ISLAMABAD, OCT 14 /DNA/ – For the first time Election Commission of Pakistan in collaboration with NADRA has made it mandatory with visits of mobile registration vans (MRVs) to ensure registration of transgender persons and people-with-disabilities at their doorstep to make political processes inclusive.

This was stated by Nighat Siddique, Director General Gender Affairs, ECP here at Lok Virsa during the 2nd day of 15th Annual Rural Women Conference organized by PODA – Pakistan in Islamabad..

However, there are other facilities like preferential voting procedure and postal ballot facility which can be used actively by old people, transgender persons and people-with-disabilities (PWDs).

The rural women representing 120 districts of the country urged all political parties to allocate 50 percent ticket to women candidates in elections from national, provincial to local level.

PODA-Pakistan has been organizing annual rural women conference since 2008 in connection with the International Rural Women Day that is observed on 15th of October every year. The conference provides where rural women and their leadership bring their issues and solutions on the front vocally for change to reduce gender gap in every sphere of life. This is the consecutive 15th conference in which rural women from 120 districts of the country have gathered urging policymakers to optimize women’s role and contributions in the overall progress of the country.

Ms. Nighat Siddique applauded the role of the civil society and the government institutions which played crucial role in reducing the gender gap in voter registration from 10 percent to 8.6 percent. “To reduce the existing gap of seven hundred thousand between women and men voters, Election Commission of Pakistan in collaboration with National Database Registration Authorityhas decided to extend CNIC (Computerized National Identity Card) and voter registration facilities to 13 more districts in Balochistan.

With this we are also focusing on enhancing registration in newly merged districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” said Nighat Siddique,DG, ECP addressing a vibrant audience of rural women over 600 hundred representing 120 districts of the country.

The session was focused on “Developing Rural Women’s Linkages with Disability Working Group of the Election Commission”. For this session ECP partnered with PODA-Pakistan. ECP has setup a stall to demonstrate entire voting process at the conference venue. 

This is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan is one of the most unequal countries in the world for women, ranked at 153 out of 156 countries (WEF 2021).

Earlier, representing four provinces and regions of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, wide range  rural women leaders sharedtheir testimonies to highlight problems and suggest indigenous practical solutions. Rural women who shared their local issues with the ECP representative included, Sughra Bano from Sahiwal, Bismillah Irum, Khanewal, Veru Kolan, Hyderabad, Naheeda Abbasi, Chakwal, Raheema Sultana, Rawapindi, Shazia Jamil Lasbela, Saima Batool, Vehari, Mehak Butt, Multan, Qaisra Isamil, Nosheen, NMDs, KPK, and Shahida Irshad from Quetta.

Later, during the second half of the day’s proceedings, Dr. Robina stressed the need to set minimum age for marriage 18 years to save girls from a wide range of emotional, physical and psychological illnesses. She narrated a dismal picture of the girls who get married at early age in all regions of Pakistan. “At the moment there are 35000 girls with fistula that is an implication of early age marriages among girls.

 The girls affected by this condition during child birth are forced to live with animals because  they are not able to control their urine. This happensamong due to early marriages.” Dr. Robina advocated strongly saving girls from the social of curse of child marriage especially in flood-affected areas. “

Sharing miseries of flood victims of people of Swat, Rukhsana Jahengir said “my Swat is in pain due to the sufferings and loss caused by current floods in the area. People are in dire need of help of all kinds.” Amna Jamali briefed about the situation of the flood-affected areas of Balochistan.

Observing International Rural Women Day tomorrow, the 15th Annual Rural Women Conference will be concluded on a pledge to work for an inclusive society. Speakers and panelists  lauded the efforts of PODA-Pakistan to connect rural women of four provinces and regions of AJK and GB.

MuzhatShirin, Chairperson Sindh Commission on the Status of Women also shared information about the flood victims.

LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: After an almost day-long outage, the Power Division on Friday said that electricity transmission and generation have been restored across the country adding that only routine power load-shedding is being carried.

