Women must vote to support democratic process: Shahida
By Mona Khan

ISLAMABAD—Minister for Women Development Barrister Shahida Jamil stressed the crucial importance of women’s vote in a bid to support democraticprocess through motivating women to exercise their right to vote.
She was addressing the participants of forum on`Motivate Women to Vote’ organized by Ministry of Women Development (MoWD) here at local hotel.
Shahida Jamil highlighting the objective of workshop said that it was aimed at building diverse stakeholder together to debate and come up with ideas as how to engage, sensitize and encourage women to widely vote across the country.
It would further brainstorm on a common strategic approach, agree on a list of suggestions to the government as well as to strengthen coordination and networking for motivation of women to cast their vote in the upcoming general elections.
Mehmood Saleem Mehmood, Secretary Ministry for WomenDevelopment (MoWD) said on the occasion that women being an important segment of society comprised more than 50 percent of the total population need proper awareness about their rights.
To promote awareness regarding motivating women forcasting vote, he said programmes and ads are shown through electronic and print media.
The representatives from diverse organizations withexperience in the participation of women in electoral process attended the Forum.
Representatives from the public sector, donor agencies, academia, NGOs and civil society joined hands and came up with a common approach for a high women voterturnout.
The representatives of the Forum include Chairperson National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) Dr. Arifa Syeda, Tasneem Ahmar Director AKS, Sajid Qaisarani and Tahira Abdullah from Aurat Foundation, Arifa SUNGI Dr. Firoza Ahmad, Marvi Sarmad and others.