LAHORE,

Tribal-feudal culture and lack of education are obstacles in grant of land ownership rights to women.

This was a consensus in the provincial consultation on ‘Women’s right to land’ arranged by the Women Workers Helpline and ActionAid Pakistan here on Monday.

Women MPAs, trade unionists and a large number of female farmers from Rahim Yar Khan, Muzaffargarh, Layyah, Bhakkar, Toba Tek Singh, Okara and Lahore participated in the consultation.

Adviser to Punjab Chief Minister on Human Rights Shamaila Rana said women were being denied their rights owing to lack of education and awareness. The provincial government had decided to empower them by providing jobs and small loans on soft terms. The government would also enact a law for the protection of rights of women.

She also offered to arrange a meeting of women with Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif so that they could apprise him of their problems and demands.

PPP MPA Amna Buttar from Rahim Yar Khan said women were not being denied land ownership rights due to being at war with men. It was being done due to feudal system, obsolete traditions and lack of education. She said the PPP government was conferring land ownership rights on female farmers in Sindh. The Punjab government should also do the same.

She said women MPAs in Punjab Assembly could not be expected to speak for women rights as they lacked courage even to speak for their own rights. There was no lounge for women MPAs in Punjab Assembly and their funds for development and food stamp scheme had been withheld but they were silent.

PML-N MPA from Kot Addu Saima Aziz said women would not get their rights till they changed their way of thinking like Begum Kulsoom who provided leadership to the people when Mian Nawaz Sharif was arrested by Pervez Musharraf in 1999. She said the Punjab government was giving ownership rights to tenants tilling its land for more than 10 years.

National Trade Union Federation president Yousaf Baloch said women were de prived of equal rights by a handful of people due to feudal-tribal system. They constituted 52 per cent of population but were neither united nor aware of their rights due to lack of education.

Insan Foundation director Kishwar Sultana said the civil society should help women get their rights as the political parties forgot their promises after coming into power. Even women MPAs got divided on the basis of their political affiliations and did not support the demands of women.

Pakistan Labour Party leader Nazli Javed said feudal lords did not marry their daughters to avoid transfer of land ownership. Even the government coming to power with slogans of ‘Roti, Kapra aur Makan’ had failed to honour its promises.

Women Workers Helpline secretary-general Bushra Khaliq said women were often deprived of their right to inherit land on the ground that they were given their share in inheritance in the form of dowry at the time of marriage. She said dowry could not be treated as share in inheritance because it was a gift of the parents for daughters.

Thanks

Bushra Khaliq

General Secretary

Women Workers Help Line

25/A Davis Road,Lahore,Pakistan.

Ph: 092-42-6363915

fax: 092-42-6363944

E-mail: wwhlpk yahoo.com