PAT Chairman Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri has congratulated the office bearers and workers of Minhaj Women League on its 29th foundation day. He said that women belonging to MWL rendered wonderful services in the fields of education, moral training and human service in a short span of time. He said that they also played their full role in standing up to oppressive system and eliminating social evils in addition to spreading light of knowledge. He said that the political role of the women during the sit-in of 2014 is a golden chapter in the annals of the country’s history on which they can rightly take pride in.

A special ceremony marking the 29th foundation day of MWL was held in the central secretariat which was addressed by Ms. Farah Naz, Afnan Baber, Ayesha Mubashar, Kalsoom Qamar, Kalsoom Tufail, Zaynab Arshad, Shumaila Waseem, Iqra Yousuf Jami, MN Yousuf, Mamoona Shifat, Hira Husnain Hashmi, Dr Noshaba Hameed, Fareeda Sajjad, Rafia Ali, and Amina Safdar.

A resolution adopted on the occasion of the foundation day ceremony paid rich tributes to Shaheed Tanzila Amjad and Shaheed Shazia Murtaza, the martyrs of Model Town tragedy. It was demanded that those who killed the innocent ladies should be handed down exemplary punishment.

Addressing the ceremony, MWL President Mrs. Farah Naz said that unless elected women sitting in the Parliament rise above their party affiliations and work for the general good of the women, neither will the problems of women be resolved nor will they get their due rights. She said that the story of child maid Tayyiba is the story of every household which employs children. She said had legislation to check oppression on children been there, no one would have dared exploit the poor girl.

Farah Naz said that it has been eight since the legislation for domestic workers has been hanging fire. She said that domestic workers constitute the largest bulk of human resource and they have not been given any moral, economic, and legal rights to this day. She said that women working in homes do not even have the status of workers and little girls are victim of child labor. She said that the governments have played politics in the name of women but practically kept them deprived of the rights promised by the Constitution. She said had the government adopted serious attitude towards the problems of the children like Tayyiba, she would not have faced the kind of agony she did at the hands of the wife of judicial officer.

MWL President said that Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri is spot on when he stated that the poor do not have any other option but to forgive the powerful in the current oppressive and elitist system.

MWL leaders condemned the shabby treatment meted out to child maid Tayyiba through a resolution and demanded strict action against the perpetrator of violence. They also demanded enactment of law for domestic workers and asked the women parliamentarians to play their role for provision of free of cost education to children aged between 5 and 16 years.