Daily Times

LAHORE: Speakers at a ceremony highlighted that democracy was incomplete without proper political representation of women in the local government systems and decision-making process at grassroots level.

“After a long wait, the strong likelihood of early completion of LG polls on reserve seats is appreciable. The Punjab government, however, needs to make further amends by making a strong local governance system and ensuring political empowerment of women in Punjab,” they said during the launch of ‘Strengthening Women Political Leadership in Local Governance Systems’, a project organised by Women in Struggle for Empowerment (WISE) in collaboration with US Agency for International Development (USAID) under its Small Grants and Ambassador’ss Fund Programme (SGAFP) at a local hotel on Wednesday.

Member National Assembly Shaista Pervaiz Malik, LG expert Zahid Islam, Punjab Assembly Women Caucus Member Sadia Sohail, Members Punjab Assembly Dr Nausheen Hamid and Faiza Malik, WISE Executive Director Bushra Khaliq, Advocate Supreme Court Mubeen Qazi, Democratic Commission for Human Development (DCHD) Executive Director Tanveer Jahan, and Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO) Regional Head Salman Abid were among the main speakers. Civil society members, LG experts, elected and nominated women councillors along with government and media representatives joined the event.

Chief guest Shaista Pervaiz Malik appreciated WISE for taking the initiative to politically educate women councillors and said that such programmes should also be launched for female members of the national and provincial assemblies.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPAs Sadia Sohail and Dr Nausheen Hamid extended their support for the much-needed initiative of women political empowerment at local level. They emphasised the need for more space for women to contest elections on direct seats at local, provincial and national level.

Speaking on the occasion, WISE Executive Director Bushra Khaliq said since the much-awaited last leg of LG polls on reserve seats were round the corner, Punjab would soon have a complete LG system. Sharing the main features of the project, she said WISE would be building the capacity of around 900 women councillors at various levels of local government through trainings in Lahore and Nakana Sahib.

She said a women caucus would also be formed comprising selective women from both the districts. The overall objective of the project, she added, was to strengthen the women political leadership in local governance systems and to enhance the leadership and political skills of women representatives at the level of union councils, municipal committees, district councils, municipal corporations and metropolitan corporation; enabling them to play their effective role in local government structures and strengthening democracy at local level.

Other speakers from the civil society, including Qazi Mobeen, Zahid Islam, Salman Abid and Tanveer Jehan, termed the project as good initiative by WISE and USAID to engage the women councillors of two districts, build their capacity to help emerge the future women leadership at grassroots level. It is an opportunity for the women councillors to enhance their political and leadership skills and become leaders of their communities, they added.

They were of the view that political empowerment of women at grassroots level was vital for democracy and would bring positive social change in the country.