Islamabad\u2013 The Women\u2019s Parliamentary Caucus (WPC), led by Secretary Dr. Shahida Rehmani, hosted a high-level roundtable on \u201cFederal Budget FY2025-26: Gender Responsive Budgeting for Women\u2019s Empowerment in Pakistan\u201d in partnership with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES). The session gathered Members of Parliament, civil society leaders, and policy experts to push for a more inclusive and equitable approach to national financial planning.<\/p>\n
In her opening remarks, Dr. Rehmani stressed that national budgets must reflect the needs of women and girls and that Gender-Responsive Budgeting (GRB) ensures resource allocation is equitable\u2014not separate. She underscored WPC\u2019s commitment to closing gender gaps in education, health, political participation, and care infrastructure, and called GRB a national imperative.<\/p>\n
The event was attended by key figures including State Minister Barrister Aqeel Malik, Parliamentary Secretary Mr. Danyal Chaudhary, and Convenor of the Parliamentary Taskforce on SDGs Ms. Shaista Pervaiz Malik, alongside MNAs and Senators participating both physically and virtually. Civil society also played a prominent role, with Ms. Rashida Dohad from the Omar Asghar Khan Foundation presenting key policy recommendations to support social protection, nutrition, and marginalized groups.<\/p>\n
Several Parliamentarians raised critical issues. Senator Fawzia Arshad warned of fraudulent schemes targeting women in the name of BISP. MNA Shahida Begum expressed alarm over new taxes on fortified food and reduced allocations for education and health. MNA Samina Khalid Ghurki urged the revival of local crop procurement policies to benefit farmers, while MNA Farukh Khan advocated for increased support for working women, including daycare and private sector quotas.<\/p>\n
Additional concerns were raised by MNAs Syeda Shehla Raza and Rana Ansar, who criticized tax proposals on formula milk and solar panels, while highlighting the importance of addressing gender-based violence and rural entrepreneurship. Dr. Shazia Sobia Aslam Soomro emphasized aligning hospital funding with assessed needs, and Ms. Shaista Pervaiz Malik stressed cross-government collaboration to enhance budget efficiency in devolved sectors.<\/p>\n
Dr. Nafisa Shah lauded the Caucus and stakeholders for fostering meaningful debate, noting that for the first time, the Finance Committee is reviewing the Finance Bill and welcomes policy recommendations. She emphasized the urgency of correcting flawed gender data and proposed forming a Cabinet Committee on Gender Mainstreaming.<\/p>\n
Former MNA Mehnaz Akber Aziz called for stronger male allyship in closing the gender gap and advocated for better indicators to guide inclusive policy design.<\/p>\n
Participants proposed several additional priorities for the 2025\u201326 federal budget, including pension coverage for elderly private sector retirees, taxes on unhealthy foods coupled with health incentives, climate adaptation strategies, and declaring a national health emergency in response to the ongoing health crisis.<\/p>\n
The roundtable marked a significant step in institutionalizing gender-responsive budgeting practices, with broad consensus that Pakistan\u2019s fiscal policy must advance women\u2019s rights and economic participation across all sectors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Islamabad\u2013 The Women\u2019s Parliamentary Caucus (WPC), led by Secretary Dr. Shahida Rehmani, hosted a high-level roundtable on \u201cFederal Budget FY2025-26: Gender Responsive Budgeting for Women\u2019s Empowerment in Pakistan\u201d in partnership with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES). The session gathered Members of Parliament, civil society leaders, and policy experts to push for a more inclusive and equitable approach to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2846","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\/2846","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2846"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2848,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2846\/revisions\/2848"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}