First Lady Samina Alvi on Monday said that collective efforts were needed to cope with the challenges faced by women and ensure their fundamental rights. Addressing a ceremony regarding 73rd Foundation Day of All Pakistan Women’s Association (APWA) here, she said the Constitution ensured equal rights to women, adding that a women task force should be formed to resolve the issues and challenges of women in the country. Samina Alvi said that women should be made part of government’s socio-economic policy so that they could contribute significantly to the economic uplift of the country, adding that Begum Rana Liaqat Ali had laid the foundation of APWA for welfare, education and support to women. Appreciating the role of APWA, she said that APWA was contributing a lot to raising awareness about women empowerment and their rights to live in society with dignity and self-respect. She said that efforts pertaining to women rights and their empowerment in Punjab were more intensified than other provinces. She urged the women to work as a team with dedication to contribute in all segments of life and said that the government was also taking comprehensive steps for women’s empowerment and their rights, stressing that women should play their role in country’s progress by observing their core values. The women as a mother, sister or daughter should teach the coming generations the morals and values of our society, she added. Samina Alvi said that continuous work was required to find out the solutions of problems faced by today’s women in education, health and employment sectors, adding that special focus should be paid to resolve the sensitive issues including women harassment, abuse at work, violence and discrimination against women. The First Lady said that it should be analyzed that why an educated woman even after acquiring the needed skills failed to get better employment opportunities so efforts should be put in place to provide conducive environment to women where they could demonstrate their skills and abilities. Women were 50 percent of total population of the country so as they should be given equal rights and proper representation in all sectors of society to move the country ahead economically as well as socially, she said, and added that President Dr Arif Alvi was also putting efforts pertaining to inheritance laws and rights of women. She said that media and the people who had influence should sensitize the people about the women rights in inheritance, empowerment and their contributions in national progress and prosperity. She asserted that small skills’ centers should be set up for ensuring market oriented skills’ training short courses so that women could earn their bread and butter. The government was also working for the uplift of women as it started a number of programmes for providing interest free loans and skills for encouraging them to start their own businesses, she said, adding that women should materialize their ideas to take benefit from government’s schemes.