DADU: A consensus was achieved among journalists that the media has a responsibility to report success stories of women leaders more effectively. Baanhn Beli, in collaboration with Oxfam, organised a training workshop for the journalists at Dadu press club on Tuesday. The participants were informed that certain measures were adopted by the government to ensure women participation in the electoral process. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was authorised to launch female NIC and voter registration campaign to increase awareness among the women to participate on an equal basis in the electoral process. Apart from reserved seats, 5% quota for women would be ensured by the political parties on the general seats. Journalists urged the news rooms and policy makers to report and highlight women issues particularly during the election periods. “Despite hurdles, female parliamentarians contributed a lot in terms of outlining public issues,” they said. Media professional and human rights defender, Lala Hassan expressed his concerns that election commission has to play a pivotal role to encourage women participation during the general elections. He outlined the salient features of the Elections Act 2017, and said that ECP is subjected to adopt measures to reduce the difference in men and women voters in a constituency if the difference amounts to greater than 10%. Furthermore, the ECP should publish results of each polling station and collection of gender-disaggregated data on voters’ turnout. Moreover, the ECP may term election in a constituency as null and void, if voters’ turnout of women is less than 10% of the total votes casted in a constituency. Younis Bandhani said that gender discrimination is increasing in the society. “Women have performed outstandingly, whenever they got opportunities,” he said. Published in Daily Times, May 2nd 2018.