Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar addressed several key forums during the United Nations General Assembly in New York, stressing Pakistan’s commitment to peace, regional stability, women’s empowerment, and multilateral cooperation.
Addressing the UNGA’s high-level meeting marking 30 years since the Fourth World Conference on Women, Ishaq Dar recalled the Beijing commitments of 1995 and said the anniversary was a reminder to take bold, measurable action.
He linked Pakistan’s vision to Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s belief that nations cannot rise without women standing equal to men.
Dar outlined Pakistan’s progress, saying women now hold key roles in politics, the judiciary, the civil service, law enforcement, and the armed forces.
Pakistan, he noted, was the first Muslim-majority country to elect a female prime minister. More recently, the country elected its first woman chief minister of Punjab.
He also spoke about legal and institutional reforms which included gender-based violence courts, women police stations, and commissions on the status of women.
Programmes like the Benazir Income Support Programme and the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme, he said, have lifted women out of poverty and created new opportunities for entrepreneurship.
While highlighting progress, Ishaq Dar cautioned that results remain uneven. He called for greater financing, stronger cooperation, and innovative partnerships to achieve the Beijing+30 Action Agenda. He reaffirmed Pakistan’s dedication to women’s rights and described the Beijing Declaration as the boldest global pact for gender equality.