A parliamentary committee and the government agreed on Wednesday to ask the State Bank of Pakistan to persuade commercial banks to stop mandating that their female employees wear abayas, arguing women should not be compelled to adopt a specific religious look. The pledge came during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance where lawmakers also learnt of a plan by tax authorities to install artificial intelligence-based cameras across 17 major industrial sectors to combat widespread tax evasion.
The discussion on dress codes was initiated by Senator Zarqa Suharwardy, who informed the committee that some Islamic banks were forcing female staff to wear abayas. “Pakistani women already use d…