Women Power

More than 400 women from KP, FATA send a strong message to the policymakers at the first Annual Women Conference

More than 400 women across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas – now merged with KP – sent a strong, unanimous message to the policy makers at the First Annual Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Women Conference 2022 in Islamabad, to keep women’s economic empowerment as a top priority in their upcoming development plans.

They emphasised, in loud and clear terms, that besides social justice, the KP women need gender equality in leading roles as business owners, entrepreneurs, chief executives and other important portfolios to effectively implement the policy decisions for real women empowerment which is the only way towards a modern, developed Pakistan.

The two-day moot in Islamabad, which had its main theme as “Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Women Uniting in the Tribal Decade” provided a platform to women from the grass root level to emphasise their development needs and priorities and suggest policy recommendations to the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for consideration in the annual development planning 2023.

The absolute support at the moot by the German, Canadian and European Union envoys for the gender equality and economic empowerment of the womenfolk in KP remained the highlight of the conference.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Commission on the Status of Women (KPCSW) in collaboration with GIZ Pakistan, the European Union, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Government of Canada, organised this historic gathering.

Many of the participants belonged to Pakistan’s newly merged areas while representatives from the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the international development community also attended in large number, including women in leadership positions, in politics, in police and civil society organizations.  They discussed at length issues like women leadership, climate change, politics, media, entrepreneurship, girls’ education, digital knowledge and transformation, women rights, reproductive health, sports, and rule of law.

The conference, besides bringing together the powerful women from KP, also provided an opportunity to various stakeholders, international partners and private entities to learn more about which areas to target and support and to meet the respective needs of women who are in the field.

The European Union Deputy Head of Delegation to Pakistan, Thomas Seiler while speaking at the concluding ceremony said, “The European Union is fully supporting women and gender equality, which is a key element of the EU development Policy, adding, “the first element of modernization is the gender equality to allow more women in economy in lead roles as CEOs, as business owners and entrepreneurs.”

He remarked  that despite some progress in gender equality in Pakistan, a lot needs to be done for theempowerment of women and the EU’s Multi-Annual Indicative Programme (2021-2027) for Pakistan is particularly focusing on women policy, gender equality, women participation, and women in economy to reflect women interests that will be closely monitored during the programme implementation.

Thomas Seiler remarked that the programme will equip women with quality skills and grant them better education facilities and provide vocational training so that they could be groomed into becoming experts in their fields and play an important role in the development of the country. “Particularly in KP province, the EU is looking forward to work for the sustainable development of Agriculture food chains with prime focus on women participation.”

Special Assistant to Chief Minister KP on Information Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif who had inaugurated the conference speaking to BOL News said, “the KP government has taken several initiatives for the socio economic and civil development of women as without empowering wome, we cannot dream of an empowered society.”

He remarked that women contribution for the socio-economic empowerment of the  society cannot be ignored that’s why the PTI under the chairmanship of Imran Khan and the Chief Minister Mehmood Khan are specially focused on girls education and the budgetary allocation in fiscal 2022-23 for girls speak for their commitment.

Saif remarked that the KPCSW under the leadership of Dr. Riffat Sardar was a great forum for women issues and their development, adding  “in the current fiscal budget (2022) of KP, 15 billion rupees have been allocated for women related development projects so the women entrepreneurs from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Merged Areas, to come up with small, medium and large ideas and share plans with the government.”

Canadian High Commissioner to Pakistan, Wendy Gilmour, in her welcome address said, “Canada has a feminist policy and is supporting various initiatives in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including Merged Areas for Girls Education improvement, there must be equal opportunities for female access to education, health, politics, sports and in leadership role.”