KARACHI: The founder and President of Pakistan Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Organization Dr Salima R Ahmed also spoke to Pakistan Today.
She indicated that the BPW established itself in Pakistan in 1954, at the time there were very few a venues for professional growth for women, the situation has improved greatly, but there remains a lot of room for improvement in the local economy.
She revealed that some like-minded women in London banded together to establish a non-political organisation to act as a pressure group to end discrimination and that the organisation was formally affiliated with the BPW International in 1954.
She also highlighted the achievements of the organisation which had set up industrial homes, found stable employment for women, gave interest free loans of up to Rs 100,000 for the creation of small businesses, and is now poised to adopt a village at Gharo, Sindh where local students will be imparted scientific agricultural training so they can aid their families.
Another major coup of the BPW Pakistan include the establishment of separate division in the federal government to deal with women development that was later upgraded to a Ministry and the setting up of departments for women development in the provincial governments.
In a joint statement Elizabeth Benham and Dr Salima R Ahmed said they were fighting on a joint platform for the uplift of the women in the same spirit of what the UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon termed the multiplier effect of educating women and the effect it had on their families and ultimately economic growth.
‘BPW plays a key role in the empowerment of women’
