Sindh govt soon to launch E-commerce platforms for rural female artisans: Women Development Minister Shaheena Sher Ali
Karachi
The Sindh government’s Women Development Department will soon launch an E-commerce website and smartphone application to enable craftswomen and female artisans from rural and deprived areas of the province to connect with prospective buyers in the international market.
Sindh Women Development Minister Shaheena Sher Ali stated this while speaking as the chief guest at the 17th CSR Summit & Awards-2025 organised by the National Forum for Environment & Health (NFEH). The Women Development Minister told the audience at the event that 100 female skilled workers from every district in Sindh would soon be properly trained to use e-commerce services for their connectivity with foreign markets. She said the female artisans from rural areas using the e-commerce tools would directly sell their products to prospective buyers in and outside the country for maximum financial gain without the involvement of middlemen.
She said the provincial Women Development Department would organise training sessions to let rural female artisans upgrade their skills as per the latest global requirements and also help them extend their outreach to the international markets. The Women Development Minister said that smartphones should be used as an effective marketing tool by skilled men and women from low and middle-income groups to launch their businesses. She said the COVID-19 lockdowns had proved that smartphones were effective tools the world over for accessing online education and e-commerce platforms.
Speaking as the guest of honour, MNA Ahmed Saleem Siddiqui urged the audience to stay connected with the elected public representatives of their constituencies to adopt an effective mechanism to resolve basic civic issues in urban areas.
He disclosed on the occasion that the federal government had approved the release of funds to the MNAs, which would be utilised to undertake much-needed development works in Karachi and Hyderabad. He informed the audience that the release of these development funds was a longstanding demand of the concerned parliamentarians from the two main urban centres of Sindh.
CEO of Sindh Integrated Emergency & Health Services (SIEHS), Brig (retired) Tarique Quadir Lakhiar, told the audience at the event that Rescue 1122 service had been operational in Sindh with 461 ambulances. He said the fleet of emergency service vehicles for the entire province would soon be expanded to 640 ambulances. He said that Rescue 1122 ambulances were equipped with 29 lifesaving equipment. Brig (retired) Lakhiar said that 110 of these ambulances had a highly expensive facility of ventilators. He said that the Rescue 1122 service in Punjab carried up to 14 life-saving equipment. He said the SIEHS would soon launch a boat-based ambulance service to protect fishermen from Sindh’s coast who went into the sea for fishing.
Chief Operating Officer of Saylani Welfare International Trust, Muhammad Ghazzal, informed the audience that earlier Saylani Trust had partnered with the Thar Foundation to impart the latest IT training to Thari students, enabling them to earn in dollars through freelance work in the international market. He said the mass IT education programme of Saylani Trust had been producing 30,000 graduates annually who possessed the latest software skills required by global tech companies.
Faryal Asif of Al-Furqan Welfare Organisation informed the audience that her non-profit had recently signed an agreement with the Korangi Association of Trade & Industry to set up charitable schools for children of deprived industrial workers.
Naeem Qureshi, the NFEH President, emphasised that the government should enhance its partnership with the concerned private sector organisations, donors, and philanthropists to secure Sustainable Development Goals in Pakistan in the shortest possible time. NFEH Secretary General Ruqiya Naeem and Vice-President Nadeem Asraf also spoke and praised philanthropic work by the private sector.
