Daily Times

Economic empowerment is the basic ingredient of women empowerment, it was stated by the Young Global Leaders (YGLs) during their Pakistan Summit held in Lahore. World Economic Forum’s ‘The Young Global Leaders Forum’ will have its annual summit from October 1st 2021 to October 6th 2021. The first three days of the summit will be hosted by the designated hosts in 50 different cities from around the world. Next three days, the event will take place virtually. The basic idea behind the summit is to connect with each and every YGL of the World Economic Forum in which they will highlight their life experiences and achievements while shedding light on different social and economic issues.

It is for the first time that any official event of WEF’s YGLs is being hosted by a Pakistani. Zulfikar Ali Bader, one of the fellow Young Global Leaders and founder of Dr Jehangir Bader Institute of Vision and Leadership (JBIVL), a think tank working for the mentoring of future leaders in Pakistan, had been given this honour to host two sessions of discussion with the fellow YGLs. Zulfikar Ali Bader is the son of late PPP’s veteran Jehangir Bader who spent his whole life on the supremacy of the constitution and democracy.

The opening event was attended by a large number of YGLs from different parts of the country who shared their life journey being the Young Global Leaders. The topic of the first session was empowering the Pakistani Women Leaders that was moderated by Zulfikar Ali Bader having guest speakers including Nighat Dad, a renowned advocate for women rights, Ms Romana Abdullah, CEO of Hop Scotch a children clothing brand, Ms Hina Butt Member Provincial Assembly and Ms Puresh Chaudhry a Global Shaper from Islamabad and founder of Agahi Awards.

During the first session, speakers emphasized the empowerment of women in Pakistan, especially their economic empowerment. The role of men is very important in facilitating women in this regard. Adding on, women should be given mentoring for starting their career in politics, media, business, law or in any field where they feel appropriate to fit in. Speaking on the occasion, Zulfikar Bader said that Benazir Bhutto is a role model for him as a woman. “My father worked very closely with Benazir Bhutto for 30 years and she is the perfect example of an empowered woman in Pakistan who inspired generations,” Bader said. MPA Hina Butt was of the view that woman empowerment is to become what you want and not what people or society wants you to become. Talking about the PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz, Hina said that she is the real definition of the word ‘defiance’. “She has transformed the PML-N as you can now see a large number of youngsters and women leaders within the party working closely with Maryam Nawaz,” the MPA said, who became a YGL in 2016.

The second session was about the ‘Responsible Leadership in Handling Crises’ that was moderated by MPA Hina Butt while the guest speakers included Zulfikar Ali Bader Advocate, Abid Butt CEO Trucker one of the biggest logistic companies, Amir Jehangir Founder of Agahi Awards and Ather Osama founder of Foundation Agenda. The speakers were of the view that responsible leadership is only possible with visionary leaders who have the education for knowledge and experience for wisdom.

“Those leaders must be given authority for attaining a leadership position and they have the vision to watch the interest of public and public institutions. He must have the ability to stand with the threats and effectively negotiating an exit from the crises,” the speakers said. Currently, Pakistan needs a leader who can be prepared for handling the future crises or unseen pandemics on issues like climate change, shortage of water resources, global warming, education of future generations, food shortage, lacking health facilities, lacking the infrastructure, identity crises in youth and skill economic empowerment and building community leadership at local levels for engagement of youth and future young leaders, women and the general public.

The event was live conducted on social media platforms and on Toplink the official app of WEF.