Day: November 12, 2012

By: Imran Rana

LAHORE: Pakistani women seem to take all important decisions in running households; but when it comes to the corporate world they are being neglected and denied roles suitable to their capabilities.

Due to a reduced role in Pakistan’s male-dominated society, women are found struggling and their living standards are not at par with men. This is not only affecting the households but also the macro-economic growth, as a large segment of society is barred from contributing to the national economy.

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) organised the Women Business Incubation Centre (WBIC) in Pakistan to promote women’s participation in the consumer sector. The major goal of the project is to provide a protected and hassle-free business environment to women entrepreneurs and to help them develop business skills that will enable them to compete successfully in the modern marketplace.

“Pakistani women entrepreneurs need to start inventing their own business concepts,” said Asma Maryam, project director of WBIC while talking to The Express Tribune.

Majority of women entrepreneurs fall within the 20 to 40 years age group. Women entrepreneurial ventures can create jobs, in which women are either the owner or the sales staff, Maryam added.

All the facilities provided by Smeda in WBIC like, electricity, gas, telephone bills, security are at a nominal rent of Rs7, 260 per month, she added.

There are two operational WBICs in Pakistan; one is in Lahore and the other in Peshawar. Centres in Quetta, Swat and Karachi are under construction. The Karachi project will be operational very soon. The Sindh government approved two more WBICs in Karachi, said Alamgeer Chaudhry, general manager of Smeda, Lahore while talking to The Express Tribune.

The funds are provided by the government but these projects may face financial constraints as Smeda’s funding will be suspended by the next fiscal year. Smeda is approaching international donors to fund the project. For this purpose, the University of Southern Queensland Australia and Lahore College for Women University have expressed their interest, he added.

Women are likely to buy products if they are sold by women, which has increased revenues of the women’s business centre by 60%, said Shahida Tahir, shopkeeper in WBIC in Lahore, while talking to The Express Tribune. She added that women were earning handsome profits because of this project and hoped that if granted increased funding, the project will open doors to more upcoming female entrepreneurs.

Huma Kiran, a designer in WBIC, said that previously, she was earning Rs15,000 per month by designing dresses at her home. But now her income has jumped three-fold to Rs50,000 after she managed to find a shop in the Smeda centre.

Mehwish Zahid, a customer at WBIC, said that she was feeling more comfortable while purchasing goods from women. She said that lack of motivation coupled with limited capital and skilled workers are the main causes of economic backwardness of females.

There is a need to setup both general and specialist support organisations in the country at various levels to encourage this sector. This can be done by financial institutions, business organisations and concerned governmental departments.

Mena bazaar of Karachi is the best bazaar where women are doing business; the government of Punjab should also organise such bazaars in Punjab to promote the culture of women entrepreneurs.

The Express Tribune

The world observed Malala Day to highlight the struggle of a little girl of Swat for education. The UN has applied the example of this little girl to the world crisis of women’s status in various societies. In the UK, there is a popular demand that Malala Yousufzai be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Malala was targeted by the Taliban after years of campaigning done by her against the Taliban policy of destroying girls’ schools in regions of the country where the writ of the state is weak.

In Pakistan, views about what Malala achieved in the face of the Taliban tyranny, are tragically divided. The religious parties are suspicious of the events surrounding her wounding and subsequent transfer to the UK for treatment, with JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman going as far as to say that the whole incident was a ‘drama’. Other religious parties and groups such as the PTI did condemn the attack but could not resist linking it with drone strikes, ostensibly to portray the Taliban’s diminished responsibility. Political parties and the army support Malala and her cause of girls’ education. The crisis in Pak-Afghan relations has tempted Pakistan’s interior minister to make ambiguous statements that seek to explain the Malala incident as a conspiracy hatched by the Afghan intelligence and the US military command.

The main culprit is the warlord of Swat, Maulana Fazlullah, who was defeated by the army in 2009, after the people of Pakistan were incensed by a video showing his gunmen flogging women in the valley. The army moved some 2.5 million people out of the region and sent in 80,000 troops to clear Swat of militants. But Fazlullah and his commanders escaped across the border into Kunar province, in northeastern Afghanistan. Kunar is under the control of al Qaeda affiliates, the Afghan Taliban and other groups from Central Asia, the Caucasus, China and Europe. Fazlullah has relaunched his movement and is trying to make a comeback in Swat.

Malala’s plight has given rise to the demand for a military operation in North Waziristan because Fazlullah’s deeds were being owned by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. But military action in North Waziristan can only be undertaken with corresponding anti-militant steps by the US and Afghan military across the border. There are reports that the Afghan intelligence is not restraining Fazlullah because of the perception that for the past 12 years, Pakistan has been allowing the Afghan Taliban to launch strikes into Afghanistan against the US and Afghan forces before retreating into Pakistan.

