Women’s Parliamentary Caucus discusses budget from gender responsive budgeting lens

Islamabad:Members of Parliament, experts and civil society representatives gave suggestions and policy recommendations to improve gender equality through better use of public funds, at a routable organised by the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus under the leadership of Dr. Shahida Rehmani on the Federal Budget 2025-26.

About 100 members of the National Assembly and the Senate of Pakistan as well as distinguished sector experts, civil society representatives and the media discussed strategies designed with a focus on empowering women and girls in Pakistan.

In her opening remarks Dr. Shahida Rehmani emphasized the importance of making strategic public investments to reduce disparities faced by women, girls and transgender persons. “Recognizing the importance of ensuring budgets effectively serve the needs of women in all their diversity, the WPC launched a Gender Budget Strategy in January 2023 and has since consistently worked on promoting GRB,” she said. Members of the WPC, she said are actively engaged in parliamentary discussions on increasing budgets that improve gender parity.

Barrister Aqeel Malik, Minister of State for Law and Justice and Member of the Gender Mainstreaming Committee reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to reducing gender disparity. He admitted that continued and increased efforts are needed to support women and girls have equal opportunities. Dr. Nafisa Shah, Chair of the Gender Main Streaming Committee of the National Assembly commended the WPC for convening the RT which helps the legislators engage with civil society and sector experts to review, discuss and develop recommendations. “For the first time the Finance Committee will review the Finance Bill before it is passed,” she shared.

Dr. Shah suggested that the WPC should present the suggestions and recommendations from this event with the Finance Committee. Shaista Pervez, Chair, SNG Unit, said that following the 18th Amendment provinces had primary responsibility for the delivery of basic services like education and health. The event was moderated by Zafarullah Khan, a distinguished expert in gender and constitutional issues, and featured a series of insightful presentations and discussions.

A key segment of the event was a presentation by Rashida Dohad, Executive Director of the Omar Asghar Khan Foundation on the findings of analysing gender-responsiveness of the proposed federal budget 2025-26. Her presentation included recommendations for increasing a focus enhancing the federal budget to better support women’s economic and social empowerment. The event was concluded with a vote of thanks by Sidra Saeed, Programme Advisor for Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Pakistan which collaborated with the WPC to organize this event. Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) is a global institution committed to advancing social democracy, gender equality, and sustainable development.