Daily Times

A lot of work remains to be done to bring women in the mainstream of economy and National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) in collaboration with the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) will work for economic empowerment of women. NCSW Chairperson Nilofar Bakhtiar stated this while addressing a large gathering of women during her visit to the ICCI on Thursday.

She said that ICCI would be given representation in the economic empowerment committee of NCSW to make joint efforts for the protection and promotion of women. She said that this year 16 days of activism against gender-based violence will be celebrated from November 25 to December 10, 2021 and NCSW would organise various programmes for women where violence against the women would be on top of the agenda. She said that ICCI should also organise an awareness session at this occasion about the Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act and invite women working in industrial and business units to sensitize them about this act. She said that posters of the said Act should also be displayed in ICCI and business firms for the information of working women. She also briefed the women about the key initiatives of NCSW for protection of women and vowed that NCSW would work with stakeholders including ICCI for the better protection and empowerment of women. Speaking at the occasion, ICCI President Muhammad Shakeel Munir said that women are over half of the total population and it is not possible for Pakistan to achieve sustainable growth without bringing them into the mainstream of economy. He stressed that the government should formulate more conducive policies for the economic empowerment of women. He said that obtaining credit from banks for business is the most serious issue for women and urged that the government should focus on providing easy credit to women entrepreneurs so that they could achieve better growth in business. Chairman of Founder Group and Skills Development Council Mian Akram Farid said that SDC has trained 9,500 women in various fields for their economic empowerment and more trainings would be provided to them.