The IT industry does not have a lot of women working in it and that’s a problem 10Pearls, a company that hosts workshops, webinars and training sessions, hopes to solve with its Women Tech Quest. The sixth edition of the competition was held on March 12 and allowed women to display their coding skills, gain recognition and win cash prizes. Motivational speakers were also brought in for sessions to inspire participants to make their way into the IT industry. The event was held simultaneously in three cities — Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore — where women took part in a coding competition.
What is the competition about?
Photo: 10Pearls
There are three parts of the WTQ competition — coding, testing and design. During the coding session, women are given problems to solve via programming language. For the testing phase, participants are presented with a set of objectives to test database and automation concepts and for the third and final phase, the design competition, the competitors are required to solve a User Interface (UI) or User Experience (UX) challenge.
There are two categories in the competition for each stream (coding, testing and design) — professional and student. After entries are submitted by the participants, motivational speakers from the industry are invited to answer queries of the women taking part in the quest. Each city announces six winners from the competition, two per stream. In total, 18 winners receive grand prizes while rest of the participants are given gift bags and certificates for their participation.
Why WTQ?
10Pearls Human Capital Director Syeda Sana Hussain told Images, “Back in 2016 we started [noticing] that [while] there are women coders, we saw women in a lot of, what we call in the movies, ‘side roles’ as testers or designers. But coding is the meat of the entire development sector and women were not here. We sort of investigated in firms if it is a systemic problem that stems from universities.”
Hussain gave an example of a university experience and said, “when you’re giving your final year project, groups are made and men immediately take [coding] and women are given the documenting bit and management.” She believes that this translates into the workforce and therefore, women are unsure about their coding skills, which is why they don’t explore this sector. She said that this was the first problem they figured out.
The second problem, according to Hussain, was that women after a certain age started to disappear because there was no daycare support in a lot of companies. “These women unfortunately quit their profession after they conceive or get married. We felt that now these women might want to come back as their kids grow up but they don’t necessarily have the right networks men do by staying in touch and and hanging out to maintain these relations,” she said.
Hussain also said that women are generally “hesitant to ask for help,” which is why they thought of creating an event that specifically targets women in the IT industry and coding in order for them to come together and for those women who stay at home.
Photo: 10Pearls
“We received a phenomenal response at the first-ever WTQ and the first-ever winner of this competition was a stay at home mom who had not been working for five years and had three kids at home. So when she came to this event, she won and it boosted her self-confidence,” she said. “We gave her a flexible job offer to work at her own hours and [she] slowly had the avenue to get back into the industry and that’s the first achievement of this event,” said Hussain.
The director also mentioned that women who previously participated in the WTQ competition are now working in international tech firms and always credit the platform for promoting their talent. However, what surprises them is how coders from all over Pakistan participate in the competition. “We get a lot of attendance from areas that you’d never think of, like Sargodha, Gujranwala and Chitral. Because it was virtual during Covid, we had a lot of interest from these areas, which made us realise that there is talent in these cities as well,” she said.
Hussain’s advice to participants is to always make a friend who can help them personally and professionally as the competition allows women to speak to one another and understand where they stand in a work environment. She also said that feedback about the competition being tough creates this need to learn more about coding as it makes them realise how much information women need to succeed in IT in general.
“The field obviously does not have a [good] gender balance. I feel it has a lot of potential because this is one of the only sectors that allows you to work from home completely and remotely and that’s ideal for the socio-economic situation women live in. Unfortunately the gap is still there, which can only be resolved at a teaching level for which we have started a university, an online portal that’s free of cost for women to get the required training,” she explained.
‘Have audacious dreams’
Photo: 10Pearls
Founder of Oraan Tech, Halima Iqbal, told Images that it is important for the IT community to have events like WTQ so that women get to showcase their skill-sets and to meet other similar minded people. “Tech space is not as inclusive as we want it to be. The narrative is changing, there is a lot of work that is happening and I’m glad to see platforms like 10Pearls taking that step forward to include women,” Iqbal said.
She also said that there is a lot of work that needs to be done but it has to be done on a regular basis to really make an impact. Giving advice to women wanting to do something career wise, Iqbal said, “Have audacious dreams, nobody can stop you if you have those dreams, whether it is in the tech space or any other space that you choose. Dream big, work hard and things will fall into place.”
The City A Division Police Station in Bahawalnagar is the place where a man has been accused of sexually abusing his 50-year-old deaf-mute mother-in-law.
The assault is said to have been carried out by the suspect while the victim was visiting her daughter. The woman was allegedly molested at night by the suspect, who allegedly took advantage of her medical condition.
The horrifying crime happened while the mother-in-law—who is deaf and hard of hearing—was visiting her daughter.
