Rs500m to be spent on curbing river erosion
Provincial Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique said while presiding over a meeting on Thursday that schemes had been approved to protect vulnerable areas from river erosion, including settlements in Mandi Bahauddin, Layyah and Jhang. PDMA Director General Irfan Ali Kathia briefed the participants on anti-erosion measures and strengthening of river embankments.
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Express Tribune
a day ago
- Express Tribune
Punjab to build homes for those who build industry
The Punjab cabinet has approved a plan to provide 1,220 residential flats to industrial workers. Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz said while presiding over a cabinet meeting, "Workers will get flats in the Labour Complex Sundar, Kasur, and Labour Colony Taxila through balloting." She rejected a proposal to collect price of the flats from workers and directed the authorities concerned to take immediate steps to build 3,000 more apartments for the industrial labourers. The cabinet also approved an increase in the minimum monthly salary of workers in skilled, semi-skilled and other categories to Rs40,000. It approved, for the first time in Punjab, comprehensive rules for the safety of workers. The CM said, "Punjab should approve Occupational Safety and Health Rules 2024." She directed then authorities concerned to ensure safety of employees working on sewerage lines and at construction sites. She directed the labour department to form an enforcement force to ensure the safety of workers. She highlighted, "Just making laws is not enough; implementation is necessary at all levels. Lives of poor workers and labourers are also precious. We will ensure their safety at all cost." The provincial cabinet also approved the draft of the Punjab Restriction on Employment of Children Rules 2024 to prevent child labour. The chief minister announced a reward of Rs50,000 each for rescue workers performing flood duties. The cabinet lauded Rescue 1122 for flood relief operations after torrential rains. An allocation of Rs2.6 billion to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) for the rehabilitation of flood-affected people was approved. It also approved official assessment of grade V and exams of grade VIII students in Punjab. The provincial cabinet approved lifelong pension to employees' widows. The chief minister directed the relevant authorities to establish regular industries for prisoners. She said, "Prisoners working as laborers will also get wages." She also issued directives to introduce a third-party monitoring system in jails. She ordered promotion of investment in the province by approving the establishment of petrol pumps upon the submission of six documents instead of the current 16. She said, "Investors will be able to get NOC by applying online." The cabinet approved the implementation of a uniform procedure for the appointment of treasurers, registrars and controllers of examinations in government and private universities. Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz directed the relevant authorities to take necessary steps for monitoring the audit reports across Punjab. The cabinet agreed to a proposal regarding hiring for the appointment of vice chancellors and a condition of 80% marks. The CM said an artificial intelligence-based traffic management system would be implemented on the province's roads within 90 days. She directed the authorities to ensure immediate implementation of a load management system and approved the establishment of WASA in five divisions. The CM said Water and Sanitation Agencies would be established in 13 more cities. The cabinet approved paid internships for nurses in government hospitals. The CM announced that 99% recovery of Kisan Card loans had been achieved in the first phase.
Business Recorder
6 days ago
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Challenging dominant ideology of patriarchy
EDITORIAL: That the scourge of toxic patriarchy has long made life a relentless battle for women in Pakistan — curbing their freedoms, crushing their agency and denying them basic rights in homes, workplaces, courts, and corridors of power — is a brutal reality that demands urgent reckoning. It is highly welcome then that the Supreme Court's July 23 verdict directly confronts one facet of this deeply entrenched patriarchal mindset, unequivocally condemning the cruel and discriminatory weaponisation of a woman's infertility as a means to strip her of rights guaranteed under Pakistani law. Chief Justice Yahya Afridi, while dismissing a petition in which a husband had challenged his wife's right to maintenance and dower, castigated him for the sheer cruelty he inflicted upon her, not just in marriage but through prolonged litigation. The petitioner had abandoned his wife within a year of their union and failed to provide any support or maintenance thereafter. Years later, when she turned to the courts seeking recovery of her dowry, maintenance and dower, he responded with some vindictive claims, alleging she was medically unfit for conjugal duties, incapable of bearing children, and effectively challenged her identity as a woman under the law to deny her rightful legal entitlements. This deeply offensive and baseless claim, disproven by medical evidence, formed the crux of his legal strategy. In doing so, he subjected his estranged wife to years of public humiliation, emotional trauma and highly invasive medical examinations through three tiers of court, causing the judicial process itself to become a tool of degradation. In his seven-page order, where the petitioner was also fined Rs500,000 for his malicious assertions, the chief justice made it unequivocally clear that infertility, in any case, cannot be used as a pretext to deny a woman her right to dower or maintenance, nor can it be grounds to question her womanhood. In a country where women are routinely deprived of maintenance on flimsy, fabricated or no grounds at all, the moral clarity and unambiguous reasoning of this ruling decisively shuts the door on all such regressive justifications. The Supreme Court's ruling is a commendable intervention, but more must be done to protect women against such malevolent legal harassment and systemic erosion of their rights. As the chief justice noted, '… women in our society constitute a vulnerable group, whose dignity requires vigilant protection and care'. In an ideal system, the respondent should never have had to defend her womanhood in open court, an ordeal that could have been avoided with greater sensitivity and restraint from the lower judiciary. While the Supreme Court has, in recent years, largely stood firmly on the side of justice for women facing systemic and social abuse, it is the lower courts where the adoption of more gender-sensitive approaches is essential to ensure that the legal process does not become a harrowing experience for female litigants. Therefore, more gender-sensitive training, procedural safeguards and legal protections must be introduced to ensure that women are not re-victimised by the very system they turn to for justice. Here, it is also important to question societal norms that have turned infertility and personal choices around child-bearing into sources of stigma, reducing a woman's worth to her reproductive capacity. This mindset not only fuels discrimination within families and communities but also enables structural injustices to be inflicted upon women without shame or consequence. Breaking this stigma is vital to ensuring women are treated with dignity, both in society and before the law. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Express Tribune
6 days ago
- Express Tribune
Rs500m to be spent on curbing river erosion
The Punjab Cabinet Committee on Disaster Management has approved six schemes worth Rs500 million to curb river erosion in the province. Provincial Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique said while presiding over a meeting on Thursday that schemes had been approved to protect vulnerable areas from river erosion, including settlements in Mandi Bahauddin, Layyah and Jhang. PDMA Director General Irfan Ali Kathia briefed the participants on anti-erosion measures and strengthening of river embankments.
