Women in Pakistan make up 48.76% of the population according to the 2017 census of Pakistan. Women in Pakistan have played an important role throughout Pakistan's history and they are allowed to vote in elections since 1956. In Pakistan, women have held high offices including that of the Prime Minister, Speaker of the National Assembly, Leader of the Opposition, as well as federal ministers, judges, and serving commissioned posts in the armed forces, with Lieutenant General Nigar Johar attaining the highest military post for a woman. Benazir Bhutto was sworn in as the first woman Prime Minister of Pakistan on 2 December 1988.
Education in Pakistan is overseen by the Federal Ministry of Education and the provincial governments, while the federal government mostly assists in curriculum development, accreditation and the financing of research and development. Article 25-A of the Constitution of Pakistan obligates the state to provide free and compulsory quality education to children of the age group 5 to 16 years. "The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years in such a manner as may be determined by law". Considering the challenges confronting the youth in Pakistan, it's hardly astonishing that well-off and educated young individuals and professionals are opting to depart the country whenever they have the opportunity, exacerbating the brain drain phenomenon.
Arfa Abdul Karim Randhawa (Urdu: ارفع کریم رندھاوا, Punjabi: ارفع کریم رندھاوا; 2 February 1995 – 14 January 2012) was a Pakistani student and computer prodigy who became the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) in 2004. She was submitted to the Guinness Book of World Records for her achievement. Arfa kept the title until 2008 and went on to represent Pakistan on various international forums, including the TechEd Developers Conference. She received Pakistan's highest literary award, the Presidential Pride of Performance from General Pervez Musharraf in 2005. A science park in Lahore, the Arfa Software Technology Park, is named in her honour. At the age of 10, Arfa was invited by Bill Gates to visit Microsoft's headquarters in the United States. She died in 2012, aged 16, from a cardiac arrest.
The Kinnaird College for Women (KCW) is a university located in Lahore, Pakistan. It is a women's liberal arts university.
National Commission on Status of Women (NCSW) is a Pakistani statutory body established by the President Pervez Musharraf, under the XXVI Ordinance dated 17 July 2000. It is an outcome of the national and international commitments of the Government of Pakistan like Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, 1995; and 1998 National Plan of Action (NPA) for Women, 1998.
Government Viqar-un-Nisa Women University, formerly known as Government Viqar-un-Nisa College for Women, Rawalpindi, is a public women's university in Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan.
Faysal Quraishi is a Pakistani actor, producer, and television host. He is one of Pakistan's highest-paid actors. He is the recipient of more than 20 nationally recognised awards. He first gained recognition for playing the leading role of Boota in the television series Boota from Toba Tek Singh (1999) and has been a part of more than 200 projects.
Tasneem Zehra Husain is a Pakistani theoretical physicist. She is one of few Pakistani women to obtain a doctorate in physics, and the first Pakistani woman string theorist. An eminent scientist, she has been a guest speaker at a various schools and colleges in an effort to promote science and technology in Pakistan.
Asifa Bano Quraishi is an American educator and legal scholar. She is a professor of law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she teaches courses in Islamic law and U.S. constitutional law. She has served as a law clerk in United States federal courts. Her recent publications address issues of Islamic constitutionalism, in the context of separation of legal authority as well as methodologies of textual interpretation. Quraishi has also written articles for news outlets like The Washington Post and Middle East Eye addressing myths and issues associated with Islam.
Nergis Mavalvala is a Pakistani-American astrophysicist. She is the Curtis and Kathleen Marble Professor of Astrophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she is also the dean of the university's school of science. She was previously the Associate Head of the university's Department of Physics. Mavalvala is best known for her work on the detection of gravitational waves in the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) project, and for the exploration and experimental demonstration of macroscopic quantum effects such as squeezing in optomechanics. She was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2010.
The Information Technology University (ITU) is a public university in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Founded in 2012, the university was founded and headed by Umar Saif and is modeled after the MIT.
The federal secretary is the highest-ranking position in the Government of Pakistan, occupied by the most senior civil servant in a specific ministry or division. The secretary is the administrative head of that ministry or division and oversees and enforces public policy matters. The authority for the creation of this post solely rests with the Cabinet of Pakistan. The position holder is a BPS-22 grade officer, usually belonging to the Pakistan Administrative Service.
The 2015 Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly elections were held on 8 June 2015. Elections were held in 24 constituencies, each electing one member to the 2nd Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly. 269 candidates contested these elections, either representing one of the political parties of Gilgit-Baltistan or being an independent candidate.
Ismat Raza Shahjahan is a socialist-feminist political leader from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. She is the president of Women Democratic Front (WDF), the deputy general-secretary of the Awami Workers Party (AWP), and a leading member of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM).
Women Democratic Front (WDF) is an independent socialist-feminist organization based in Pakistan. It was founded in the federal capital Islamabad on March 8, 2018, by hundreds of delegates from Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Anoosh Masood Chaudhry is a Pakistani police officer who serves as the deputy director, Administration, for Elite Police of Punjab, Pakistan since 26 September 2019. She was named as Lahore's best crime fighter for 2018. She became the first female Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan on 11 December 2014.
Jhooti is a 2020 Pakistani television series started airing on ARY Digital from 1 February 2020. Iqra Aziz has played a leading role with her real life husband Yasir Hussain who played the main antagonist in the show. Directed By Syed Ramish Rizvi. Jhooti revolves around Nirma who has habit of lying in order to get whatever she wants. She lies with conviction and never gets caught.
Jinaan Hussain is a Pakistani actress, model, singer and painter. She made her acting debut with theatre and moved on to television. Her debut series on television was Aisay Jiya Jaley (2013) aired on Hum TV. She rose to fame with Bashar Momin and subsequently played the lead roles in several television series including Baba Jani and Rabba Mainu Maaf Kareen and Koji.
Sahira Kazmi is a retired Pakistani actress, producer and director. She is best known for her role in the country's first-ever colour series Parchaiyan (1976) and for producing the cult-classic blockbuster series Dhoop Kinare (1987) and the acclaimed drama Nijaat (1993). She along with Uzma Gillani, Roohi Bano, Tahira Naqvi and Khalida Riyasat dominated the television screens of Pakistan during 1970s and 1980s.
Rumana Husain is an artist, educator and a children's writer from Karachi, Pakistan. She is the author of over 60 children's books and the coffee-table book, Karachi walla - A subcontinent within a city.
