WEPX 2026: From Women-Centred Vision to Economic Outcomes |
In Pakistan, discussions on women’s empowerment have long hovered between symbolism and intent, often producing visibility without viability and participation without power. While policy rhetoric has grown more confident over the years, economic outcomes for women have remained modest. Punjab’s upcoming Women Entrepreneurial Punjab Expo (WEPX 2026), scheduled for January 8 and 9 in Lahore, offers a timely opportunity to examine whether a declared political vision – Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif’s Women First agenda – can be converted into measurable economic gains for women.
Organised by the Women Development Department, WEPX 2026 will bring together more than 600 women entrepreneurs from across the province. Its significance lies not merely in scale, but in intent. Rather than framing women as recipients of welfare or social protection, the expo positions them as economic actors – business owners, producers and contributors to growth. This approach aligns directly with the chief minister’s repeated assertion that Punjab’s economic revival cannot be sustained if women remain marginal to markets, capital and enterprise.
Since assuming office, Maryam Nawaz Sharif has articulated Women First not as a slogan, but as a development framework that integrates women’s economic participation into the province’s broader growth strategy. The value of this vision lies in its institutional framing. Women-centred initiatives are no longer being treated as parallel social interventions; they are being embedded within economic planning, entrepreneurship promotion and skills development. WEPX 2026 emerges from this policy........