ISLAMABAD, Dec 10 (APP):Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr. Shireen M Mazari on Friday held a meeting with Balochistan Minister for Human Rights and Minorities Khalil Gorge Francis here at Ministry of Human Rights, Islamabad. Federal Secretary for Human Rights Inamullah Khan was also present in this meeting.
The provincial minister described that Balochistan government has apportioned funds of Rs 1.6 billion to different projects under the subject of human rights and human development and they have successfully accomplished the tasks of establishing required infrastructure and appointment of administrative head of the department.
He requested the federal minister for extending the technical assistance from the forum of her ministry to build up links between Balochistan and Sindh governments for better coordination concerning human rights issues.
He expressed that the incumbent government in Balochistan was working exceedingly to resolve the issues of harassment, forced conversions, minorities related issues and it is planning to build a district level coordination network to resolve the human rights issues under the provincial department of Human Rights.
The federal minister stated that her ministry would help to make connections of provincial government in Balochistan with international donors like EU, UNESCO, UN-Women and UNDP for building set-ups of protection centers for women and transgender persons. She mentioned that her ministry was not getting the actual data from Balochistan that was causing major hurdle to proceed.
The federal secretary for Human Rights informed that recently a series of sensitization workshops have been conducted in all the four provinces by Ministry of Human Rights under an awareness program on Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2018 and Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Act 2020.
In addition to this he told that Legal Aid and Justice Authority has been established to provide legal and financial assistance and this organization can be approached by all kinds of needy and deserving women including acid attack victims.
At the end, the federal minister desired that Balochistan government should establish the women protection centers on replica model of the one that is established in Islamabad and steps must be taken to empower the provincial Commission for Human Rights in Balochistan to undertake all such issues to authorities concerned for speedy redressal and resolution.
