The Women’s Parliamentary Caucus (WPC), a high-level parliamentary body formed on February 25, 2014, to enhance the role of female members of the Sindh Assembly for promoting social, economic and political empowerment of women through legislation and oversight, got a well-equipped office on Thursday.
The office will help the WPC play its required legal role under a project, titled ‘Policy Advocacy and Research to Strengthen Implementation of Pro-Women Legislation and GBV Response Services in Sindh’, implemented by the Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO) and supported by Trocaire and the Australian government.
The SPO organised the inauguration ceremony of the office of the WPC with the support of Women Parliamentary Caucus members on Thursday in the Sindh Assembly by providing necessary furniture and fixture like computers, multimedia, chairs, tables, internet devices, scanner, printer, ACs and other items proposed by the patron and convener of the caucus. Besides it, the SPO also deployed a team of four research associates with the support of the Subai Project to support members of the parliamentary body in research, documentation and preparing resolutions.
The support aimed at providing office environment to the WPC and women legislatures to conduct meetings and respond to the challenges encountered by the women of the province by serving its objectives. The implementation of the objectives of the WPC would help in enabling the women parliamentary body to work beyond and above the party line for uplift of the women of Sindh, proposing gender sensitive legislation, ensuring implementation of provincial, national, regional and international commitments, exchanging views and information with other caucuses, civil society organisations, ensuring women’s continued access to and participation in the provincial assembly.
WPC Patron and Sindh Assembly Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza warmly appreciated the needful support of the SPO in the establishment of the WPC office through the government of Australia to serve its overall objectives for women empowerment.
The well-equipped WPC office will help us to get together in one place with focused agenda and to record the meeting minutes to follow for implementation.
Shehla Raza welcomed the efforts of the SPO under the project to establish pro-women structures for effective responses to women empowerment issues in Sindh. The well-composed and settled structures would help in minimising the sufferings of the women in Sindh under pro-women laws, she said.
During the ceremony, shields were awarded to women caucus office-bearers in recognition of their services to women political empowerment.
The inauguration ceremony was attended by WPC office- bearers, members, legislators of the Sindh Assembly, the SPO, Trocaire representatives, civil society members and members of the Provincial Steering Forum (PSF).
WPC Convener Saira Shahliani, MPA, PPP, Secretary General Rana Anasar, MPA MQM, and members of the working council from different political parties, including the PPP, MQM, PML-F and PTI, actively participated in the meeting.
Former chief minster Qaim Ali Shah, senior legislatures Nisar Khuhro, Dr Sikandar Mandhro and Nand Lal attended the event.
