Pakistan asked to improve ranking on WEF gender parity report.

LAHORE -- World Bank Country Director for Pakistan Illango Patchamuthu says Pakistan, despite making progress a great deal on gender parity, is required to improve its ranking by 20 points on the Global Gender Gap Report of the World Economic Forum (WEF) by the next year.

He was speaking at a consultative session on World Bank's 'Girls Learn, Women Earn' initiative organised by Uzma Kardar, chairperson of the Punjab Assembly's Standing Committee on Gender Mainstreaming, here at the provincial assembly.

Terming women economic empowerment and girl education of utmost importance, Mr Patchamuthu said there was a need to take some triggered actions that could accelerate progress in the prioritized areas.

He added in the recent ranking of Pakistan on World Economic Forum report on gender parity, Pakistan did not get recognised despite doing so good on many fronts.

There were policy and legislative barriers but Pakistan needed to demonstrate its progress on, he said and added that by the next year, Pakistan must improve its ranking by 20 points on the gender parity report of WEF.

Uzma Kardar said gender equality was central to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To achieve the desired economic growth, she said, there was a need to create an enabling environment for women to learn and grow in the job market.

Ms Kardar highlighted that harassment of women in public places was a serious problem and pointed out that there were laws to protect women but poor implementation and enforcement remained a challenge.

LCWU Vice Chancellor Bushra Mirza pointed out the issues of harassment in academic institutions, specifically the universities. She said committees had been formed in universities but they never gave the...