ISLAMABAD, Oct 13 (APP):Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqabl on Thursday said woman’s role in the rehabilitation process in flood hit areas would be vital as the rehabilitation and reconstruction process would not be possible without their support.
“The incumbent government was bent upon providing equal opportunities to womenfolk to actively engage in development process of the country”, Ahsan Iqbal said while addressing the opening ceremony of Annual Rural Women Leadership in Disaster Risk Reduction Conference here.
He said women played vital role in development of any country and the development process of such countries remained slow where the women are not given equal opportunities.
He said planning and development was not based only on building roads, infrastructures etc, but one of the most important aspect was planning to include women in the country’s development process.
Keeping in view this importance, he said the planning ministry has established a gender unit in which all development projects would be planned according to gender’s perspective so that the projects should not be approved without ensuring the interests of the women.
Ahsan Iqbal said bringing women to the mainstream process was vital to minimize gender inequality in the society.
He said Pakistan was facing huge disaster due to the climate change and the women and children are the most vulnerable in such condition. Even when the rehabilitation starts, women are not included in such process, he added.
The minister said one-third of Pakistan had been affected, and 33 million people were directly affected due the the disaster caused by floods and torrential rains. Similarly, over 2 million houses were damaged and over 1700 people lost their lives,
He said without any doubt, this is the biggest calamity in any country in the recent era.
The minister informed that by October 24, the final figures of damage need assessment would be finalized and on the basis of those figures, the government would hold an International Donor Conference to seek support from the world because what he said no country was able to tackle such a huge disaster on its own.
He aid during his visit to Pakistan, the United Nations Secretary General also stressed the world to focus on such climate injustice in Pakistan because the people were the climate victims and this disaster was mainly due to the irresponsible development process of the development countries.
He said the federal government and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was fully supporting the provincial governments and the provincial disaster management authorities to tackle with the flood damages.
He said the government had allocated extra Rs 70 billion to support the beneficiaries of Benazir Income Support Programe (BISP) in the flood hit areas.
Furthermore, the federal government was also contributing Rs 9 billion to provide wheat seeds for sowing in the flood hit areas.
The government, he said would also provide maximum support to the provinces to ensure reducing malnutrition among the children and mothers in such areas.
