MULTAN, March 23rd: Begum Romana Tanvir Sheikh ,Senior Vice President of Multan Chamber of Commerce & Industry(MCCI) stressed the need for strengthening the women economically and there are a number of sectors in modern areas of the economy where women now make up a significant part of the workforce. These include the traditional areas where educated women have been active for decades.Delivering her speech at a women congregation held here to mark the International Women day.She said that Pakistan has many immensely talented women working both at home and abroad to make the country and the world a better place. We can compiled a long list of some of the most inspiring women in Pakistan. She said that women were playing a significant role in teaching and medicine sectors. However, more recently, as the number of women with high levels of skills increased, they have become players in sectors such as banking, communications, law and politics. Women also now makeup a significant proportion of the workforce in companies engaged in IT work. Some IT experts have estimated that in their sector, there are tens of thousands of women working in what they call ‘cottage businesses’. These are women with good computer skills, who are working from their homes undertaking small contractual work for members of their families or their friends who are living and working abroad. Mrs.Sidra Anis A Sheikh admits that the discrimination against their gender is still high; however things are improving with time. Some find it advantageous, as being female entrepreneurs their colleagues in the same business extend full cooperation and help. But most of the women in Pakistan work informally and are cruelly exploited. Syeda Sarwat Zahra said that women get less pay than the men for doing the same job. They are not respected or facilitated. Rural working women particularly suffer more than urban women workers.There is not only a need for legislations to remove barriers to women’s entry in business, but also dire need to change the attitude of the society. Shukantla Devi from Hindu community said the law provides equal access to credit to both genders but somehow women are generally denied credit.Pakistani women in business still complain of drawbacks they face. Take for instance the domestic as well as other burdens that take away lots of their time and energy, which make it difficult for women to run an enterprise as successfully as men.Sidra Khalid Cheema, Mrs.Manahil Ata, Zohra Sajjad Zaidi, DSP(investigation) Mrs.Shahida,Iffat Tahira Somroo,Prof.Farzana, Zunaira Shafiq, Aapa Nasreen, Bushra Naqvi Advocate, Tahira Najam, Sywed Abida Bukhari and Zahida Hameed Qureshi also spoke on the rights and responsibilities of women.
