KARACHI: Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shahhas said thatSindhis the hrstprovince ofthe country thathas prepared abillforlegislation to protect rights of the home-based workers (HBWs) in the province for which a bill will be tabled in the next session of assembly.

Besides, implementation of other projects aimed at empowering women, encouraging girls` education. Programmes for women development were the other achievements of the Sindh government that had paved the way for gender equality, economic empowerment and prosperity of women.

The chief minister stated this while talking to a three-member United Nations delegation led by Jamshed M. Kazi, country representative, which called on the chief minister at CM House on Monday. The other two members were Mehwish M. Shah and Uzma.

`The Sindh government is against the jirga system and taking action against this practice to ensure that justice be provided to eachindividual according to the law of land without any discrimination of caste, creed or gender,` he added.

The chief minister informed the delegation that Benazir Bhutto was the only leader in Pakistan who had taken care of women`s education and empowerment. He said that under her vision, the Sindh government had provided 6.5 million acres of fertile land with seeds, fertilisers etc to landless women farmers for their economic empowerment.

Besides, the Sindh government had established separate universities for women and was going to establish a girls` cadet college in Shaheed Benazirabad. With the result of that the number of girls` enrolment in colleges and universities was higher than that of boys, he said and added that `we have also encouraged girls by establishing a separate women commando force in the Sindh police, in addition to their regular recruitment.

He said that even the government had posted a woman as district police head. He further that the Sindh government was also providing stipends to girl students to raise girls enrollment at the primary and second-ary levels and encouraging them by providing jobs on completion of their studies on a competition basis rather than a quota system.

`Sometimes we give priority to female candidates in case of backward areas such as Tharparkar district,` he said.

Similarly, he said, Sindh was the first province which had worked out and finalised the bill for legislation to provide protection to the homed-based workers in the province and that bill would be tabled in the next session of the Sindh Assembly.

He said the government was against the jirga system and took action against such assemblies. He said the Sindh women development department was implementing different women development projects. He invited the delegation to visit those projects for their firsthand information.

The chief minister deputed his adviser on culture Sharmila Farooqui and MPA Robina Qaimkhani not only to brief the delegation on the achievements of the Sindh government for women but also help them in their visit to those schemes and in interaction with women beneficiaries.