Uks diary is a handy document which gives a well-rounded view of the theme for a particular year, essentially related to women development, she added. Kishwar Naheed, renowned poet and author, who was Chief Guest of the function, presented her written poems.
Tahira Abdullah, volunteer Diary Editor, talked about lack of documentation and data on women related issues in the country. There is no assets/properties ownership to women as well as issues in inheritance and properties. "The women are still getting comparatively less wages of the same nature of work being done by men. Till now, the government does not recognise women as head of the families despite productive labour done by them," she added.
She criticised the role of Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) in facilitating poor women and termed it as a charity handout programme which reaches a few million women in the country. How many women below the poverty line are actually availing the facility of BISP, she questioned.
Referring to Zakat Fund, Food Security Department and others, Tahira Abdullah said that it was not clear that what role these departments were playing to help the poor women in the country. She suggested that the government should purchase properties for women to give them on lease with skill training to ensure job creation for women. Women must be accepted as part of our vital labour workforce and they should get facilities of insurance, workers welfare fund (WWF) etc.
Dr Aliya Khan, Economics Professor and Head of Faculty QAU said that the human development report of UN needs to be thoroughly read by media to have authentic data on women related issues in Pakistan. Referring to minimum wage of Rs 13,000 fixed for women labour working in Punjab, she said that the question arises here whether women are getting this minimum wage in the said province. Quoting a labour workforce survey, she said that 55 percent of the women in Pakistan could be considered as unpaid family workers.
Talking about Global Gender Gap report, Dr Aliya Khan stated it is unfortunate that out of 145 ranking countries, Pakistan ranked at 144. Dr Pervez Tahir, former Chief Economist Planning Commission, said that the inequality of wealth and income in Pakistan was a basic problem. Senior journalist Farhan Bokhari informed the audience that it was wrong that media had become a progressive force in the country. He talked about the pressure of owners of media houses on working journalists. He acknowledged the role of female reporters and journalists working in print and electronic media in the country.