KARACHI: Senior female executives in Pakistan’s business sector said on Friday career continuity challenges were common for working women in the country, adding it was important for them to display perseverance and resilience amid obstacles to carry on with their professional journeys and fulfil their aspirations.
Much like the rest of the world, Pakistan observes International Women’s Day on March 8 to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women while calling for action to accelerate gender parity and women’s rights.
According to the Global Gender Gap Report of 2022, the South Asian nation of 241 million has a female population of about 49 percent, though only 4.5 percent of women are in senior managerial and legislative roles.
Pakistan has taken measures to bridge the gender divide by providing women access to banking services and encouraging their inclusion in the workforce. A survey conducted last year by Karandaaz, a nonprofit company promoting financial inclusion for individuals, showed the registration of businesses led by women with more than 10 employees increased to 44 percent.
Despite such government facilitation, Pakistani women business leaders say a number of challenges continue to persist.
“Women give up their careers very easily,” Ammara Masood, who works as general manager with one of the country’s largest software export companies called Systems Limited, told Arab News. “Women often suffer in [maintaining the] continuity of their careers and sometimes they give up in between and then they never have the chance [to come back].”
With over 30 years of professional experience, Masood founded NdcTech, a technology company that was acquired by Systems Limited in 2022, a milestone she called “very significant.”
She said that she pursued a versatile career path that led her to explore information technology and consulting businesses along with entrepreneurship across three continents, including North America and Europe.
She maintained women had to work very hard to get recognition, especially at senior organizational levels.
Based on her experience, Masood advised Pakistan women to continue their professional journeys and never give up investing in their careers.
“My advice to women is that you have to stick it out and continue your career,” she added. “Your parents have invested in your education. You have invested so much in building up what you are and the economy needs you to grow.”
Sadaffe Abid, the founding CEO of another tech organization called CIRCLE, agreed that women in Pakistan faced many barriers including lack of Internet access in many cases.
“Men tend to be gatekeepers and we make the case to families that going digital is actually good for the family because when a woman starts earning, when she is setting up these nano, micro, small businesses and [leverages] Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp for business, it’s generating income and better quality of life for everyone,” she said. “Pakistan faces one of the widest digital gender divides.”
CIRCLE is providing digital literacy, technology and entrepreneurship to women and so far helped about 15,000 women from places ranging from Chitral, Gilgit and Hunza to Jhang, Khanewal, Hyderabad and Rahim Yar Khan.
Maleeha Mimi Bangash, an expert in the banking and financial industry, emphasized the necessity for women to maintain a delicate balance between their professional endeavors and personal lives to thrive in the business world.
“I think every woman who is working has a home life,” she said, adding that women sometimes needed to prioritize their work and sometimes they had a pressing need to step away.
Bangash said the real challenges came during the mid- to senior-level of career progression, where despite achieving considerable success and recognition, a glass ceiling becomes apparent, hindering the advancement of many equally capable female colleagues who, despite their qualifications, find it harder to ascend to higher positions compared to their male counterparts.
Pakistani female executives highlight career challenges, advocate for resilience on Women’s Day
https://arab.news/zv9v5
Pakistani female executives highlight career challenges, advocate for resilience on Women’s Day
- Only 4.5 percent women are in senior managerial and legislative roles in Pakistan despite 49 percent female population
- Female executives say women often give up their careers easily and later find it difficult to return to the same level
Pakistan opposition to continue protest over ex-PM Khan’s health amid conflicting reports
- Pakistan’s government insists that the ex-premier’s eye condition has improved
- Khan’s personal doctor says briefed on his condition but cannot confirm veracity
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s opposition alliance on Monday vowed to continue their protest sit-in at parliament and demanded “clarity” over the health of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, following conflicting medical reports about his eye condition.
The 73-year-old former cricket star-turned-politician has been held at the high-security Adiala prison in Rawalpindi since 2023. Concerns arose about his health last week when a court-appointed lawyer, Barrister Salman Safdar, was asked to visit Khan at the jail to assess his living conditions. Safdar reported that Khan had suffered “severe vision loss” in his right eye due to central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO), leaving him with just 15 percent sight in the affected eye.
On Sunday, a team of doctors from various hospitals visited the prison to examine Khan’s eye condition, according to the Adiala jail superintendent, who later submitted his report in the court. On Monday, a Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice Yahya Afridi observed that based on reports from the prison authorities and the amicus curiae, Khan’s “living conditions in jail do not presently exhibit any perverse aspects.” It noted that Khan had “generally expressed satisfaction with the prevailing conditions of his confinement” and had not sought facilities beyond the existing level of care.
Having carefully perused both reports in detail, the bench observed that their general contents and the overall picture emerging therefrom are largely consistent. The opposition alliance, which continued to stage its sit-in for a fourth consecutive day on Monday, held a meeting at the parliament building on Monday evening to deliberate on the emerging situation and discuss their future course of action.
“The sit-in will continue till there is clarity on the matter of [Khan's] health,” Sher Ali Arbab, a lawmaker from Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party who has been participating in the sit-in, told Arab News, adding that PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan and Opposition Leader in Senate Raja Nasir Abbas had briefed them about their meeting with doctors who had visited Khan on Sunday.
Speaking to reporters outside parliament, Gohar said the doctors had informed them that Khan’s condition had improved.
“They said, 'There has been a significant and satisfactory improvement.' With that satisfactory improvement, we also felt satisfied,” he said, noting that the macular thickness in Khan’s eye had reportedly dropped from 550 to 300 microns, a sign of subsiding swelling.
Gohar said the party did not want to politicize Khan’s health.
“We are not doctors, nor is this our field,” he said, noting that Khan’s personal physician in Lahore, Dr. Aasim Yusuf, and his eye specialist Dr. Khurram Mirza had also sought input from the Islamabad-based medical team.
“Our doctors also expressed satisfaction over the report.”
CONFLICTING ACCOUNTS
Despite Gohar’s cautious optimism, Khan’s personal physician, Dr. Yusuf, issued a video message on Monday, saying he could neither “confirm nor deny the veracity” of the government’s claims.
“Because I have not seen him myself and have not been able to participate in his care... I’m unable to confirm what we have been told,” Yusuf said.
He appealed to authorities to grant him or fellow physician, Dr. Faisal Sultan, immediate access to Khan, arguing that the ex-premier should be moved to Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad for specialist care.
Speaking to Arab News, PTI’s central information secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram said Khan’s sister and their cousin, Dr. Nausherwan Burki, will speak to media on Tuesday to express their views about the situation.
The government insists that Khan’s condition has improved.
“His eye [condition] has improved and is better than before,” State Minister Talal Chaudhry told the media in a brief interaction on Monday.
“The Supreme Court of Pakistan is involved, and doctors are involved. What medicine he receives, whether he needs to be hospitalized or sent home, these decisions are made by doctors. Neither lawyers nor any political party will decide this.”