Pakistan’s other crisis is the approximation of the thinking of a section of its population with the agenda of the Taliban terrorists. Looking at the intense anti-American feelings at the popular level, Pakistan’s political parties are reluctant to take an aggressively pro-Malala stance, in particular, and girls’ education and women’s rights in general. The education sector has been in steady decline, while girls’ education is largely neglected outside the big cities. The irony is that girls’ primary schooling in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Swat had always been better organised than in the rest of the country. The Taliban have literally cut the grounds from under it.

In Sindh, Hindu girls are coming under pressure from kidnappings and forcible conversions. Unable to stem this trend, the government is now looking the other way as sections of the Hindu community migrate to India. In the rest of the country, women’s rights that are ensured under Islam, especially the right of choice in marriage, are being violated. Runaway marriages are busted and lawfully married couples killed. Even after the passage of Protection of Women legislation by parliament — although with pointed watering down of some effective aspects — maltreatment of women has increased. The attack on Malala has meant many things for Pakistan. It has highlighted the deprivation of the rights of women and the growing extremism in Pakistan, which expresses itself in neglect and ill-treatment of women. The burden of the concept of ghairat (honour) is carried on the shoulders of Pakistan’s neglected half of the population.

The Express Tribune

By: Farooq Tirmizi

KARACHI: In what is likely to be the single most transformative trend in Pakistani society, it is becoming increasingly clear that Pakistani women are becoming more active participants within the economy, a fact that many commercial enterprises have already noticed and accounted for in their business strategies.

In a special report this week, The Express Tribune takes a look at the rising power of the Pakistani female consumer, as well as her impact on the Pakistani economy. (And we apologise at the outset for the irony of having this special report be written entirely by a team of male reporters.) We will examine some of the possible causes for why more women are entering the workforce, as well as how businesses are taking into account the fact that the purchasing decision-making authority of Pakistani women has expanded far beyond the stereotypical realm of the kitchen.

First, some of the numbers: according to the 2011 Pakistan Employment Trends Report, compiled by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, female labour force participation has jumped from 16.3% in 2000 to 24.4% in 2011. That jump represents an extra seven million women in the work force.

So who are these women? There is very little specific research on the profiles of women who have entered the workforce, but the 2012 Economic Survey of Pakistan, issued by the federal finance ministry, states that a major proportion of the rise appears to be taking place in urban areas. The government does not break down employment data by specific sectors or levels, but it appears – at least from anecdotal evidence – that women are entering the workforce, to varying degrees, at most levels and virtually all sectors.

Their reasons for joining the workforce have also not been documented in detail, but there are at least a few statistics that provide hints about their motivations. Education levels appear to be rising across the board, and fertility rates are hitting an all-time low virtually every year. Pakistani women are better educated and are less burdened with child-care than at any time in history (much more than men, but less than their predecessors a generation ago.)

Another factor appears to be need: according to The Express Tribune’s analysis of data provided by the Household Integrated Economic Survey, the bottom 20% of households in Pakistan have not seen their incomes keep pace with inflation. Many patriarchal households have had to abandon their traditionalist strictures against women working outside the home and let their female relatives work to bring in more income.

Seven million women is not a number to be trifled with: while women have yet to crack the glass ceiling in Pakistan (representation at senior levels of management remains shamefully low), they are beginning to gain increasing economic clout. And this increased clout is changing the way business is done in Pakistan, largely by making it more inclusive than it used to be.

Many companies, for instance, have caught on to the idea that female customers have money to spend, but may not necessarily be comfortable speaking to male salespersons, regardless of how friendly or courteous they may be. That, in turn, has led to the rise in hiring of female staff members, creating stable corporate-style employment opportunities for blue-collar women. The rising spending power of upper-middle class women is helping their lower-middle and working class sisters get jobs.

It is also perhaps not a coincidence that the first Pakistani law against sexual harassment in the workplace was passed in 2011. Perhaps politicians now feel that urban women are an increasingly important electoral constituency.

And the rise in female consumers has also given birth to a new breed of female entrepreneurs in Pakistan. This is a game being played not just by the daughters of rich businessmen, but also by more working class women, aided by government efforts like the incubation centres set up by the Punjab government in Lahore, and the state-owned First Women’s Bank providing lending facilities.

There is a lot of analysis that needs to be done about the rising economic power of Pakistani women, and we hope to provide a start with this special report. One thing is for certain: Pakistani women are already changing this economy for the better.

The Express Tribune

By: Tahir Khalil

ISLAMABAD: Female political activists from all over the country have protested against the poor treatment of American ruling party’s NGO, National Democratic Institute (NDI), which receives millions of dollars.

The women at the electoral seminar in Islamabad on Sunday complained that they were provided stay in third-rate hotel and several women were kept in one room like sheep and cattle. They said they were also not provided any protection.

The women delegation went to Mushahid Hussain Sayed to record their complaint. According to sources, the NDI conducted an electoral workshop for women in Islamabad. The workshop will continue for five days.

Over 60 women activists belonging to PPP, PML-N, PML-Q, NPP, MQM and other political parties attended the seminar.

The News