I WOULD like to congratulate the speaker of the Balochistan Assembly for setting up a daycare centre at the assembly to help mothers participate in the session without worrying about their children.

This is a great step towards women empowerment. More workplaces should accommodate their female employees with such facilities. I applaud MPA Mahjabeen Shireen for bringing her infant to the assembly and creating awareness about this issue. Initially she was criticised by her colleagues for bringing her child to work. The MPA, however, citied women politicians of other countries taking their children to parliamentary sessions and thought it would be the same in Pakistan.However, to her disappointment, Ms Shireen was told that bringing children to the assembly was against the law.

Following the negative response from the provincial political circle, Ms Shireen said that she had decided to run a campaign to establish daycare facilities in assemblies as well as in all government departments.

On Thursday, Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan Alyani decided to establish a daycare centre on the Balochistan Assembly premises to provide women parliamentarians the facility to bring their children to work.

I hope this will be replicated in other provinces as well. It will encourage more young mothers to bring their children to work.

The Pakistan Pediatric Association recommends that there should be legislation which allows a daycare centre to be set up as long as there are a minimum of five women with children working at an organisation or business.

Dr Mumtaz Lakhani Pakistan Pediatric Association Karachi