What is a manel? Allow the Karachi Literature Festival to explain. On February 21, someone took a screenshot of the KLF’s description of their panel discussion on “Financial Inclusions and Women Empowerment” and uploaded it on Twitter.
The panel list read like a who’s who of the Pakistan’s finance scene: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Reza Baqir; Planning Minister Asad Umar; former SBP Governor Dr Ishrat Hussain; and Habib Bank President Muhammad Aurangzeb.
Amazingly, despite being a talk about women, the panel included no women.
Please let us take a moment to appreciate the irony here. Despite being an event about being inclusive towards women, the panel managed to somehow be exclusive of women. The KLF’s thinking was: why do you need women to talk about women?
Twitter’s outrage paid off. As a form of mitigation and damage control, the organizers quickly looked for women to bring on board for the panel, and brought in one woman, Ayesha Aziz, the CEO and Managing Director of Pak Brunei Investment Co Ltd.
There was no way that we were not going to attend this ‘manel + 1’, held at the Karachi Beach Luxury Hotel on March 1. We are the only two young female financial and economic journalists writing in English in Karachi, as far as we can tell. We have had men explain to us what interest rates are, despite us both being economics majors from IBA and Yale respectively; and yes we do know how to calculate CAGR. (compound annualised growth rate). Our bread and butter is finance reporting, despite men’s incredulity; and these are our thoughts.
Why would anyone agree to this?
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة March 9 - 22, 2020 من Profit.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة March 9 - 22, 2020 من Profit.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Transitioning to EV is the way to go - If we'll do it is another question entirely
Pakistan has been proactive in forming an EV policy and has gotten much acclaim for it. But does the government have plans beyond just saving the environment, and will they be able to pull it off?
Where the women at?
On KLF manels, and why financial inclusion for women matters Think of this as the Profit female reporters’ manifesto on calling out corporate fluff
Turnaround at AkzoNobel Pakistan in the making?
After three years of tepid revenue and profit growth, the global paints giant's Pakistani subsidiary is beginning to see significantly increased profitability
SIALKOT IS PREPARING FOR take-off
As more Pakistanis are able to afford to fly, Air Sial's founders hope to make their home city one of the major hubs of aviation in the country
Despite growing competition, Adamjee Insurance remains the dominant player
How Pakistan’s oldest company has managed to retains its market share even as newer companies continue to lure customers
As Thar power plants come online, Engro's profits soar
The conglomerate’s net income is up 30% in 2019, investments continue in telecom infrastructure sharing and petrochemicals business
