ISLAMABAD: Former Foreign Secretary of Pakistan and former Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Ambassador Tehmina Janjua, has said that greater participation of women in peace, security and diplomacy depends on equity, access to higher education and removal of obstacles to career advancement.<\/p>\n
She made these remarks while delivering the keynote address at a seminar titled \u201cPakistan\u2019s Women in Peace and Security,\u201d organised by the Arms Control and Disarmament Centre (ACDC) at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI).<\/p>\n
The seminar brought together women leaders, diplomats, strategic experts, policy practitioners and representatives of international organisations to discuss the contribution of women across hard and soft security domains. These included nuclear safety, security and strategic stability, as well as peacebuilding and non-traditional security challenges such as climate change.<\/p>\n
Ambassador Janjua said women\u2019s leadership must be expanded in multilateral diplomacy, arms control negotiations and international disarmament frameworks. She noted that Pakistani women diplomats had consistently protected national security interests at international forums.<\/p>\n
She emphasised that national security and diplomacy could not be complete without the full participation of women. Referring to structural and social barriers, she said excluding women meant depriving the country of half of its expertise and peacemaking potential.<\/p>\n
Her recommendations included removing social barriers at home and in workplaces, promoting higher education for women, mapping data on female experts in security sectors, providing student counselling, introducing structured internships in think tanks and media, and including women in strategic counter-terrorism analysis.<\/p>\n
Speaking as guest of honour, Ms Pernille Ironside, UN Resident Coordinator a.i. and UNICEF Representative in Pakistan, said women\u2019s inclusion under UNSCR 1325 was a basic security principle and not merely a welfare concern.<\/p>\n
She said one in four civilians killed in conflicts were women, while women remained seriously underrepresented in formal peace processes. She added that effective security required drawing on the full potential of women in science, diplomacy and security to improve analysis, challenge assumptions and shape strategies rooted in local realities.<\/p>\n
Ms Ironside said Pakistan\u2019s young population, comprising 67 percent, was its greatest asset and central to long-term stability and prosperity. Referring to Pakistan\u2019s climate vulnerabilities, including devastating floods, she said national resilience and regional stability required women to be placed at the centre of decision-making in economic, environmental and security structures.<\/p>\n
She reaffirmed the United Nations\u2019 continued support for Pakistan\u2019s journey towards inclusive growth and sustainable peace.<\/p>\n
Ms Noreen Iftakhar, Senior International Relations Officer at the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA), spoke on \u201cWomen\u2019s Contributions in Nuclear Safety, Security and Regulation.\u201d She said women\u2019s technical, legal and regulatory expertise directly strengthened national nuclear safety systems.<\/p>\n
She outlined the role of women at PNRA in areas such as field inspections, licensing, emergency preparedness and environmental safety. She said an empowering workplace culture and equal access to international platforms, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), were essential for the advancement of women in STEM and strategic regulation.<\/p>\n
Dr Salma Malik, Associate Professor at the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University, addressed the subject of \u201cWomen\u2019s Role in Promoting Strategic Stability.\u201d She said the gender gap in Pakistan\u2019s security architecture could be reduced by creating structured avenues such as a dedicated Women, Peace and Strategic Stability Forum, policy apprenticeships and formal inclusion in nuclear risk-reduction dialogues.<\/p>\n
She also called for the inclusion of women experts in crisis-management and nuclear risk-reduction discussions, as well as in assessments related to artificial intelligence, cyber issues, autonomy and escalation risks.<\/p>\n
Ms Fahmida Iqbal Khan, Deputy Country Representative of UN Women Pakistan, spoke on \u201cWomen\u2019s Role in Peacebuilding and Peacekeeping.\u201d She said women were a decisive counter-terrorism and security asset, and that their inclusion made peace more durable.<\/p>\n
She stressed the need to connect Pakistan\u2019s strong international peacekeeping record with its internal security strategy. She said women must be engaged at the grassroots level to address gendered security threats and weaponised technology.<\/p>\n
Ms Khan called for urgent institutional steps, including a National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, integration of WPS into counter-terrorism frameworks, and greater female representation in police and peacekeeping workforces.<\/p>\n
Ms Aisha Aziz Khan, Chief Executive of CSCCC, highlighted \u201cWomen\u2019s Contributions to Climate Resilience and Non-Traditional Security.\u201d She said rural women were on the front lines of climate disasters, food insecurity and water scarcity, but remained critically underrepresented in decision-making.<\/p>\n
She said Pakistan\u2019s twin challenges of climate vulnerability and rapid population growth required urgent structural reform. She also noted that empowering women could increase GDP by 9 to 23 percent. For lasting resilience, she proposed a 20-year affirmative action plan with reserved seats and equal access to resources for women across all sectors.<\/p>\n
Earlier, ISSI Director General Ambassador Moin ul Haque, in his welcome remarks, said women had a pivotal role in shaping national security, multilateral diplomacy and sustainable peacebuilding. He said women\u2019s empowerment was an investment in national resilience, security and progress, adding that no nation could achieve its full potential without using the talent of all its people.<\/p>\n
Setting the agenda for the seminar, ACDC Director Malik Qasim Mustafa said Pakistani women had made important progress in foreign policy, scientific bodies, defence forces and academia. He said the seminar aimed to bring their technical, regulatory and policy contributions into sharper focus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At an ISSI seminar, Ambassador Tehmina Janjua said Pakistan\u2019s peace, security and diplomacy need greater women\u2019s participation and fewer career barriers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":21984,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}