Decision to keep FWBL in public sector hailed

President First Women Bank (FWBL) Shafquat Sultana on Thursday hailed the government decision of keeping FWBL in the public sector by de-listing it from the list of public sector entities to be privatised through Privatisation Commission of Pakistan.
The chief of FWBL said that the Finance Division has decided to keep the FWBL in the public sector by purchasing the shares of private shareholder banks ie Muslim Commercial Bank, Habib Bank Limited, Allied Bank and United Bank Limited through the State Bank of Pakistan.
Accordingly, the Division has requested the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CcoP) to de-list the FWBL from the list of Privatisation Commission. Elaborating the positive role of the bank, Shafqat said the bank is first financial institution, a combination of commercial bank and DFI, which is catering to the socio-economic needs of women.
She informed the members of Sindh Assembly that account holders of the bank are both female and male, professional women and women entrepreneurs. She said that the bank's areas of financing are agriculture, art, literature, cosmetology, crafts and jewellery, education, special education and others.
She said that all public sector and donors' funds earmarked for women development should be deposited in the FWBL branches at national and provincial levels. In this regard, she said the FWBL is requesting all women parliamentarians to bank with it thereby setting precedence for other women to follow. She said that for the support services, business centres of FWBL have trained some 6500 women in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.
Under the pilot project of Jafakash Aurat, which is spanned over three years, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Ministry of Women Development in collaboration with the FWBL have earmarked Rs 35 million for economic empowerment of rural women, with a revolving credit line of Rs 20 million. President of the Bank also appreciated the role of Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) for it financial support.
She said for combating child labour in carpet weaving industry in the districts of Gujranwala, Sheikupura, Hafizabad, Faisalabad, Tobatek Singh and Multan, the ILO introduced several training programmes and provided skills' development training to 1594 rural women. For the first time in 2002, the FWBL had directly outreached women living below poverty line in rural areas, she informed.
The bank was established in 1989 by Shaheed Benazir Bhutto during her first government. On occasion, Deputy Speaker Sindh Assembly Syeda Shehla Raza urged the women from all walks of life to face all the challenges boldly for getting rid of obsolete customs.