ISLAMABAD, April 16: The government is planning to distribute state land among poor women in rural areas, according to PPP MNA Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho.

She said that record of unused state land all over the country would soon be collected.

Dr Azra, sister of PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari, also said that the government was also planning to take a number of measures for the empowerment and uplift of women.

Addressing a gathering of parliamentarians, social and women rights activists, she stressed the need for social reforms to end women deprivation and allow them to be on an equal footing with men. She said: “We are reviewing family laws to introduce reforms, putting an end to violence against women and child labour. We will also amend other anti-women laws.”

The event, titled ‘First roundtable with directly elected women parliamentarians’, was organised by a local NGO.

Some women parliamentarians opposed reserved seats and special privileges for women and said women should get equal treatment with men. Quotas and preferential treatment would isolate women, they said. They stressed that women should work harder and be active to carve out a niche for themselves in all fields.

Independent MPA Robina Shaheen Wattoo said that in the beginning she had been advised not to go out for her election campaign because people would vote for her because of her father, Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo. But she decided to run her campaign herself.

“People respected me and reposed their trust in me. This dispels the perception that people are against women’s participation in politics,” she said.

She criticised the previous government’s policies and especially mentioned a literacy campaign launched by the former Punjab chief minister. She said illiteracy was still rampant in the province and the campaign had achieved nothing.

Mrs Umar Farooq, a PML-N MPA from Wah, said her constituency had the highest literacy ratio in the country but even highly-educated girls faced unemployment.

Another PML-N parliamentarian, Saira Afzal Tarar, said people did not care about gender differences but they wanted competent and honest representatives capable of solving their problems. She said women were in no way inferior to men.

Citing the example of the Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr Fehmida Mirza, she said her performance had been better than that of her predecessor.

The daughter-in-law of former president Rafiq Tarar stressed that religious values should not be set aside.

PML-Q MPA from Multan Naghma Mushtaq Lang spoke about problems of her constituency. She said that her area lacked basic amenities like health, education, drinking water. She said her area, being one of the most undeveloped in the country, faced problems like robberies, drug addiction and rapes. She urged the government to take urgent steps to resolve these issues.