Pakistan rated 'second-worst' country on gender parity index

[MenInG]

Bettering only neighbouring Afghanistan, Pakistan was ranked second-worst country in terms of gender parity in the latest Global Gender Gap Report released by the World Economic Forum.

The nation of 220 million people was placed at 145 out of 146 countries. Since 2006, the Global Gender Gap Index has measured the world’s progress towards gender parity across four key dimensions: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment.

At a global level, the report stated, only 68.1% of the gender gap has been closed, meaning it will take another 132 years to reach gender parity. "This is a slight improvement from last year, but three decades longer than the situation in 2020, before the impacts of Covid-19 on gender equality," it added.

The report ranked 146 countries, of which the top five are Iceland, Finland, Norway, New Zealand and Sweden, while the five worst ones are Afghanistan, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran and Chad.

The report noted that Pakistan, with 107 million women, has closed 56.4% of the gender gap that affects them. This is the highest overall level of parity Pakistan has posted since the report launched, it added.

According to WEF, Pakistan registered significant improvement across three subindexes, with the highest positive variation on Economic Participation and Opportunity.

"While wage equality carries the highest gender gap score among economic indicators (0.620), advances were also reported in estimated earned income, where women’s earnings increased 4% compared to 2021.," it said.

However, it is worth noting that women’s labour-force participation declined by 1.9 percentage points in 2022, while both shares of men and women workers in senior and professional categories saw a downturn.

On Educational Attainment, the report said, gender parity scores for literacy, secondary and tertiary education enrolment all rose. However, the shares of male and female students in secondary and tertiary education both increased from 2021, while a drop in parity in literacy correlates to a reduction in the population of men that are literate

Regional performance

According to the report, Pakistan was also ranked second-worst in South Asia as well with only Afghanistan below it on the list.

"South Asia has the widest gender gap on Economic Participation and Opportunity, having closed only 35.7% of this gender gap. While the sub-index score is an improvement of 1.8 percentage points from last year, there are considerable country divergences that anchor the result as the lowest among all regions," it said.

According to the WEF, Afghanistan has only attained 17.6% parity on this sub-index, well below the highest score of Nepal, at 64.1%. Highly populated countries are for the most part driving variation within this sub-index.

"For example, increases in the share of women in professional and technical roles were most notable in Nepal, Bangladesh and India. On the other hand, the shares in Iran, Pakistan and Maldives regressed, with less impact on overall regional performance."

The report stated that the estimated earned income only improved significantly in the Maldives, while labour-force participation has largely stalled across most countries, regressing significantly in Iran, Bhutan and Afghanistan.

Iceland has once again been named the most gender equal country, topping the WEF's Global Gender Gap Report 2022.

The Nordic country has closed more than 90% of its gender gap – and tops the ranking for the 12th year in a row, out of a total of 146 economies in the 2022 Global Gender Gap Index.

Iceland’s near neighbours Finland, Norway and Sweden dominate the top five, while only four countries in the top 10 are outside Europe: New Zealand (4th), Rwanda (6th), Nicaragua (7th) and Namibia (8th).

The top five are unchanged from last year, but Lithuania and Switzerland have dropped out of the top 10, with Nicaragua and Germany taking their places.

Express Tribune

 

[MenInG]

The UAE remains the most gender-equal country in the Arab World in 2022, thanks to an increase in the share of women in technical roles as well as for closing the gender gaps in primary education, according to Global Gender Gap Report 2022 released by World Economic Forum on Wednesday.

The UAE was ranked 68th globally in the report, improving four positions from last year, and also remained the second most gender-equal country in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region in 2022 after Israel.

The study revealed that six countries, led by Kuwait, Oman and UAE, increased their share of women in technical roles; however, only Oman increased the share of women in senior roles.

The UAE along with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait and Qatar closed their gender gaps in primary education. While in secondary education, the UAE, Algeria, Bahrain, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon and Tunisia achieved parity, but the overall share of enrolment in Jordan and Lebanon is considerably lower than in other countries, the report said.

Across the Political Empowerment subindex, the region’s highest subindex score is that of UAE while Kuwait sits at the bottom. It said only UAE has achieved parity at the parliamentary level.

Among the sub-indexes, the UAE has been ranked first in enrolment in primary, secondary and tertiary education, women in parliament and sex ratio at birth.

In the Mena region, the report said some progress was made in closing the economic gender gap in the region, with several countries improving women’s labour force participation and the share of women in technical roles. But the region’s score remains similar to the last edition, which gives a timeframe of 115 years to close the gap.

