KABUL (PAN): Women's affairs minister-designate Husn Bano Ghazanfar has said the establishment of women supervision departments at each ministry to inspect their affairs and increasing the number of women officials in government institutions to 50 per cent would be her future plans. Seeking a vote of confidence from the Wolesi Jirga (Lower House of Parliament) the minister-designate who, if gets the trust vote will retain her post, answered queries posed by the lawmakers. She said since the inception of the portfolio eight years ago, the ministry had devised a ten-year work plan to assign and give work plans for some ministries. She said women-led supervisory branches would be established at each ministry to look at women participation and conditions in the ministries. In response to a question that why her ministry did not establish its branches in some districts and far-off areas, Ghazanfar cited budgetary problems, promising that all the districts would have branches of the ministry in future. An MP, Sharifa Zurmati, asked the minister-designate that how she would cope with fewer women participation in decision making process, Ghazanfar said increasing the role of women in government structure and other spheres of life was one of the most important goals of her next five years tenure in office. She said she had demanded of the president to appoint at least one deputy minister at each ministry and posts as heads of some departments. She said currently, 29 per cent of women were involved in government affairs and that she would enhance the number to 50 per cent in coming five years. She said a draft law aimed at eliminating violence against women had been prepared in consultation with different organisations and sent to the ministry of justice. She hoped the law if enacted, would help prevent crimes against women. She said 150,000 women in the past eight years received educational courses and the number is expected to go even higher over the period of coming five years. Constructing women halls for Fateha ceremonies, gardens and distributing plots to widows were part of her next five years plans. Hamid Karzai introduced his new cabinet of 23 ministers to the parliament on December 19. ss/ma