“Electricity transmission and generation have been restored across Pakistan including restoration of full supply from national grid to Karachi,” the division said in a statement.

Power outage yet to be controlled

Earlier today, sources within the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) had said that the countrywide power crisis, caused due to an “accidental fault” in the national grid, had not been controlled yet. 

Sources in the NTDC said that it was a major breakdown and could not be controlled even after 24 hours as the authorities have yet to identify the fault.  

The sources added that cities have been facing four hours of loadshedding while rural areas are suffering from a 12-hour-long power outage.

Meanwhile, power plants have not been fully energised and the country still faces a 4,500MW power shortfall while the frequency fluctuation is making things more complex.

The electricity is being restored from the power plants slowly to the system, said the sources. They added that this is the 16th breakdown in the last 10 years. 

Large parts of the country were in dark for more than 12 hours on Thursday after a fault was detected in the national grid’s southern transmission system.

Energy Minister Khurram Dastagir said that an “accidental fault” triggered the breakdown and announced the establishment of a committee to probe the matter and submit a report within four days.

‘Power supply will improve’

Meanwhile, the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) spokesperson said that the electricity demand in the region is 1,280MW while the national grid is supplying 1,080MW.

Once the electricity supply is back to normal, the situation will improve, said the spokesperson. 

‘Power supply stabilised in Karachi’

In a statement, K-Electric said that the supply of electricity in Karachi was restored in a phase-wise manner. 

KE began phase-wise restoration efforts with first priority on strategic installations such as KWSB pumping stations, airports, and hospitals, said the power utility. 

Later, the supply was diverted to residential areas including but not limited to PECHS, Orangi, Lyari, Ibrahim Hyderi, Nazimabad, and Defence Housing Authority.

The technical constraints at the national grid may persist over the next 48 hours and to manage the constraints, KE may temporarily curtail power supply to industrial zones during nighttime hours to facilitate residential areas.

The power supply company said it may also have to conduct loadshedding.

ISLAMABAD, OCT 14 (DNA) — Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif met with President of Belarus, H.E Alexander Lukashenko, on the sidelines of 6th Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Astana, the PM office said on Friday.

During the meeting, the two leaders reviewed ongoing bilateral cooperation and exchanged views on regional and international issues of mutual interest, according to an official statement.

President Lukashenko said that Belarus would provide all possible support towards rehabilitation  of people affected by the climate induced floods, that had caused an unprecedented devastation in Pakistan.

The Prime Minister expressed Pakistan’s desire to further strengthen friendly ties between Pakistan and Belarus by broadening interaction in all possible areas of cooperation. The two sides agreed to hold the next session of Pakistan-Belarus Joint Economic Commission at the earliest and ensure a fitting follow up, which would  provide a fillip to bilateral economic engagement.

While discussing regional issues, both leaders reiterated mutual desire to promote peace, stability and cooperation.

The two leaders had earlier met on the sidelines of SCO Summit in Samarkand on 15th September 2022. Leadership level interaction twice in a month reflects the keen desire on both sides to enhance mutually beneficial cooperation in diverse areas. =DNA

ISLAMABAD, OCT 14 /DNA/ – Pakistan Hotels Association’s annual election results were announced at its 58th annual general meeting, held on September 30, 2022. The following Office Bearers have been elected for the term 2022-23

Mustansir Zakir as Chairman, Mian Akram Farid as Senior Vice Chairman, Mr. Faisal Qayyum Khan as Vice Chairman North, and Mr. Abdul Jabbar Rathod as Vice Chairman South.

Mr. Mustansir Zakir has been elected as Chairman, who is associated with Hashoo Group for more than 25 years, and is the CEO of Hashwani Hotels Limited, the owners and operators of Islamabad & Karachi Marriott Hotels and Zaver Pearl-Continental Hotel Gwadar.

Mr. Zakir is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) and Associate Member of the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICAM).

