he said.

Justice Farooq questioned how the court should summon the accused if he was not appearing. He observed that Imran Khan could appear before the lower court as well on March 9, as he was going to appear before the high court on the same date.

Addressing the lawyers, the chief justice remarked that they wouldn’t get anything here as per merit and asked the counsels to provide a date regarding the appearance of the accused. He further observed that the high court was receiving threats on daily basis, adding whether the courts should stop working on this excuse.

The chief justice remarked that it had to be viewed what happened in high court premises on the last hearing as there was a crowd where no one knew the intention of anyone. When they would bring 2,000 people things could go wrong, he added.

Justice Aamer Farooq said that whether the petitioner could submit an affidavit regarding his appearance before the court, adding that Imran Khan didn’t appear even today before the trial court. The court asked the lawyers to be fair with the system instead of making fun of it or the court should grant two months date while stopping the trial.

Barrister Mohsin Shahnawaz Ranjha prayed to the court to dismiss the appeal of Imran Khan. He said that the police could produce the accused before the trial court in foolproof security if he surrendered.

Imran Khan’s counsel Qaiser Imam argued that there were severe life threats to his client during his appearance in F-8 Kachehri. He said that the trial court had granted twice exemptions to his client from appearance. He said that he had consulted with Imran Khan, and he was ready to appear within four weeks.

He prayed the court to set aside the decision of the lower court and suspend the arrest warrants against PTI’s head.

Advocate General Islamabad said that Imran Khan didn’t want to face the trial.
The court earlier reserved the verdict and later ordered Imran Khan to appear before the trial court on March 13.

ISLAMABAD, Mar 7 (APP):The opening ceremony of the sixth International Pakistan Army Team Spirit (PATS) Competition – 2023 was held at National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) Pabbi on Tuesday.

According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) news release, some seven Pakistan Army teams and 10 international teams including teams from Bahrain, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Morocco, Uzbekistan, Thailand, Jordan, USA, Iraq, Kazakhstan and Qatar were participating in the competition.

Moreover, three observer countries, Azerbaijan, Myanmar, and Nigeria were also part of the 6th International PATS.

The 60 hours long rigorous competition would continue from March 7-9. The competition was based on evaluating the physical endurance, mental agility and tactical proficiency of the combat teams.

Over the years the competition has gained much popularity and has become an international PATS competition that provides opportunities for participating teams to learn and share experiences with one an other, particularly from Pak Army’s experience of fighting against terrorism.

The General Officer Commanding 37 Division was the Chief Guest at the occasion.