LAHORE: Jamaat-i-Islami emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman says the Punjab government has failed to protect women and provide them with basic services as inflation has left households struggling to put food on the table while women and children face growing insecurity.Addressing a women`s gathering at the JI sit-in outside the CM House on The Mall on Saturday, he said women were participating in in the party`s protest in large numbers because inflation had placed an unbearable burden on families. Mothers, he added, were cutting back on their own needs to pay their children`s school fees while many households had been forced to struggle for basic food.

He said Punjab had failed to provide women with adequate protection despite having a woman chief minister. More than 4,500 rape cases involvingwomen were reported in the province last year, but onlyfour out of every 1,000 accused were convicted,he pointed out.

The JI leader said that around eight million girls were out of school in Punjab and that the province`s literacy rate was no higher than 70pc. He said girls constituted around 60pc of out-ofschool children, compared to 40pc boys.

`The Punjab government has deprived our daughters of their basic right to education,` he said, adding that the provincial government had outsourced 11,000 girls` schools.Regarding the healthcare, Mr Rehman said women graduating as doctors were not receiving theirdue shareofhouse jobsand qualified doctors were struggling to find decent employment.

The JI chief said Pakistan had around 85m workers, including nearly 30m women, many of whom worked in factories and agricultural fields, yet minimum wages had not been properly determined for millions of women in Punjab.

He mentioned the lady health workers who were protesting over their rights.

He declared that the JI protest would continue until the government withdrew the petroleum levy. He warned that the party would expand its campaign into a nationwide shutdown strike and long march if the government refused to accept its demands. The JI emir linked the country`s economic hardship to rising poverty, saying that more than 40pc of Pakistanis were living below the poverty line.

Poverty, he added, had increased by 33pc nationally over the past six years and by 41pc in Punjab.

Addressing CMMaryam directly, he said the Punjab government would have to confront people`s problems rather than rely on `showpiece measures`.

He also criticised the purchase of an aircraft costing Rs11bn, contrasting what he described as lavish spending by rulers with the sacrifices made by ordinary mothers to educate their children.

Acting Secretary General of JI`s Women`s Wing Samina Saeed, Deputy Secretary Sameeha Razig Qazi, Central Punjab Women`s Wing chief Nazia Tauheed, North Punjab chief Samina Ehsan and Lahore chief Uzma Imran also spoke.