Strategic Shift: FPCCI Formally Launches ‘Pakistan Women Economic Charter 2035’.

Declaring that the economic exclusion of the country’s majority demographic is no longer viable, the leadership of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has formally launched the Pakistan Women Economic Charter 2035.

Addressing a high-profile press conference in Lahore, FPCCI President Atif Ikram Sheikh and Vice President Qurrat-ul-Ain emphasized that Pakistan’s nearly 130 million women constitute a striking 52 percent of the national population. They asserted that treating the country’s most valuable human capital as a peripheral minority is a severe policy failure, demanding that women be positioned at the absolute center of national economic decision-making.

Dismantling Barriers to Inclusive Growth

The freshly unveiled charter sets up a 10-year policy blueprint designed to transition women from informal or uncounted labor into formal, high-growth economic segments.

The foundational pillars of the newly established charter call for several critical transformations:

• Creation of the National Women Economic Council: Setting up an autonomous, high-level council to directly advise federal ministries on gender-inclusive industrial and tax policies.
• Fiscal Allocations in Budget 2026: Proposing specialized tax holidays, reduced corporate tax rates for registered women entrepreneurs, and dedicated low-interest refinancing schemes across local banks.
• Strengthening Regional Women Chambers: Actively injecting financial and administrative assistance into regional Women Chambers of Commerce to expand rural handicraft, tech, and agricultural trade pipelines.

Moving Beyond Peripheral Representation

“You cannot mathematically expect a nation to achieve a stable 5% or 6% GDP growth rate when more than half of its workforce is systemically locked out of the formal balance sheet. The Pakistan Women Economic Charter 2035 is an economic necessity for national survival.”

The leadership concluded that previous economic stabilization programs have historically overlooked gender-disaggregated financial planning. By formalizing this comprehensive charter, the FPCCI aims to lobby the state to look at gender equity through a purely fiscal lens proving that providing equal access to markets, capital, and corporate boardrooms is the single fastest way to lift rural households out of poverty and secure sustainable economic sovereign growth for Pakistan.

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