Father's Day is a day of commemoration and celebration of Dad. It is a day to not only honor your father, but all men who have acted as a father figure in your life - whether as Guardians, Stepfathers, Uncles, Grandfathers, or "Big Brothers."

Father's Day

Father's Day, contrary to popular misconception, was not established as a holiday in order to help greeting card manufacturers sell more cards. In fact when a "father's day" was first proposed there were no Fathers day cards. Mrs. John B. Dodd, of Washington, first proposed the idea of Fathers Day in 1909. Mrs. Dodd wanted a Special Day to honor her father, William Smart. William Smart, a Civil War veteran, was widowed when his wife (Mrs. Dodd's mother) died in childbirth with their sixth child. Mr. Smart was left to raise the newborn and his other five children by himself on a rural farm in eastern Washington state. It was after Mrs. Dodd became an adult that she realized the strength and selflessness her father had shown in raising his children as a single parent.

World Population Foundation, Pakistan has been key organization in the improving the quality of our youth through Life Skills Based Education Programme in all four provinces of Pakistan and is in constant pursuit of incorporating LSBE in the national curriculum to bring about a positive change in the attitude of people towards sexual and reproductive health and right’s of woman and youth via active male involvement in the whole process.

In the light of the Mother’s Night held by World Population Foundation (WPF) in Amsterdam on May 13, 2007, WPF- Pakistan in collaboration with Mir Khalil-ur-Rehman Foundation (MKRF) celebrated the First National Father’s Day on Sunday, 17th June 2007. The celebration was to commemorate the men in our lives who give us strength and guidance and to engage them in sharing their experiences.

Mr. Nadeem Iqbal the Executive Director of Mir Khalil-ur-Rehman Foundation(MKRF) warmly welcomed the guests. He gave a brief overview of MKRF and later also shared his experience of fatherhood. He also said that Fathers Day is celebrated to pay tribute to all fathers and intends to make the event bigger every year.

Mr. Qadeer Baig, Country Representative WPF- Pakistan quoted global statistics that there are nearly 600,000 maternity related deaths each year, which are preventable by the active involvement of males in understanding the various risks at hand. There are 340 million new cases of sexually transmitted infections between the age group of 15-49 years, excluding HIV, these can be controlled if men take responsibility by using contraceptive measures, thus proving that an increase in male participation in the development process can contribute a great deal towards enabling women and children.

The Parliamentary Secretary for Ministry of Population Welfare Ms. Donya Aziz was also present. She appreciated the idea of celebrating father’s day and said that fathers play a great role, they not only provide but also guide their children though hardships. She stressed that there is an urgent need to highlight fathers’ role and importance in making decisions regarding the family and realizing this need, the Ministry has started a project of “Male Mobilizers” in 2002 to talk to men about family health issues.

Mr. Imran Khan, Chairman Tehrik-e-Insaf talked about the need to sustain our strong family units as they are the main strength of our society. He stated celebrating Fathers Day is a western concept as fragmented family structures exist there and thus celebrating this day may not be relevant to our cultural and societal set up however he did acknowledge that fathers play a leading role in our society.

Mr. Talib Hassan Sial (Senior Joint Secretary, Ministry of Youth Affairs) and Mr Muzaffar Mehmood Qureshi (Greenstar) also enlightened the audience with their experiences. WPF presented a show reel depicting the various scenarios of father and children relationship, the evening concluded with Dinner and Musical evening.