“Our
strategy is to focus on women’s economic empowerment, elimination of all forms
of violence against women, to promote gender equality in all spheres of social,
political, and cultural lives and to educate, capacitate and position women
within the decision and policy making process”, said Mr. Mumtaz Ahmed Tarar.
These ideas were expressed by him in a
National Dialogue on “Closing the Gender Gap in Pakistan’s Electoral Rolls”
conducted by National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) today at Marriot
Hotel, Islamabad. Federal Minister for Human Rights, Mr. Mumtaz Ahmed Tarar
affirmed that the Government of Pakistan followed a define agenda for gender
equality and women empowerment in order to optimize their full potential. He
elaborated that the Ministry of Human Rights has formulated a draft National
Policy Framework for Promotion and protection of Human Rights, which covered
promotion of women rights and elimination of discrimination against women.
He shared that according to the
Election Commission of Pakistan’s current estimate, 12 million women voters are
unregistered. He said that we could make effective electoral registrations of
women by simplifying the CNIC procedure, by creating NADRA sub-offices for easy
access to women in remote areas and by mobilizing the NADRA mobile teams in
remote areas. He commended the efforts made by Election Commission of Pakistan
(ECP) for effective work in this regard, while recommended that all
stakeholders are needed to participate and put forward their recommendations
for the better electoral reforms.
Federal Minister for Human Rights, Mr.
Mumtaz Ahmed Tarar suggested that all efforts should be made to bridge the gap
of registered voters as much as possible before the general elections. He
emphasized that it is needed to place the matters in a broader political
context and long terms solutions are needed to guide policies and strategies of
the ECP, Political Parties and Civil society organizations.
In concluding remarks he said, “I
assure all possible support from the Ministry of Human Rights in forwarding the
recommendations by participants”.
