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On October 17, 1992 Qurbonov and a number of his band members were murdered by gunmen from the Popular Front militia.

Qurbonov was one of a number of intellectual and cultural figures murdered during the Tajik Civil War.

In 2008 a former member of the Popular Front, Mahmadahdi Nazarov, also known as Makhsum Mahdi, was convicted of Qurbonovs murder.

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Aurat Foundation took the lead in compiling and drafting an alternative Report to the Government Report on behalf of the civil society of Pakistan in 2008.

Ms Anis Haroon, Member, Board of Governors, Aurat Foundation, presided over the ceremony.

Ms Maliha Zia and Ms Riffat Butt, authors of the report presented main findings of the report.

Ms Tahira Abdullah, one of the four contributors, who wrote separate chapters, was the Guest Speaker.

The various attempts made by the Government to improve the legal, socio-economic and political status of women are commendable, but they are few in number and have proven not to be very effective.

Mr Naeem Mirza, Chief Operating Officer of Aurat Foundation, while elaborating the process of producing the NGOs alternative CEDAW report, said that Aurat Foundation has been preparing the shadow report on CEDAW for a couple of years.

The report, technically called NGO Alternative Report on CEDAW, attempts to examine the response of the Government of Pakistan to concerns expressed in the observations of the CEDAW Committee on the earlier Country Report in 2007.

An examination of these responses reveals that the major impediments to gender equality and the elimination of discrimination are an ambivalent political will on the part of the State, and resultantly its institutions; the absence of a firm commitment to the inherent principles; and a reluctance to own the States obligations under the CEDAW Convention.

He expressed strong disapproval that the Mo HR even didnt bother to make its report public, and demanded that the government shall urgently make it public and seek response and opinion from concerned quarters and womens rights organization.

Ms Riffat But, one of the author, said that 4th report covers the period from 2005-2009, Ministry of Women Development prepared but it was submitted by the Mo HR in 2011.

This report mentions the challenges of earthquake, poverty, political instability, issue of IDPs while having impact on the efforts of government to fulfill its obligation of the DEDAW Convention.

Ms Maliha Zia, the second author of the report, said that although a number of pro-women laws were passed from the year 2009 to 2012 including Protection against Harassment at the Workplace Act 2010 and three amendments in Criminal Law during 2010 and 2011 which focus on harassment against women; customary practices including deprivation of inheritance, forced marriages, exchange of women in settlement of cases, marriage of women to the Quran; and acid crimes.

However, the State continued to avoid the passage of laws or amendments that are considered more controversial due to the fact that they might affect the traditional set up of the family and society and above all their political alliances.

These include laws pertaining to domestic violence, social protection and child rights and amendments pertaining, among other topics, to citizenship rights of women and their spouses.

It is pertinent to note that the majority of pro-women initiatives have been taken by Private Member Bills as opposed to Government Bills.

Ms Tahira Abdullah, who contributed a chapter on Implementing CEDAW in Pakistan in the report, elaborated on the lack of political will and commitment to ensure the participation of CSOs and womens rights activists in the preparation of the governments CEDAW report, and to ensure the harmonization of domestic laws with the States binding legal obligation to adhere to CEDAW and other ratified instruments.

She presented 38 action recommendations for the implementation of CEDAW, which, 16 years after Pakistan became a State Party to CEDAW, are now long overdue.

The shadow report is primarily a commentary on the Fourth Periodic Report of the Government, identifying gaps and presenting an objective analysis of the situation of women in Pakistan.

This analysis is conducted from a perspective held by the unambiguous position of mainstream womens rights and human rights activists and organisations on core issues of womens rights.

The Report is authored by Maliha Zia and Riffat Butt and; has been reviewed by Neelam Hussain, Naeem Mirza, Nasreen Azhar and Younas Khalid.

The Shadow Report also attempts to give the reader a brief overview of the situation of women in Pakistan beyond the reporting time period, till the present day.

This overview is essential in light of several major developments that have taken place after the reporting period.

Realising the significance of a few landmark developments related to democracy, governance and the deteriorating situation of minority women, four addendum chapters have been included in the report.

These are contributed by Tahira Abdullah, Ayehsa Khan, Rubina Saigol, Peter Jacob and Jennifer Jag Jewan.

Nazia Karamatullah Death