ISLAMABAD: The International Labour Organisation (ILO) awarded seven journalists from across Pakistan for excellence in reporting on issues relating to labour and gender.

The chief guest at the ceremony was Jinnah Institute President Sherry Rehman.

Moneeza Hashmi, Commonwealth Broadcast Association president, was also present.

The competition was arranged by Promoting Gender Equality for Decent Employment (GE4DE), a five-year ILO project funded by the Canadian government.

The project aims at building capacity of 5,000 women in Pakistan to facilitate their professional growth.

This initiative has successfully trained 673 journalists from 41 districts of Pakistan through 34 training programmes carried out over the year.

The journalists represented electronic and print media working in television, radio and newspapers, and in some cases news agencies.

Within the print media category, one winner was from an English national daily while the two others were recognised for their articles in Sindhi.

Aoun Sahi’s article, ‘Gender Disparities’ in The News on Sunday, highlighted the range of issues women face in the work place and the importance of ensuring accurate representation of women in data collection.

Mohammad Irfan Shaikh of Diyanat Daily, winner of the second prize, wrote of the tribulations of women working in the date markets in Sukkur, where he highlighted that they work more and are paid less than the men.

Salma Soomro wrote about the story of brick kiln workers for which she won third prize.

Moneeza Hashmi introduced the electronic media clips that were recognised for highlighting core issues in women’s economic status and empowerment.

She also briefly mentioned the merits of each of the winning submissions.

In the electronic media category, Rabia Noor of Express TV and Rubab Hussain of Samaa TV tied for third prize.

The former had made a documentary on the life of a 70-year-old brick kiln worker while the latter had made a two-minute clip on the life of an eleven-year-old who supports her family cleaning and selling wasted engine oil.

Moneeza Hashmi noted that both clips had beautifully captured the essence of the lives they shared.

The winner of the second prize, Quratul Ain Hashmi, had recorded a news story about an eighty-year-old woman who had been cooking and selling the same meal for 40 years.

The winner of the first prize was a 20-minute documentary by Nida Fatima Zaidi of PTV, who focused on the economic contribution of women and emphasised the facts that it is often unrecognised and unrewarded.

Ms Hashmi said the film obviously addressed broader issues and as a longer documentary could serve as a larger canvas for the themes of gender and economy.

She also said that PTV’s greater resources and access were also evident in the work.

Sherry Rehman congratulated the winners and ILO for drawing attention to the need for gender parity.

She said equality, economic and otherwise, were integral to creating an empowered and progressive Pakistan.

Frida Khan, National Project Coordinator GE4DE, said women would not be equal to men until they were equal in employment and education.

To this end this project served to develop capacities of women and of the media so they saw the stories they reported as stories of men, women, boys and girls not just stories of men.

She added that media and the development sector are natural partners as both attempt to give voices to the voiceless and faces to the invisible.