The All Pakistan Women’s Association (APWA) is one of the longest running and prestigious social welfare organisations in Pakistan. We promote the participation of Pakistani women in the social, economic and cultural life of the country. Through our affliates worldwide we ensure that Pakistani women abroad also engage in those aspects of the countries they are settled in.
Founded 1949
Begum Ra’ana Liaquat Ali Khan, wife of Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan (1947-51) and one of Pakistan’s Founding Fathers, formed the All Pakistan Women’s Association (APWA) at the Prime Minister’s residence at 10 Victoria Road, Karachi, Pakistan on 22nd February 1949.
Passion for Humaitarian Causes
Begum Ra’ana Liaquat Ali’s passion for humanitarian causes and pioneering work in the field of women’s rights has provided us with a blueprint from which we can work together in order to achieve a more progressive and united community of Pakistanis worldwide.
Created to Help the Refugee Crisis
At the time of it’s formation APWA’s goal was to mobilise Pakistani women to deal with a refugee crisis after the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. APWA came to prominence as a women’s social welfare organisation and was represented in every District of every Province of Pakistan and at all the embassies which were headed by the wives of the District Commissioners, High Commissioners and Ambassadors all over the world. This tradition continues today.
“Such a nation-wide association would have added benefit of possible affiliation to other world organisations of a similar nature, and would give its members, when sent abroad, the sort of ‘official’ standing they require in order to make the proper contacts and to speak with authority. This, to my mind, is a very important part the Association can play, and one that we, the much maligned, much misunderstood and little known women of this new nation , stand in great need of.
Such an Association will also serve to unite us all more closely together, to obliterate the petty differences of caste, creed, colour and the outmoded but ever present menace of provincialism, for it is as the citizens of Pakistan, the women of Pakistan, that we have associated ourselves together to fight the evils of ignorance, poverty and disease, so that this land, which belongs to all of us and to our children, may become a happier, healthier, and better place.”
A short film about Begum Ra’ana Liaquat Ali Khan , called A Dynamo In Silk :
You can also download this video by clicking this link: