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Minutes of the Meeting of the 6th General Assembly, August 18, 2009,

1500 hrs
1. The 6th meeting of the General Assembly of WPC was held on August 18, 2009 at
1500 hrs with madam Speaker in Chair.
2. The meeting started with the recitation from the Holy Qurran by Begum Parveen
Masood Bhatti MNA
3. The General Assembly was introduced to the first baby girl born in the Camp and
adopted by Madam Speaker, namely “Aman”.
4. The Speaker then invited the President of the First Women Bank Ms. Shaukat
Sultana to present a briefing on the bank. The same is attached as Annex-A.
5. Farahnaz Isphahani MNA observed that instead of the FWB asking its stake-
holders for the road-map, it should come from the President of the Bank. To this
VP Sharmeen replied that the stake-holders have lost interest in the bank as they
no more attend the Board Meetings.
6. Samina Mustaq Pagnwala asked about the basic difference between FWB and
other commercial bank as far as women are concerned. The president answered
through her own experience as banker and said that she was earlier working for
MCB where in her 27 years of service, she offered loan to only two women but
ever-since she shifted to FWB, she was able to provide loans even at 2%
collateral.
7. The Speaker inquired about the details of the collateral to which the President
replied it could be National Saving Certificates, personal property or even the
personal guarantees by two financially sound guarantors.
8. Sherrin Arshad criticized the Bank, calling it a “controversial” She said that as a
business women she found the bank’s performance quite unsatisfactory.
9. Khushbakht Shujaat MNA asked if the Bank has ever cooperated with the NGOs
or Women groups.
10. Bushra Gohar MNA observed that from the presentation it seamed there as lack of
ownership for the Bank. She asked about the rate of women employment. The
President replied that there are 532 women working in the Bank and are getting
competitive salaries.
11. Sharmeen, the Vice President suggested that the Parliament, through an act, must
turn the bank into a women’s financial institution.
12. Attiya Inayatullah observed that though it was a very important briefing but
unfortunately none from the Finance Ministry was present. She requested Bushra
Gohar, Chairperson Standing Committee on Women Development to ensure their
presence once the Bank comes for its briefing to the Committee so that the issue
could be further discussed in that meeting.
13. Mehrunnisa Afrida sugfgested that all women parliamentarians should be the
account holders of the Bank. She recalled that she was the first account holder of
the bank in Pakhtoonkhwa.
14. Saima Bharwana said that she comes from a backward constituency and her
experience in her area showed that even the Agricultural Development Bank
(ZTBL) was a failure there because the farmers are not financially disciplined. In
this regard, what attracted her most was the reference made by the President FWB
that they actually provided training to its clients. She enquired about the quality
and quantum of training. The President informed that the training related to
entrepreneurial skills.
15. Shirin Arshad asked the time and mark-up if she applies for a loan of Rs.1 Million
and that too in the absence of any collateral. The President replied that Rs.1
Million is a clean loan and for that the permission of the State Bank is required.
However, the Bank can provide loan up to Rs.5 lakhs on the provision of two
social collateral and in addition the loanee has to inform the purpose for the loan
and the details of the business.
16. The Speaker announced to open her own account in the bank and said that she
would also look into the possibilities of opening its branch in the parliament
House.
17. The Speaker then took up the next item on the agenda, concerning the holding of
the Women Parliamentarians’ Convention. She requested all the members to drop
their suggestions about the topics, speakers and issues to be raised through this
forum at the Caucus office.
18. The next item on the agenda was the proposed legislation on forced marriages. In
this regard as well, the Speaker asked the members to drop their suggestions in
the Caucus office.
19. Nafisa Shah MNA thanked the members for their all-out support on WPC
initiative about the IDPs and informed the members about the account details.

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