The victim’s daughter, who happens to be the suspect’s wife, reported the event to the police when it happened. The matter has been reported to the authorities, who have initiated an inquiry.
A comprehensive 16-page written ruling on the government’s intra-court appeal concerning the nullification of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) statute has been made public by the Supreme Court.
The verdict, which was written by Pakistan’s Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, reinstates the NAB changes and overturns the prior decision made by a two-member court.
The ruling explores the background of the NAB law, noting that it was passed by former army chief General Pervez Musharraf only 34 days after he had taken over via force. The court emphasised that Musharraf exploited the law to further his personal political goals and disregarded the democratic constitution.
The ruling mentions that Musharraf dismissed judges of the Supreme Court who disagreed with his unlawful acts.
Additionally, Justice Athar Minallah sent a message expressing his agreement with Chief Justice Isa’s decision. He emphasised that the Supreme Court Practice and Procedure Act did not accept the government’s appeal and that only appeals from parties who have been wronged are accepted.
He pronounced the previous ruling, which had annulled the NAB modifications, to be void and emphasised that judges and military personnel should not be free from NAB legislation.
The Supreme Court emphasised that there are clear functions for the legislative and judiciary under the Constitution, and they must take great care to avoid interfering with one another’s purview. It served as a reminder to both branches to carry out their constitutionally mandated tasks in service of the people. The judiciary—including the chief justice—is not the “gatekeeper” of parliament, the court emphasised once more.
As per the preamble draughted during the Musharraf administration, the court noted that the principal aim of the NAB law was to suppress corruption. Nonetheless, the court observed that it had been employed for political retaliation and manipulation, given that lawmakers who backed Musharraf were frequently found not guilty.
“The main purpose of the NAB law was political revenge from politicians or political engineering,” the decision noted.
It also mentioned the three noteworthy changes made to the NAB law:
June 22, 2022, saw the enactment of the first amendment.
On August 22, 2022, the second amendment was proposed. “On May 29, 2023, the third amendment was ratified, following six hearings in which the court heard arguments opposing the NAB revisions.
Although the court did not go over the third amendment in any depth, it emphasised that laws should be preserved rather than being quickly overturned. It also made it clear that the interpretation that favours the legislation’s legality will prevail when two interpretations of the same statute exist.
The ruling stated that “the PTI founder’s petition and the old judgement of the Supreme Court were not according to the Constitution,” and it also stated that the court was not persuaded that the amendments were illegal in this particular case.
The PTI founder’s appeal was denied by the Supreme Court, which said it was not filed in a sincere effort. It further emphasised the fact that Imran Khan himself had proposed a large number of these changes.
needsIt was noted that the Practice and Procedure Act had been passed five months before the decision to change the NAB statute. Following that, the Supreme Court denied a request to establish a five-member bench to hear the petition challenging the modifications. A five-member bench needs to be assembled for the NAB amendments case, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah noted. The Supreme Court stated that the two-member bench would not have been able to hear or rule on the case against the NAB changes if Justice Shah had recused himself from the bench.
The Practice and Procedure Act hearings were postponed for 100 days and then resumed on September 18, 2023, according to the statement.
The court effectively reinstated the government’s earlier actions on the NAB statute when it stated in its closing remarks that the bill had been utilised for political objectives and that its amendments should remain.
Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif was visited in Islamabad by a four-person Google delegation led by Mr. Scott Beaumont, President of the APAC area.
Pakistan’s digital economy is about to undergo a revolutionary change, according to the prime minister, who greeted the team. Speaking on the government’s intentions to reach the goal of US$ 25 billion in exports over the next five years, the prime minister revealed that funding will be used for youth training, IT infrastructure upgrades, and regulatory environment enhancements. Pakistan’s economy is being fully digitalised, he remarked. In his attempts, he stressed the need of working together with a tech behemoth like Google.
The Prime Minister praised Google for pioneering projects that have dramatically enhanced the lives of thousands of Pakistanis in recent years, as well as for its involvement in propelling the country’s digital economy closer to reality. Noting with satisfaction that Google has helped Pakistani young land about a million jobs in 2023 alone, the Prime Minister emphasised that this is a testament to both Google’s dedication to upskilling and empowering Pakistan’s youth and Pakistan’s potential in the digital marketplace.
Informing the Prime Minister of its future involvement intentions, Mr. Scott stated that Google has made the decision to support the government’s youth skill-training initiatives and to expand its investment footprint in Pakistan. He went on to say that for a values-driven digital firm like Google, the growing economy and the sizeable youth population are crucial for optimising the economic benefits of technology. He restated that Pakistan’s IT industry will undergo a revolution when five lac Chromebooks are produced there by 2026.