He has done his certification in Hospitality and Strategic Management from Cornell University, USA. Mr. Zakir has remained Chairman and Executive Committee Member of PHA in the past as well, playing a vital role in the hospitality sector on behalf of the Pakistan Hotels Association.

Islamabad, OCT 14 /DNA/ – Chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed has emphasized the significance of teachers’ contribution for a holistic development of Pakistani society and has urged the teaching community to become proactive in bringing the much-needed behavioral change for country’s real progress.

Addressing the closing ceremony of the National Faculty Development Programme (NFDP) for participants of Interim Placement of Fresh PhDs Programme (IPFP) held at HEC Islamabad, he highlighted how the Western world transformed in the preceding centuries due to the effective role played by their teachers and the educational institutions.

As many as 21 PhD Fellows from all over Pakistan attended the Cohort-II of NFDP 2022. The programme has been designed in 10 core modules related to teaching, academic research and professional practices. Successful fellows are placed in public sector higher education institutions for a period of one year.

The Chairman said, “It is unfortunate that we, as Muslims, have forgotten the message of our Prophet (SAW) about the importance of knowledge and learning. I have a firm belief that the positive and constructive role of our teachers and religious scholars can change the fate of our nation.”

Highlighting the critical role of higher education institutions to integrate with the society, Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed told the participants that they are the chosen ones for a very noble cause. “I request you to become the real change agents and set the direction of our youth for a peaceful and prosperous Pakistan. No doubt you must excel in your respective disciplines, but as teachers your prime focus should be the personal and professional development of your students who will become the future of Pakistan.”

Earlier in his opening remarks, Engr. Muhammad Raza Chohan, Adviser (Academics, Curriculum and NAHE) HEC highlighted the importance of NFDP and advised the participants to gain maximum benefits from what they have learned during this programme. Mr. Chohan emphasized the significance of skillful and well-equipped teachers for improving the quality and standards of higher education.

Representatives of NFDP participants thanked HEC for organizing this programme which, they said, will not only help them in setting clear goals for themselves but has also given them an orientation about best teaching and learning practices.

Islamabad, OCT 14 /DNA/ – Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari, President, Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) said that a large number of women businesses have been destroyed in flood-hit areas due to which women entrepreneurs are facing great hardships and urged that the federal and provincial governments should come forward to provide support to businesswomen of rural areas in reviving their businesses. He said this while addressing the 15^th Annual Rural Women Leadership Conference 2022 organized by ICCI in collaboration with National Commission on the Status of Women and Potohar Organization for Development Advocacy (PODA). Women from four provinces of Pakistan, Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Kashmir attended the event.

Ahsan Bakhtawari said that ICCI is ready to connect the women entrepreneurs of rural areas with online platforms like Amazon so that they could get easy access to international markets to improve exports and earn more foreign exchange for the country. He assured that ICCI can organize exhibitions of the products of rural businesswomen to showcase their potential for trade export.  

Nilofar Bakhtiar, Chairperson, National Commission on the Status of Women in her address said that economic empowerment and financial inclusion of women is the best option to reduce poverty and promote prosperity in the country. She shared the initiatives of her organization to promote gender equality and empowerment of women. She thanked ICCI for hosting the women conference and hoped that such conferences would help change the role of rural women from vulnerability to change makers by building linkages and partnerships with others.

Sameena Nazir, Founding President, PODA said that women entrepreneurs in rural areas are exporting their products to many countries, but the destruction of their businesses due to recent floods have created financial problems for them. She stressed that all stakeholders including the government should support them in reviving their businesses. She further emphasized that the government should take measures to empower the women of rural areas of Pakistan that would equip them with the confidence to stand up and claim their equal place in society.

Many women entrepreneurs from rural areas of Pakistan shared their success stories and highlighted the issues being faced by them in running business activities in rural areas.Azhar ul Islam Zafar Vice President ICCI, Zafar Bakhtawari, Zubair Ahmed Malik, Muhammad Ejaz Abbasi, Ms. Fatima Azim, Ms. Parveen Khan, Ms. Nasira Ali and others were also present at the occasion.