Out of 146 economies surveyed worldwide, just one in five has managed to close the gender gap by at least one per cent in the past year.

“The cost of living crisis is impacting women disproportionately after the shock of labour market losses during the pandemic and the continued inadequacy of care infrastructure. In face of a weak recovery, government and businesses must make two sets of efforts: targeted policies to support women’s return to the workforce and women’s talent development in the industries of the future. Otherwise, we risk eroding the gains of the last decades permanently and losing out on the future economic returns of diversity,” said Saadia Zahidi, managing director at the World

https://www.msn.com/en-ae/news/nati...sedgntp&cvid=ac9b6448154c4ae399e824ecf2a23ea0

 

[Saj]

Will this ever change?

I don't see change happening quickly irrespective of who is running the country.

 

[MenInG]

Having lived in the Middle East for a good few years, I can attest to the fact that atleast at the work-place, Arab women hold their own and are not intimidated by men or are treated any differently.

I don't get that impression from Pakistan and this study seems to prove that point.

 

[FearlessRoar]

Ammara Chaudhry, who has proved herself as one of the most promising stars in the showbiz industry, added another feather to her cap by becoming a certified commercial pilot.

Ammara Chaudhry announced her life achievement on the visual-sharing platform Instagram. She shared pictures of her with her license.

“Alhamdulilah..I was waiting for my birthday to share this great blessing of Allah with you all, (I am finally a licensed commercial pilot,” Ammara wrote on Instagram.

Earlier, Ammara Chaudhry had appeared in the ARY News show Bakhabar Savera and talked about her dreams of becoming a pilot.

She had said that she had a passion for commercial flying and thought herself very fortunate to live her dream thanks to Almighty Allah.

Ammara Chaudhry mentioned that she had to reason with her parents before stepping into the field, adding that they were saying that there was no future for women in this field.
The actress said that no profession is tough provided if a person has a passion for it.

Source: ARY

Actor Ammara Chaudhry is now a licensed commercial pilot

Ammara Chaudhry, who has proved herself as one of the most promising stars in the showbiz industry, added another feather to her cap by becoming a certified commercial pilot.

arynews.tv

 

[hassan918]

Things are changing in Pakistan but at a very slow pace.

 

[FearlessRoar]

A year on, pink buses continue to empower women on Karachi’s roads​

Brightly coloured pink buses, seldom seen on the roads of Karachi, are like a fragile thread suturing the wounds borne by women after years of transport woes and facing harassment on the city’s streets.

Emblazoned with logos of various brands, and loaded with women belonging to different classes and ethnicities, the dedicated bus service, comprising 18 vehicles only runs on three main routes — Model Colony to Merewether Tower, North Karachi to Korangi and Numaish Chowrangi to Sea View Beach.

The pink bus fleet is part of a public initiative called the Sindh Peoples Intra District Project launched in 2021. The two parties involved in this project are the Government of Sindh (GsS) and the National Radio and Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC).

The latter is the contractor responsible for the maintenance and operations of the buses and their depots. Meanwhile, the GOS provides the subsidies and logistical support to run the project.

Sitting on a bench at a footpath, parallel to Shahrea Faisal — the major thoroughfare connecting almost all of Karachi — was Wajahat Fatima who has commuted via the pink bus every day since its launch last year.

Putting aside the book she had been reading for the past hour while waiting for the bus, she stood up with great difficulty and stepped closer to the edge of the footpath once the bus was in sight.

The bus driver parked close to the edge of the footpath as the conductor came out to assist Fatima climb the bus. She sat on one of the two seats allocated for disabled persons. “Ever since I got into an accident last year there has been constant joint pain in my leg,” said Fatima, who works at a shipping company.

She took out a small portable stool from inside her bag and set it on the floor to rest her leg on. Although it occupied space, none of the women standing inside the crowded bus seemed to complain; rather they made space for her.

“The bus has been a blessing for women like me who need to sit down, men in the other bus service [red bus] hog up the seats for the disabled and refuse to stand up, even though they are able-bodied,” she lamented.

While Wajahat chooses to wait for the bus, most women board any available.

“All the buses, whether pink, green, red, or white, provide the same comfort. It doesn’t matter which bus you get on, as long as you don’t have to wait on the bus stand for too long — that gets very uncomfortable,” Zareen Khan noted, as she awaited a bus that would take her from II Chundrigarh Road to Model Town.

As per the NRTC operator, Abdul Shakoor, the pink bus is running with a headway time of 30 minutes, which means that one should be able to get a pink bus every 30 minutes on its three routes.

However, it seems to be far from the truth. The author herself was unable to get a bus even after waiting for two hours, from 3:30pm to 5:30pm on the Merewether Clock Tower and II Chundrigar bus stop for four days in a row.

When Dawn.com asked Shakoor about the shortage of buses, there was no response.

When the bus was launched last year, women and urban planners talking to the author had pointed out how safety at bus stops would be essential in making transport safe for women. At the time, then managing director (MD) of the Sindh Mass Transit Authority (SMTA) Zubair Channa had said that the authority was working on establishing more bus stops and that they “have asked the authorities and are waiting for approvals”.

However, the situation seems to remain the same today.

The incumbent MD of SMTA, Kamal Dayo, told Dawn.com that the authority and contractors did build some stops but the cameras, benches, and lights installed were stolen by “drug addicts”.

“We asked the Karachi Electric (KE) for light connections at the bus stops, however, the response had been lukewarm. Hence, to solve that issue, we took connections from nearby installations,” Dayo said. This is, however, illegal and when the KE found out, they sent detection bills to the operator worth Rs0.2 million.

“We are trying to address the objections raised by KE. However, it takes months; until then the contractors, who invested money in building the bus stop, can’t stop running the operations; it would cause them huge losses,” Bashir Hussain, the SMTA Director Admin & Finance, pointed out.

Dayo said that another problem is that there are 17 land-owning agencies in Karachi, and to make depots on even one route, they have to take permission from several different authorities. “There are bureaucratic hurdles in getting the facilities to the public because each department has its own laws, rules, and regulations. There should be exemptions when you’re running public projects,” said the SMTA MD.

In the inaugural ceremony, there was also talk of women driving these buses.

Following that promise, six months on, a bus driver training programme was launched in which 12 women were trained to drive these buses. To date, however, no woman has been seen in the driver’s seat.

“Two of the 12 women we trained had a Light Traffic Vehicle (LTV) license and after the training, they obtained the Heavy Traffic Vehicle (HTV) license,” said Huma Ashar, the gender specialist at SMTA. To be able to drive a pink bus, women need a permanent HTV license. To obtain this, a person needs three years of experience driving an LTV, followed by three months on a learner’s HTV license.

Most women selected for training had no prior experience, hence, they were only given training on LTV licenses. However, as the women trained belonged to less-privileged backgrounds, they lacked access to driving vehicles in the first place. It therefore made it highly unlikely for them to have enough driving experience to apply for an HTV license.

The two women who have received a learner’s HTV licence are unable to drive the pink buses because the contractors are hesitant to put them on board as drivers.

“We are trying to convince the contractors to put them in the bus as co-drivers so they can observe, learn and practice but they [contractors] are reluctant to do so,” said Ashraf. He added that they will start training new batches of women from May.

Another problem for commuters who want to use pink buses is the lack of information.

While there is an app called the People Bus Service, developed by Kentkart, which gives information about the routes, closest bus stops, and tariffs, it lacks important features, as pointed out by users in the review section of the app on Google store, such as live tracking of the buses as well as specific information about pink buses.

Users also said that the option to buy tickets is unavailable online which they found inconvenient.

When the provincial minister for transport and mass transit, Sharjeel Memon added two routes to the pink bus in March last year, after the successful run of the bus on a single route, he said that they would add more in the future.

After that, pink buses were launched in Hyderabad, however, their operation quickly ceased due to a “lack of ridership”.

When Dawn.com asked Dayo about the lack of growth, he said that the ridership of the bus is very low — at only 1,800 per day — which makes it unsustainable for the operator.

“It is us who have forcefully told them to run the operations. Otherwise, it would have closed down,” Dayo noted.

Dayo’s statistics are, however, contradictory to those provided by the project director of NRTC, Sohaib Shafique, who said that the ridership of pink buses stands at 2,700 per day on weekdays and 1,000 per day on weekends. He added that for the whole of last year, they have worked on understanding the pattern on which women use the bus and in the future, they will incorporate the lessons learnt to improve the service.

For now, Shafique said that the cost is spread among and absorbed by the whole operation of Peoples Bus Service. Moreover, they have increased the headway from an initial nine minutes to 15-20 minutes.

“We will keep it running for the next 12 years with concessions from the government and in the meantime, figure out a way to run it sustainably without the GoS,” added Shafique.

One of the ways the contractors plan to make the operation sustainable is by introducing inter-feeder routes which means that the buses would go beyond the main arteries on which they are currently running, onboarding people who are far from the main roads.

“The connection will hopefully increase the ridership, making the service sustainable,” said the project director.

“We are also getting some non-fare revenues such as through advertisements on buses and bus stops, but it isn’t much,” he explained.

While the people running the operations are figuring out a way to keep the pink bus operational, daily commuters fear that the closure of the service will cause great problems.

“It would be hell to commute in the red bus; they shouldn’t even think about closing it down, rather they should put more buses in this fleet,” said Fatima.

For now, the service has run smoothly for a year. The speculation that it was a political gimmick seems to have lost merit as buses are still being seen on the roads even after the elections in which the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) won with a majority.

Regardless of whom it benefits and the popularity it has brought to the PPP, the pink bus has become a safe haven for women in Karachi, giving them the much-needed courage to step into the public after years of harassment and unwanted male gaze on the roads.

A year on, pink buses continue to empower women on Karachi’s roads

Karachi's pink buses have defied scepticism by remaining operational post-elections, dispelling notions of the service being merely a political gimmick.

www.dawn.com

 

[Bewal Express]

This criminal can be heard here telling (In)Justice Qayyum to fix a case. This idiot is our selected PM today

 

[BouncerGuy]

Women can travel free of cost in Karachi’s pink buses for two months

The Sindh government on Monday launched two more routes of the women-only Pink Bus Service and announced that female passengers could avail the facility free of cost for a period of two months.

Of the two new routes, one would connect Powerhouse Chowrangi in North Karachi with Nasir Jump in Korangi and the other would ferry female passengers from Gulshan-e-Hadeed to Tower.

The initiative, launched under the Peoples Bus Service, would take the total routes of women-only service to five as three routes are already operating. With a fleet of total of 10 new buses, the Pink Bus Service is expected to serve thousands of women on the two busy routes.

During the launching ceremony organised by Sindh transport department at Frere Hall Karachi, chief of the Pakistan Peoples Party women’s division Faryal Talpur called the service a “gift from the Sindh government to women.”

“The provision of safe and comfortable travel is a valuable gift from the Sindh government to women. By offering such facilities and empowering women, we can foster development and prosperity in our society,” she said in her address.

Ms Talpur urged the transport minister to introduce “at least” more economical and cheaper fares for the women passengers, if the bus service was unable offer free rides to them.

On her appeal, Sindh Transport Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon announced two-month free travel for all women passengers on the new routes of the Pink Bus Service. Karachi Mayor Barrister Murtaza Wahab, his deputy Salman Abdullah Murad and Sindh minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah also attended the ceremony.

In his address, the transport minister said the fresh initiative was part of materialisation of the PPP’s manifesto which promised women empowerment.

“These new initiatives are actually the results of guidance of the leadership of the PPP particularly, Ms Talpur,” he said. “This initiative has garnered widespread appreciation globally, with international media commending the project by the Sindh government. The high-quality standards, affordable fares, and commitment to safety of the pink bus service have been praised worldwide,” he shared.

He said that the efforts were underway to train female drivers, conductors and the staff, ensuring efficient and effective service delivery and the Sindh government remained steadfast in its commitment to empower women.

In the ceremony, Ms Talpur presented licenses to 4 female drivers of the Pink Bus Service.

Launched in February 2023, the Pink Bus Service is now offering services on five routes, with one operating between Model Colony and II Chundrigar Road passing through Star Gate, Nata Khan Bridge, Drigh Road Station, PAF Base Faisal, Laal Kothi, Karsaz, Nursery, FTC, Regent Plaza, JPMC, Cant Station, Metropole, Regal Chowk and Aram Bagh.

The second route is run between Powerhouse Chowrangi, North Karachi and Indus Hospital, Korangi passing through Nagan Chowrangi, Shafiq Mor, Gulshan Chowrangi, Johar Mor, COD, Drigh Road, Shah Faisal Colony and Singer Chowrangi, Korangi No 5.

The third runs from Numaish Chowrangi to Sea View Beach and then Ibrahim Hyderi, passing through MA Jinnah Road, Zaibunnisa Street, Metropole, Teen Talwar, Do Talwar, Abdullah Shah Ghazi, Dolmen Mall and McDonalds.

SOURCE: DAWN