Farzana Yaqoob

Farzana Yaqoob is the Founding Member of the Asia Institute of Public Policy and is a Policy Advisor for AGAHI. She foremerly served as Minister for Social Welfare and Women Development in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, having been elected in 2011. After assuming the office, she developed it by integrating a citizen-centric model incorporating access for women as one of the core value for departmental procedures. As a Minister, she chalked an all-inclusive policy bringing women into the decision-making processes. She established a separate directorate of Women Development in 2014, created a framework ensuring equal employment opportunities to the female population in the formal and informal sector. This led to her having the AJ&K Assembly unanimously approve the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Harassment Against Women at Work Place Act along with the Acid Crime against Women Amendment and the Domestic Violence Act. Farzana Yaqoob has also established the first ever Drug Addicts Rehabilitation Center at Muzaffarabad, which serves hundreds of patients from AJ&K and Pakistan. In collaboration with the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Bank, Yaqoob launched a special finance scheme for women entrepreneurs encouraging them to start their own businesses. Yaqoob is an alumna of the National Security Workshop, conducted by NDU. She is also an Eisenhower Fellow (2016); her focus during the fellowship was on conflict resolution and climate change mitigation strategies.