By Sardar Khan Niazi

In a country where nearly half the population is female, the notion of empowerment for women should be natural — yet we remain alarmingly far from that ideal. In Pakistan, the struggle for gender parity remains steeped in structural, cultural, and economic barriers. Still, promising initiatives are lighting the path forward. What we need now is consistent political will, cross-sector partnership, and a systematic shift in mindset. Take, for instance, the work of PPAF in partnership with the NCSW: they have formed some 94,000 women’s community institutions to build leadership among grassroots women, disbursed over 1.7 million interest-free loans, and provided vocational training to over 222,000 women.  PAIMAN has trained well over 5,700 women in skills such as stitching, embroidery, bakery, and even digital marketing since 2006 — and empowered them to become income-generating agents in their homes and communities. The federal government recently pledged to establish a Working Women’s Endowment Fund and expand women’s economic integration through the SMEDA-supported small business ecosystem. These efforts are important, but the scale, coherence, and context-sensitivity of action must improve. One of the key gains in recent years has been the shift from purely giving aid to women toward building agency: training, leadership development, and financial access. Kashf Foundation pioneered a woman-centric microfinance model in Pakistan and evolved to address social as well as economic empowerment, lifting many clients above the poverty line.  Moreover, NGOs like Women’s Digital League and the Hunar Foundation are enabling women to tap into the digital economy and remote freelancing platforms. In other words, from passive beneficiaries to decision-makers. Nevertheless, for all these bright spots, the broader landscape remains troubling. Research shows that women’s labor force participation remains among the lowest globally, and much of the work women perform is unpaid, informal, or hidden. Cultural norms, mobility restrictions, safety risks, and lack of access to markets continue to hamper full participation. For example, even after skills development, the next step — market linkages, business scaling, transport, and technology often remains missing. To turn promise into sustained change, Pakistan must focus on three interlinked areas: It is not enough to train a woman in tailoring or digital freelancing; there must also be accessible markets, financing, legal recognition, and technology infrastructure. The policy pledge to integrate women in the SME sector is encouraging, but translating it into results means ensuring rural women have internet access, transport, legal identities and market linkages. The PPAF-NCSW data show the scale of asset and training support, but the next frontier is linking that to enterprise growth and sustainable value chains. Empowerment is not just about skills and jobs — it is about agency, voice, decision-making, and changing mindsets. Educating women, yes, but also engaging men, community leaders, and institutions. In rural Pakistan, especially, patriarchal norms limit choices of women.  Small-scale NGO efforts are crucial, but cannot change society alone. We need sustainable funding mechanisms and institutional accountability. The government’s announcement of a Women’s Endowment Fund is a positive start.  Women’s empowerment in Pakistan is no longer a niche conversation; it is central to national development. The idea that half the population must remain on the sidelines is economically and socially imprudent. The data and the initiatives above show what is possible: leadership training, financial inclusion, skills development, digital access, and changing norms. However, to shift from possibility to reality, Pakistan must scale what works, align policy with ground-level action, and treat empowerment not as charity but as fundamental to our development. If we succeed, the dividends will ripple across households, communities, and the entire economy. If we falter, we risk wasting human potential and squandering our collective future. The time for serious, sustained, structural change is now.