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.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP