Post by Ibrat News Network

Pakistan has one of the lowest rates of female entrepreneurship in the world. According to the World Bank and the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), only around 1% of entrepreneurs in Pakistan are women. The Asian Development Bank further reports that women own less than 8% of the country's small and medium-sized enterprises, with the overwhelming majority operating as micro or small businesses rather than large corporate enterprises. These statistics should concern every policymaker committed to women's economic empowerment. They also raise a fundamental question: if so few women own businesses, why do Pakistan's Women Chambers of Commerce and Industry operate under governance rules that exclude so many of them? The answer is both simple and compelling. Women's chambers were created because women entrepreneurs have historically faced structural barriers that limited their participation in the economy. They were intended to provide women with a collective voice, promote entrepreneurship, facilitate access to markets and finance, encourage business formalisation, build leadership, and advocate for policies that would enable more women to establish and grow successful enterprises. Above all, they were envisioned as institutions that would represent women entrepreneurs who had long remained underrepresented within Pakistan's business community. Thirteen years after the introduction of the Trade Organisations Act, 2013 and the accompanying rules, it is timely to examine whether every aspect of the current regulatory framework continues to serve its original purpose, particularly the requirement that 50% of the Executive Committee of a chamber comprise Corporate Class members with an annual business turnover of at least Rs50 million. According to women's chambers seeking renewal of their licences, this requirement is routinely cited as a ground of non-compliance during the renewal process. There is no publicly available explanation as to why this threshold was adopted or what evidence justified it. The rule epitomises a recurring flaw in public policymaking where regulations are too often drafted in isolation from the realities they are intended to govern. Another troubling aspect of this policy is its practical impact on the sustainability of women's chambers themselves. Over the years, a number of women's chambers have reportedly faced regulatory difficulties, including the loss or non-renewal of their licences. If, as has been widely suggested, the inability to satisfy the Corporate Class requirement has contributed to these outcomes, then the policy warrants urgent review. An institutional framework created to promote women's entrepreneurship should not become the very reason that women's chambers struggle to survive. This is precisely why greater transparency is needed. #WomenInBusiness #CorporateRules #PakistaniBusinesses #WomenEntrepreneurs #GenderGap #PakistanNews