Pressure on mobile cos in AJK to terminate female staff

LAHORE - Instead of ensuring equal job opportunities to women in a congenial and fully secure environment, law enforcement authorities are exerting pressure on cellular companies to terminate the services of their female staff in order to avoid the wrath of extremist groups active in Azad Jammu & Kashmir, The Nation learnt on Thursday.
Sources in the cellular companies confided to The Nation that in a letter sent to the local franchises of mobile phone companies doing business in the area, SP Poonch/Rawalakot, has instructed that all female staff must be relieved of their duties with immediate effect.
The letter cites unrest in the civil society due to girls working in these offices as the reason for this directive, sources added.
The sources said that this notice is clear gender discrimination and against the laws of the land which ensures women full participation in all spheres of national life. Moreover, such instructions from a sensitive government office only serve to undermine the national level efforts of the government to promote gender equality, they maintained.
An employee working at a mobile franchise in Rawalakot seeking anonymity told The Nation that there was no threat of extremists attack on any office having female staff in the area neither they have received any anonymous letter or nay note to terminate female staff from the company.
He said that they never received any tragic reminder of the risks like facing companies and girls school in northern areas every day, who are struggling amid the insecurity to receive their right to education.
He called upon all the law enforcement authorities to exercise their responsibility and duty to ensure that mobile phone offices remain safe havens for female staff to attend, learn and work.
Instead of finding appropriate strategy to provide them security the police have started to exert pressure on local cellular companies to terminate the services of their female staff, he observed.
He said that families, who had their girls working in the mobile local offices, have been shocked by the notice of police and have kept their daughters at home indefinitely, he pointed out.
Sources in the mobile companies told The Nation that presently around 10 to 12 offices, including franchises are operating in the whole Azad Jammu & Kashmir, while every office consists of at least 25 per cent female staff of the total employees who are working there.
And after receiving this letter the girls staff in these offices have started worrying about their jobs, considering that they might not able to find any other such job in the area, they added.
Ironically, President Asif Ali Zardari, in his address on International Womens Day on March 7,2009, had said, The present government feels a special responsibility towards issues relating to women. It considers promotion of womens rights as a religious, moral and political obligation. The introduction of Benazir Income Support Program with focus on women is a step in the direction of empowering women of the country.
Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilanis message on the same occasion echoed similar thoughts, No nation can afford to ignore women as they form almost fifty percent of the worlds population. The government, in line with the vision of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed, is determined to enable women to play their due role in the socio-economic development of Pakistan.