City Desk
Islamabad : On the second day of PODA’s 19th Annual Rural Women Leadership Training Conference, around 1,000 rural women leaders from about 120 districts heard speakers address electoral participation, violence against women and access to justice.
The Election Commission’s DG Gender and Social Inclusion, Nighat Siddique, said the gender gap on electoral rolls fell from 11.8 percent in 2017 to 6.4 percent in 2026, though about nine million women remain unregistered. She said the ECP’s female staff rose from 42 to 242, and that the ECP and NADRA will offer doorstep registration through mobile vans, with ID cards issuable without a birth certificate or Form-B until June 2027. Women leaders stressed continuing barriers to legal identity documents and to voting freely.
A second session focused on preventing violence against women and girls. The ambassadors of Ireland and Germany stressed prevention, the rule of law and encouraging survivors to report abuse. Federal Ombudsperson Fauzia Viqar urged women to report workplace harassment, noting it is underreported and that the law covers work-related travel and locations. NCSW Chairperson Noureen Bano Lehri highlighted work with the Supreme Court, removal of online abusers and awareness sessions for boys.
Provincial commission heads from Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan raised digital violence, weak implementation of laws and fear of family reaction. Balochistan’s chair shared helpline 1089. Rukhshanda Naz brought over ten lawyers offering free legal aid, and Sindh women lawyers reported growth in Hyderabad division from roughly 700-800 to over 7,000.
