UNITED NATIONS  - Pakistan has told a UN panel that the incumbent government is concentrating on economic empowerment projects to create income-generating activities for women.
Speaking in a high-level round-table meeting, Pakistan’s chief delegate to the current session of the Status of Women, Fiza Batool Gilani, enumerated the benefits that such women were being supported by Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP).
Fiza Gilani, who is Pakistan’s Goodwill Ambassador for Women Empowerment, commented that besides cash grant of $12 per month, rural women had access to micro credit, skill development, health insurance and educational stipend for girls.
“It (the programme) is not only contributing to the income of seven million families across the country but has also empowered women by channelling cash transfers through them.” Between the establishment of BISP in July 2008 and November 2011, over 12 million women were given CNIC, about 70% of them from rural areas, she added.