NCSW to ensure women empowerment as autonomous body

Lack of adequate financial resources has always been a major problem with the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) but after getting the status of an autonomous body, the Commission would be able to ensure women empowerment more effectively.
NCSW Chairperson Anees Haroon said this while addressing the ceremony organised by NCSW at the launch of its annual report 2010-11 here on Wednesday, adding that during the last three years, there had been political instability in the country, and the economy had been under stress. To add to the difficulties, the limitations imposed by the 2000 Ordinance under which the NCSW was established, and bureaucratic hurdles made the institution quite powerless.
"The past three years have witnessed a major transformation in the attitude of legislators towards women's rights", Anees added. She revealed that in spite of all the difficulties six laws are passed ie, The Anti Sexual Harassment Act, Anti Women practices Act, Acid Crimes and Control Act, Women in Distress and Detention Fund, National Commission on Status of Women Act and the Domestic Violence Bill passed by the Senate.
NCSW Bill 2012 has now finally signed into law by the President of Pakistan on March 8, and the Commission is finally going to have the status of an autonomous body closely. Anees Haroon revealed that the Commission had realised that without the help of the civil society, the gender issues could not be streamlined. "More than half of the population of Pakistan consists of female population. The laws to protect the women rights have been made, but their implementation is still a question. We have demanded of the cancellation of the 'Hudood Ordinance' and the efforts would be continued till our demands are fulfilled", Anees said.
Anees highlighted that the 18th Constitutional Amendment has empowered provinces and had made the provinces in charge to take care of their own issues. The Women's National Machinery would be very keen to work with provincial governance structures, enable them to address women's social, economic, political and legal issues. The independent and autonomous commission will function as an effective body to protect and promote the social, economic, political and legal rights of women. She also said the new commission would closely be working with provincial governments to ensure that provincial commissions on the status of women were established and provincial chairpersons have representation in national commissions as ex-officio members.
Anees disclosed that the NCSW had filed a petition against the Jirga system in the Supreme Court of Pakistan because most of the decisions taken by the Jirga system were indicative of the patriarchal system and were becoming a main reason behind the increase in violence against the women. "There are just 10 percent FIRs being registered against the cruel decisions taken by the Jirga system because of the influence of feudal system of society", Anees added.
Nasreen Azhar, a social activist said that strains of terrorism are still in Pakistan. She revealed that NCSW had fought battle on several fronts. "On one hand it was consistently lobbying with the legislators to promote women's rights agenda, while on the other remained regularly engaged with civil society, academia, lawyers and other stakeholders to build consensus for promoting women friendly policies and laws."
She particularly appreciated the role played by women parliamentarians in furthering women's agenda in the upper and lower houses of the parliament. She added that it was undeniable that implementation of laws regarding the protection of women was poor. Nasreen revealed the inefficiency and lack of training of the police, patriarchal attitudes of some members of the judiciary and interference from influential persons in the judicial process were major problems that still needed to be addressed.
"Ministry of Women Development had never recognised the importance of the NCSW and always tried to undermine the Commission", Nasreen said, adding that after the formation of the laws regarding the women protection the overall situation had been changed a bit and now it seemed as if the women would now be able to get their own share of rights like that of the male ones. "The implementation of 18th amendment can be termed as an 'important' step to highlight and focus the issues related to the women", Nasreen said.