Women in the workforce and the same old faces – this week in Pakistan’s business and economics twitterverse

Cars, the coronavirus in India, and the Forbes 30 under 30 list dominated conversations this week

Every week we compile the highlights from Pakistan’s business and economics twitterverse. This week we come to you with a pledge, to try and include more women. There are already fewer female voices in this space than male, and the ones that are there often get drowned out. So we encourage you to tag, highlight, and share any tweets from women that you feel would fit in this section. 

Other than women’s inclusion, the same old faces looking for new economic solutions, blasts from the past, twelve Pakistanis making it to the Forbes 30 under 30 list, and newer car options dominated conversations on social media. All this and more, as Profit’s Ariba Shahid brings you our social media roundup. 

Women’s inclusion 

As Moiz Ur Rehman points out, Pakistan’s dismal positioning in the global gender gap index goes hand in hand in its slow economic progress. For him, a socioeconomic revolution awaits once the gap is bridged and women have the same opportunities as men.

It is also pertinent to note that for the social media round up, much like many other stories, most of the people featured are men. It is not because we do not value female voices, but there are fewer voices that make it to the surface. But we are committed to trying and making sure that women’s voices are given attention and listened to. 

Same old same old 

Speaking of voices, @2paisay, an account we absolutely love to follow is right on the money in their observation of the silliness of expecting fresh ideas and creative solutions from the same faces that have been sitting as economic advisors for decades now. “Same faces, different government” works well in Pakistan, and cabinet pictures from the past two decades put side by side could make for some very intense games of “spot the differences.” 

We are not saying that the old faces are all useless by virtue of being old. There are serious and very intelligent academics like Dr Ishrat Hussain, who despite being an old face, is a face reporters feel reassured to see in meetings. But expecting out of the box solutions from these same old people is delusional. 

Blast from the past gh

Blast from the past from the VC space. Aatif Awan, from Indus valley capital talks us through how strongly he felt about Bazaar and how he’s glad about being right. They say if you believe in something, you should go all in. Looks like it worked out well. Our only question is whether Hamza, Saad, and Aatif used to send whatsapp messages saying “email sent, please respond” after sending emails to each other.

Squandering potential 

Pakistan is like that kid whose parents tell it to just pass classes and not worry about being the first, second or third, especially in this case. Naveed Iftikhar points out how Pakistan’s labor force productivity growth is low in comparison to regional counterparts. However, he also asks an important question: how do we make it better for the youth? Our answer is to get women on board, after all, they account for half of your population.

Edhi – Our best foot forward

The Edhi Foundation has always been a name Pakistanis can pride themselves over. Salam to Edhi sahib and the legacy he left behind. Humanity is beyond the constructs of religion, race, and the construct of borders. Humanity is universal. 

We must point out that this is more a symbolic gesture in the grand scheme of things, but one that is touching. On a less heartwarming note, with how things are going in Pakistan and the government’s continued refusal to take action, we hope Pakistan will not be needing Edhi’s services like this.  

Monetary tightening 

Faizan Kamran, an investment analyst at a leading brokerage firm feels that behavior of the yields is not a surprise and that the chances of a rate hike are as slim as the chances of this reporter having something healthy for iftar. In his opinion, the decision to go for monetary tightening would be premature especially given the current circumstances due to covid 

Thirty under thirty 

The Forbes 30 under 30 lists feature 12 individuals from Pakistan which include Abdullah Siddiqui a musician, Shayan Mahmud, Managing Partner of Eikon7, Iman Jamall and Hasib Malik, co founders of creditbook, Yaseen Khalid, Mohammad Saquib Malik, and Nabeel Siddiqui –  co founders of ModulusTech Pvt ltd – Saad Jangda and Hamza Jawaid, co-founders of Bazaar Technologies, Zohaib Ali & Owais Qureshi, co founders of Dastgyr, and Hannia Zia a mentor for Venture for Pakistan. Kalsoom tweets her appreciation for all the Pakistanis that made the list especially the ones from the VC world in Pakistan.

Breaking the big three

Planning on buying a new car in 2021? Arsalan Hanif, an investment analyst at a leading brokerage firm points out that 15+ new cars are expected to launch giving you more variety to choose from, given that you have the money to pay for one. However, what is interesting is the fact that no longer do we see just Toyota, Honda and Suzuki on the list. United Motors, Changan, Proton, Lucky Motors, Hyundai Nishat, MG, BAIC, and Cherry have made the list too!

Ariba Shahid
Ariba Shahid
The author is a business journalist at Profit. She can be reached at [email protected] or at twitter.com/AribaShahid

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