TIMERGARA: Women lawmaker Meraj Hamayun and rights activists on Friday called upon the civil society and government institutions to play their role for ending domestic violence against women and ensuring their participation in the political process.

They were addressing a function after inaugurating the office of District Committee on the Status of Women here on Friday. The function was organised by Association for Behaviour and Knowledge Transformation (ABKT), an NGO.

MPA Meraj Humayun, AKBT executive director Shad Begum, additional secretary social welfare, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Adil Shah, assistant commissioner Mohammad Ayaz and social officers from Lower Dir, Upper Dir and Malakand spoke on the occasion. They said that democracy in Pakistan could not be strengthened until womenfolk participated in political activities.

`It is a wrong perception that educating women is leading the society towards imbalance,` the MPA said, adding that she would raise women`s issues in the provincial assembly.

Shad Begum said that the provincial government in collaboration with ABKT had been establishing DCSWs on district level to get rights for the women in Dir and Malakand Agency.

`These committees would help resolve problems of women in the area,` she said. Shad Begum said that Pakhtuns in many areas were still not ready to recognise the rights of women.

Also in the day a seminar on dispute resolution and peace was jointly organised here by the South Asia Partnership Pakistan and Timergara campus of Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan.

Department of sociology chairman Prof Himad, Sarhad Rural Support Programme`s representative Ms Shaheen and SAP-PK programme officer Kashif on this occasion asked the students to come forward and play active role in ending petty disputes between rival parties in their respective areas. Correspondent