IT is a crying shame how women are conspicuously absent from Pakistan’s civil services. Despite comprising half the population, they occupy just 5pc of federal government positions. This paltry representation persists despite a 10pc quota that supposedly guarantees their presence in bureaucracy. Numbers recently shared by the Pakistan Public Administration Research Centre tell a woeful tale. Of 1.2m federal employees, a mere 49,508 are women. More telling is their distribution: 78pc languish in lower-grade positions (BS 1-16), while a microscopic 0.12pc reach the rarefied air of BS-22. Even the Defence Division, which employs the largest share at 37.31pc of all female federal employees, has not achieved gender parity. The pattern extends across autonomous bodies and corporations, where women comprise just 5.41pc of the workforce.

Such statistics would be disappointing anywhere; in Pakistan, they are economically suicidal. Our persistent financial woes — a volatile rupee, chronic trade deficits, and an ongoing IMF programme — cannot be addressed while excluding half the talent pool. Nations that have embraced female participation in public service, from Rwanda to Sweden, demonstrate that diversity in bureaucracy correlates strongly with economic resilience and policy innovation. The notion that qualified women are scarce defies reality. Our universities regularly produce more female graduates than male in several disciplines. The real barriers are more prosaic: inadequate childcare, inflexible working hours, and the subtle yet persistent bias that views women as unsuitable for senior positions. A mere 6.09pc increase in female employment over the past year suggests the problem is far from solving itself. For a nation seeking economic revival, the solution is clear, if not simple: Pakistan must tackle the structural impediments that keep women from entering — and ascending in — public service. Without such reform, the bureaucracy will remain both unfair and inefficient. In governance, as in economics, no country can soar with one wing clipped.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2025