Women on wheels Minister hands over motorbikes to 700 women

In order to empower women in the society, Punjab Excise Minister Mian Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman handed over keys of motorbikes to as many as 700 ladies in a function held here on Sunday at Alhamra Hall. After the function, the women on wheels held a motorbike rally outside Alhamra Arts Council.
The Minister Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman, Director General Chief Minister's Strategic Reforms Unit Salman Sufi and others lead the rally. The Minister Excise Mian Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman, Director General SRU Salman Sufi, Secretary Excise Dr Ahmed Bilal, UN Women Country Head Jamshed Kazi, representative of Bank of Punjab Ms. Urooj and renowned human rights activist Hina Gillani attended the event among other prominent bureaucrats, politicians, celebrities, civil activists as well as the general public.
Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman said that the main aim of the Women-on-Wheels Rally is to award successful Women-on-Wheels (WoW) candidates' subsidized Honda CD-70 Dream motorbikes which have been specially customized for this very campaign. He said that the motorbikes have been given to the ladies hailing from all the 5 districts including Lahore, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Multan and Rawalpindi where the first phase of the WoW campaign was launched.
Punjab Excise Minister Mian Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman said that the ultimate aim of the campaign is to empower women to reclaim public spaces in the country as well as inspire them to become agents of change in the country especially as a counter-narrative to existing soaring headlines pertaining to Violence against Women in the country.
It may be mentioned that the Chief Minister's Strategic Reforms Unit introduced the Women-on-Wheels initiative in collaboration with the respective City Traffic Police, District Governments and Honda Atlas in November 2015 to empower women through provision of free motorcycle trainings. The campaign has been launched in Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi and Sargodha where it has trained over 3500 women. The launch of its subsidized motorbike scheme is a continuation of the Women-on-Wheels scheme which aims to provide empowerment to the working and independent women of Punjab.