ISLAMABAD, Dec 21: President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Saturday urged the women elected representatives to mobilize themselves at every level for their rights and social emancipation.

Inaugurating the national conference on “Women’s Political Participation” organized by the ministry of women development, the president said that the women members of the assemblies must rise beyond party affiliations and collectively work for the betterment of over 50 per cent female population of the country.

“They should particularly concentrate on women education, poverty eradication and securing equal rights for themselves.”

The government, the president pointed out, had put the destiny of women in their own hands and now they must organize themselves at every level. “All women parliamentarians must become effective in legislation to ensure that no law detrimental to their rights and interests is passed.”

Gen Musharraf expressed the confidence that the conference would result in the formulation of a national programme for women’s political emancipation. Since most of the women members are new in the assemblies, there should be education programmes for them for their rights and responsibilities, he said.

Recalling the steps taken by the government in the past three years, the president referred to the allocation of 33 per cent seats for women in local governments and about 20pc in the assemblies.

He described this as a silent revolution in the lives of women, saying that with this empowerment women could influence the decision making. The president said the government had given priority to girls’ education, poverty eradication and provision of loans from Khushali Bank and First Women Bank as well as allocations from Zakat Fund for the welfare of women.

“If women know their rights, their sufferings at the hands of men could reduce considerably,” he believed.

Women, the president said, had been inducted into judiciary and the number of lady health visitors had increased from 40,000 to 70,000 to help women at their doorsteps and reduce infant mortality rate.

He dilated on the issues confronting women in the country, that is, illiteracy, poverty, poor health, lack of security, lower status in society, etc. He hoped that the steps the government had taken would help reduce population growth and economic prosperity of women.

NA SPEAKER: National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Ameer Hussain said the new assembly had the maximum number of women legislators which spoke of the shift in politics to be practised in future.

He assured the women parliamentarians that they could always count on his support to promote and protect the rights of women.

A representative of the United Nations Development Programme held out the assurance to provide technical and managerial support in achieving the goals and targets for the empowerment of women.

Women Development Ministry Secretary Perveen Qadir Agha presented the address of welcome.