Umme Laila Azhar is the Interim Chairperson of the National Commission on the Status of Women (Pakistan), appointed in November 2024. Prior to this role, she served as Executive Director of HomeNet Pakistan, an organization that advocates for and supports home-based women workers across Pakistan. She has been an active policymaker and advocate, particularly in the development and implementation of national and provincial policies for home-based workers (including the national policy cycles of 2009 2011 and 2013-2016, and provincial policies in Sindh and Punjab during 2012-2016). She has represented Pakistan in international forums and has received the TIAW World of Difference award in 2012 for her contributions to women’s rights. As Chairperson of NCSW, she has launched initiatives to advance digital empowerment of women, improved medico-legal service frameworks for gender-based violence cases, and continues to lead efforts for legislative reform including campaigns for setting the legal minimum age of marriage uniformly at 18 across Pakistan.