ISLAMABAD, March 28: The National Commission on Status of Women (NCSW) has rejected the draft of policy on women prepared by the Ministry of Women Development.

The commission in its first annual report, which is with the President and yet to be released, says that the draft policy on women is more like a statement of intent, both in format and content as well as the use of conditional tenses (would be, should be), than a policy document.

It says that core substance of a policy document are policy directions, which are not reflected in any of the national policy on women's sections.

The first objection, raised by NCSW was the preamble of policy which was too long (longer than the policy itself) and mixed background with content that should be in policy document itself.

It added that the draft policy referred to the fact that it would encompass 12 issues of concern that had been globally recognized as areas of particular urgency, however, numerous reports and consultations had repeatedly pointed out that issues concerning Pakistani women were beyond these 12 areas.

The Commission said that there should be consistent reference to the policy as "National Policy on Women" not as Women in Development (WID) and Gender and Development (GAD) which had been used for policy, was totally confusing and unclear.

The report also pointed out that policy draft has unnecessarily singled out that gender inequities persist in health and education and health sector only, which otherwise was present in all sector of socio-economic development with regard to women in the country.

The vision statement of policy needed to be re-drafted, in unambiguous terms, brief language, emphasising the achievement of quality between women and men in rights, status and access to opportunities in all spheres of life, said the report.

It said that policy has not adequately reviewed discriminatory legislation made by successive governments for women development, which required to be made in this document to make it a more comprehensive and extensive draft.

The policy has not highlighted the rights of more vulnerable groups, particularly adolescent girls, disabled women and girls, religious and ethnic minority women and girls, said the report.

The NCSW has recommended that the ministry of women development role should be enhanced through specific institutional mechanisms to ensure the implementation of the national policy on women.

The policy required clearly defined institutional mechanisms for its operationalization, implementation, and subsequent monitoring and evaluation.

Monitoring bodies, other than the national core group established in the post-Beijing scenario, are needed to ensure that policy is being effectively translated into concrete actions, says the report.

The report added both MoWD and NCSW have a role to play in reviewing and monitoring policy implementation, which needs to be carefully co-ordinated.

In the end the report says that policy must articulate in unambiguous terms the rights of women that it is aiming towards, and enunciate clear directions on how each of these rights is to be achieved. With out this, document will remain vague and open to any interpretations.