Pakistan plans to set up exclusive market for women entrepreneurs in Islamabad

RAWALPINDI: The Pakistan government plans to set up a market exclusively for women entrepreneurs in the federal capital where they will be able to promote and sell their products, a senior interior ministry official said on Friday.
The decision was made on Thursday after interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed met a delegation from the Islamabad Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IWCCI) and acknowledged the necessity of including women in economic activity in the country.
“Yes, a market exclusively for women is coming,” an interior ministry spokesperson told Arab News, declining to provide a formal launch date for the project.
Samina Fazil, the founding president of the IWCCI, said it was a “much needed” development which was likely to have a positive economic impact.
“There is no place in Islamabad for women to do business,” she said, adding that high rents at commercial plazas kept women home-bound and forced independent businesses owned by women out of the mainstream.
“These rents are so high that they are not affordable to women who work with their own hands within the confines of their homes,” Fazil added. 
She said things had become even more difficult for businesswomen during the coronavirus pandemic since exhibitions and expo events had been cancelled across the country.
“This is why we want a place where women can comfortably run their businesses and sell their wares,” she said. 
The IWCCI president said her organization had been communicating with various state institutions and had ultimately reached out to the interior minister to ask for a market area for women entrepreneurs. 
“We have now spoken to the Capital Development Authority chairman and asked him if he can do something about this,” she said. “We are hopeful he will get us a place where we will be able to establish a women’s bazaar.”
Fazil added that a market that promoted women-owned businesses would also open new possibilities for young girls and inspire them to become economically independent.
“The market is just the beginning,” she said, adding the initiative was likely to have a positive socio economic impact.