ISLAMABAD: In order to address the dismal levels of representation of independent women professionals on the leadership positions of the companies listed on Pakistan Stock Exchange, a new initiative of Women on Board (WOB) Pakistan has been started with the involvement of industry professionals and governance activists.

Women on Board Pakistan will serve as a campaign to promote gender diversity, inclusiveness and mainstreaming of able-minded and qualified women professionals at all levels of business and corporate leaderships. WOB-Pakistan would aim to raise awareness about the need for immediate corporate action to improve gender balance and make gender diversity targets as part of the corporate laws as well as the code of corporate governance in Pakistan.

Addressing the event, Rahat Kaunain Hassan, the Chairperson of WOB Pakistan and former Chairperson of Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP), stated that WOB Pakistan will recognize and support ‘women empowerment’ in our society for the larger good of the national economic enterprise. She expressed that “‘empowerment’ means the ability to make the right choice, be it an individual, a board or an institution. Therefore, WOB Pakistan is focused to create an enabling environment for identifying and providing support to the valuable resource that would help achieve goals and targets by making the right or appropriate choices in the corporate world. A woman’s professional contribution has a direct relation to and impacts on her social environment; thus, we need to collectively build that environment. The report titled “Women in Boardrooms” is an initiative that aims at building a greater pool of able potential women directors rather than engaging/targeting the perceived handful available professional women directors. This measure would benefit the corporate sector and Pakistan as much as it will recognize and benefit women thus, furthering their empowerment. While this is our first initiative, we call for the support from all those who believe in this cause of taking accomplished and talented ‘women on board’ in every walk of life to ensure due gender parity in policy making and leadership roles.”—PR