WOMEN PUBLIC MEETING IN PUNJAB W

WOMEN PUBLIC MEETING IN PUNJAB WILL ALSO BE A HUGE SUCCESS: ALTAF HUSSAIN

LAHORE: 25^TH FEBRUARY 2012:

Founder and Leader of Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) has said that the MQM would hold a public meeting of women in the Punjab that would have no parallel. He said that the meeting of the women would show that the mothers and sisters of the Punjab were in no way less than the women of Sindh. He said this while talking to the office-bearers of the MQM Punjab Zone in Lahore

.Mr Hussain congratulated the workers of the Punjab, particularly the women on the success of historic public meeting of women in Karachi. He asked all the zone and district level office-bearers of the MQM in the Punjab, especially the women, to start preparations for the women public meeting in the Punjab by organizing small corner meetings in cities and villages. Mr Hussain asked the women to prove by making the women public meeting in Punjab a huge success in order to achieve their rights and a dignified status in the society that they there no less capable of running the affairs of the state than men.

Mr Hussain said that there was a growing awareness in the country that it was necessary to give women their rights, a dignified status in the society and empowering them for a strong Pakistan and a welfare society. Workers and office-bearers present in the Punjab House congratulated Mr Hussain on the success of the women public meeting in Karachi and said that the women there had enlivened the women in the Punjab by participating in the meeting in hundreds of thousands. They said that the women in the Punjab also wanted to come forward for their rights.

The workers said that the women in the Punjab would also make a history by making the women public successful.

RESTRAINING WOMEN FROM TAKING PART IN DEMOCRATIC PROCESS IS HIGHLY CONDEMNABLE: ALTAF HUSSAIN

STOPPING WOMEN TO CAST VOTE IS UTTER VIOLATION OF THEIR RIGHTS

LONDON: 25^TH FEBRUARY 2012:

Founder and Leader of Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) Mr Altaf Hussain has decried the act of stopping women from exercise their right to vote and termed it as abhorrent to the spirit of democracy. He said that it was utter violation of women rights. He said that certain feudal lords and chieftains had prevented women from casting their votes in the by-elections which was highly reprehensible. He said that the vote was a national trust and the elements betraying this trust should be dealt with strongly in accordance with law. He demanded of President Asif Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani, and Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik to take stern notice of forcefully depriving the women of their right to cast vote in the by-elections. He said that the elements responsible for usurping the rights of the women should be arrested and reo-polling should be held in those areas where women were not allowed to vote. Restraining women from taking part in the democratic process should be condemned at all levels.