PRESS REPORT
Awareness of women’s property rights is key to increasing access to legal rights
Islamabad: March 9, 2020: “8th March is a day to pay tributes to all the women, mothers, sisters and daughters who are doing their best for the development and prosperity of Pakistan”, said Ms. Kanwal Shauzab, Parliamentary Secretary, Planning Commission of Pakistan while addressing a gathering organized by PODA. PODA-Pakistan, a women’s rights NGO organized a day-long program to mark the international women’s rights day on Sunday 8th March 2020 in Islamabad in collaboration with Ministry of Human Rights. The event included art exhibition and a thoughtful seminar titled “Promoting and Protecting Women Rights in Pakistan through Education, Culture and Law” that brought together over 100 participants including, women lawyers, teachers, doctors, students, artisans and representatives from government, civil society and journalists.
“Women have rights as citizens that they should know and the government has the duty to facilitate access to constitutional rights as duty bearer and NGOs can help to connect both stakeholders, said Ms. Sameena Nazir, President PODA-Pakistan at the event. She said affirmative actions are needed for accelerating gender parity in Pakistan especially in rural areas.
Mr. Malik Kamran Azam, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Human Rights, government of Pakistan shared that the ministry is committed to reduce the gender gap and has been actively working to end gender discrimination, harassment and violence against women at all levels in Pakistan. He said the ministry is providing legal aid and has also established a hot line 1099 for assistance. Mr. Kamran said that all Pakistani citizens should read the Fundamental Rights chapter of the constitution of Pakistan and know their rights. He further shared that the citizen should use the appropriate forum for redressal of their grievance and currently Prime Minister Portal is one of the effective tools to get the remedy. Mr. Azam emphasized that significant progress was being made in terms of reviewing and strengthening laws, rules and regulations affecting the status of women in Pakistan but still a lot needs to be done to ensure human rights for all.
Advocate Ms. Sarkar Abbas, Lawyer Supreme Court of Pakistan and Member PODA Legal Aid program spoke about challenges of women in getting their property rights in Pakistan. She said that despite of having good laws, women in Pakistan are being denied their right due to multiple factors such as lack of awareness about the law among government officials and citizen and delaying tactics of court and government system. She said that everyone should know that depriving any woman from her inheritance right is a crime with imprisonment of up to 10 years.
Advocate Bano Jahangir, member PODA Legal Aid program said that women face many problems when they file cases for family inheritance and face abuse and financial hardships as the cases prolong for many years. She shared that most cases related to domestic violence, sexual harassment, early child marriages, forced marriages and maintenance are filed by women in rural areas where family members do not support when women go to courts as it is considered a shameful act. She further said that a lot of women still do not have their Computerized National Identity Cards (CNIC) that is essential for filing a case or for getting legal remedies from any government office. She said the government should assist poor litigants especially women.
Dr. Adeela Rehman, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Fatima Jinnah Women University spoke about the role of education in ensuring women’s rights. She shared that the educational systems in Pakistan do not teach and promote gender equality and this reinforces the norms of patriarchal society and anti-women social norms. Due to illiteracy the women in Pakistan have a lack of awareness about their basic human rights and without giving the equal education opportunities to women and girls in Pakistan the society cannot be harmonized. She said although in recent years, social culture has changed in cities but not in all rural areas.
Advocate Hifza Bukhari, member legal aid program of PODA and Naheeda Mehboob Ellahi Law Firm shared that the Constitution of Pakistan ensures basic and equal rights for all without any discrimination of gender in article 25 of the Constitution and that Pakistan was the first country in Asia and Middle East regions to enact progressive legislations for women but the main problems are weak implementation mechanisms of these laws. She suggested to amend the procedural laws so that the women can get their rights through speedy justice system.
Ms. Naheeda Abbasi, a woman entrepreneur from Chakwal talked about the difficulties that women entrepreneurs face in setting up business in rural areas of Pakistan. She shared that there is a fear among the women entrepreneurs to register their business due to misunderstanding about taxation system. Most women entrepreneurs think that getting a National Tax Number (NTN) will make them financially vulnerable and they will have to pay lots of tax even if they do not make any money in their business. She shared that when I started my business, everyone in advised me not to get an NTN but later I learned that without NTN we cannot open a business bank account or register with Chamber of Commerce. She said that the government should interact with women entrepreneurs and help them to understand business registration processes and facilitate them. She demanded that the government should fix a quota for women entrepreneurs in every district so they can sell their products directly without the middle man.
The participants of the seminar appreciated the discussion and shared that they have learnt a lot about the new pro-women legislations and working and functions of the Ministry of Human Rights. An interactive discussion took place at the seminar in which women asked many questions to the representative of ministry of human rights and he gave useful answers.
PODA also organized a theater play by community theater group “Jugni” on the prevention of early and forced marriages. Youth from various villages organized this play to highlight that importance of educating families and religious leaders about Pakistani law about minimum age of marriage for girls and that girls have the right to education under the Constitution of Pakistan.
Artist Asfandyar Khattak presented a musical tribute to the women and folk music and dance presentations were made by Dr. Nagina Sadaf and her team of Diamond Cultural Group. The event was also included traditional cuisine prepared by rural women. Throughout the day Lok Virsa Museum area also displayed Artisan at Work to highlight handicrafts and folk art made by rural women from various areas of Pakistan. Over 100 women who came to PODA’s program on 8th March also visited Lok Virsa museum and were delighted to see a museum for the first time in their life. They thanked the Lok Virsa for not charging ticket to women on 8th March. Mr. Anwaar-ul-Haq, Director Museum, Lok Virsa while speaking the event said that Lok Virsa works throughout the year to highlight women’s rich contributions to culture and folk art.
For information, contact: Benish Ibrahim at PODA womenrights@poda.org.pk. 051 486 2513