The first woman to head a major commercial bank in Pakistan was named Monday, a landmark move in a country where the economy is growing but the glass ceiling holds firm.
Sima Kamil, currently a deputy CEO at the country’s third-largest lender United Bank Limited (UBL), will take charge on June 1, its directors said in a statement.
“She is of course is the first chief of any commercial bank, and it is a huge step forward in the banking and corporate sectors of Pakistan,” Muneer Kamal, the chairman of Pakistan’s Stock Exchange, told AFP.
He described Kamil as a “solid professional”.
Women in Pakistan have fought for decades to secure rights for themselves, in a country where so-called honour killings and acid attacks remain commonplace.
They face routine discrimination in the workplace as well as harassment in public, and few women have headed any high-profile firms in the country.
Kamal cited Shazia Syed as another female pioneer after she was last year made head in Pakistan of Unilever, a Dutch-British multinational.
“Things are transforming in Pakistan now, the world must know that,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}“Things are transforming in Pakistan now, the world must know that,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}UBL, headquartered in the financial hub Karachi, employs 15,000 people and has branches in 15 other countries, including the US, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.