ISLAMABAD: Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) Chairperson Marvi Memon has said Turkish businesswomen are role models for Pakistani women.
Marvi, during an interview with Turkish ‘Anadolu’ news agency, said that Turkish investors could help raise new businesses from poverty in Pakistan and empower women. She said that the $1.02 billion BISP is a fund to provide cash to 5.2 million of Pakistan’s poorest families.
“The aim is specifically to take care of women from a dignity point of view – we do poverty management and the government does poverty alleviation through its various other development projects,” Marvi said.
To help women emerge from poverty and go into business, Marvi has proposed encouraging leading Turkish women entrepreneurs to inspire vulnerable Pakistani women.
“It’s a ‘sisters in success’ concept,” Marvi said, adding, “Women who are leaders, women who are entrepreneurs should be used as role models for the most vulnerable women in our countries. I am looking for collaborating with Turkish role models who can both inspire our women and invest in them.”
In the textile industry, which is one of Pakistan’s major exporters to Turkey, designers in both countries could link up and utilize the skills of vulnerable women in Pakistan. “Our women produce textiles but they don’t have the market access,” Marvi said.
Marvi, who visited Istanbul over the weekend to address the Bosphorus summit on poverty reduction as well as attend a meeting on violence against women, identified art and medicine as other areas where Turkey and Pakistan could cooperate.
“There is no better way to reach the hearts of the Pakistani people,” she said. “The Pakistani people see the Turkish people as brothers and sisters. We should employ a people-to-people strategy to connect with the people and government of Turkey.”
The BISP has established 25-strong committees of women across the country to discuss economic development and other issues affecting them such as violence against women. “It’s a great place for them to come and talk and for us to be able to help them and that is a unique platform,” she said.
The BISP has been greatly helped by Pakistan’s improving economy, according to the chairperson. “Under the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistani economy is now growing at about the rate of 4.2 percent,” she said. “This has enabled the current government to adopt a four-fold programme economic growth, putting an end to extremism, securing the energy supply and establishing a full-scale social safety net, of which the BISP is a key part.”
“This has now improved to 11 percent because the economy is now doing well and with the help of new policies by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar,” Marvi added.
