ISLAMABAD - Supreme Court Judge, Justice Tariq Pervez, has said that Pakistani society is one of those third societies where women have been given equal protection and rights.
He was addressing the senior civil judges/civil judges/judges of the family courts from all over Pakistan including Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, in the inaugural ceremony of one-week training course on “Gender Sensitisation with Special Focus on Family Laws” at the Federal Judicial Academy (FJA), Islamabad, on Monday.
He said, “In today’s Pakistan women are everywhere. They are in every walk of life. They are being commissioned in the armed forces including the army and air force. You see right here in the judiciary, they are here with you. In such a scenario, sometimes this subject of gender sensitisation appears irrelevant.”
Shedding light on the background and rationale of gender sensitisation he said that it dated back to Adam and Eve and that rationale behind it was to provide equal opportunities and rights to women also to acknowledge their rights.
“Adam and Eve were created equal and with their creation there was the growth of the population. In order to protect Eve, so that Eve shall have the protection from powerful ones, so that there should not be “Might is Right”. There was a social Contract and under which the state has to protect its citizens. This gender sensitisation creates the sensitivity about women and their rights”, he maintained.
Regarding gender sensitisation in Islam he said that Islam is a unique religion, which has given equal rights and protection to the womenfolk in the society.
“Look at ‘khula’, the right which Islam has given to women to seek divorce” he pointed out. On the occasion, he gave a topic to the participants titled, “Divorces are increasing in our society. Who is responsible husband/wife/ courts or some other factor for it,” for their intellectual input in which the winners, the first and second position holders, of this essay competition would be given away prize on behalf of Chief Justice of Pakistan.
Twenty-four Judicial Officers are undergoing this one-week training at the Academy.