Pakistan

Zainab Farooq is a HR professional with 8 years of working in a key position at UN WHO. She has also worked in one of the most prestigious universities in Pakistan and writes articles for a well-known Pakistani newspaper. She’s an active social worker and has worked as a volunteer for UNESCO World Heritage in Turkey. Zainab has led many mental health campaigns and runs a website on social issues. She believes that all people have a role to play in this world and we should try to bring positivity to the community.

Tahir Kamran, from Chiniot, Pakistan, is currently working as a lead trainer at Quaid E Azam Educational Academy Lahore. He holds a Ph.D. degree with a specialization in (numerical solutions of PDEs, computational fluid mechanics, numerical methods, mathematical fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer) from Government College University Faisalabad. He has nine published research articles in international journals while 20 research articles are in the process of publication in different journals. He has more than 10 years of experience in Fluid Mechanics as he has been teaching it for 12 years. He is the author of four books. He is a 22-time award recipient for being Best Teacher and Best Master Trainer. He has two years of management experience at Ranjha Hostel and Academy. His hobby of reading books makes him a critical thinker and keen observer. As a professional, he has a combination of valuable skills in project coordination, analytics, and research, which makes him more efficient. In addition, he has recognized expertise in critical thinking and is a communicative colleague with keen attention to detail and accuracy. During his studies at university, he has worked as a research assistant and has polished his talents. He has also developed good skills in science communication, which can facilitate him to disseminate research findings scientifically in journals, workshops, and conferences as well as in public.

Shahzad Akram is a human rights advocate having extraordinary research work done in accountability laws at the Punjab University, Lahore. He got his post-secondary education from GCU Lahore and graduated with LLB Hon’s from Punjab University Law College and further continued his LLM constitutional law from the postgraduate school of legal studies. He had served many governmental and non-governmental organizations. His last job experience was working as a content creator in techno-ventures where he was entitled to draft legal and other academic documents for clients primarily from the U.S. Likewise, he has served the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau of the government of Punjab in the same capacity where his primary task was to prepare documentation for destitute children. He kickstarted his legal career by being an intern in the bureau where he was engaged to draft and proofread documents. Further, he served as an educational volunteer in an NGO where his responsibility was to take compliance with all the educational developments of the Kashmir orphans relief trust (KORT), the largest orphanage in South Asia, and advise the London office on the applicability of local laws. He is a multi-tasked person who loves to work out of his domain too. Following the same principle, he served the official social media team of the last Pakistani premier as campaign manager and prepared an election manifesto for the 2018 general elections. Last but not the least, he is also a vigilant person of society and had extensive study and know-how of its structure.

Neha Amineen Khan is from the beautiful city of Lahore, Pakistan. In 2016, she completed her higher secondary education at the Punjab College for Women, and in 2022 she graduated from the University of Punjab in Environmental Sciences. Through her years at the university, she developed a strong sense of helping the community. This was because of her engagement in teaching the young students of the area from middle-class and poor families. For this purpose, Neha and her sisters founded the Al-Ameen Tuition center. Apart from this, she has recently joined the NGO Hamari Pehchan in India and works to raise funds for the NGO. Apart from this, she has been a marketing executive for the Paragon Overseas Consultants, where she promoted the company on different platforms and social media and also helped in organizing an event.

Nayyar Abbas has participated in foreign academic programs, online leadership courses, internships, and community development activities. He participated in community service with the Rotary Club and arranged events while working as a research associate for the Lucas Economic Society during his junior year of college. He began his professional career as a financial executive for a financial firm, where he offered clients market research and financial understanding. In his second job as a research officer, he developed research procedures and handled data collection. During his Master’s internship, he worked in the Parliamentary Sustainable Development Goals Secretariat in the National Assembly of Pakistan. He assisted with research on Pakistan Vision 2025 (a comprehensive road map to achieve SDGs). He has started volunteering for Students for Liberty. Through this opportunity, he was able to take courses and attend seminars and conferences. At Students for Liberty, he oversees and helps with marketing, research, and communication. By applying for different programs around the world, he successfully secured an opportunity to study the Fund for American Study’s Prague program at Charles University. He was given the Prometheus Fellowship, where he worked with professionals who taught and coached him in professional and leadership abilities. He is the district coordinator at Interactive Research and Development and supervises the implementation and execution of the school-based deworming program in Islamabad. Nayyar loves to travel, read, and meet new people. He is planning to start his Ph.D. in political science in 2023.

Nimrah Perveen is a software engineer. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Maths & Physics and is pursuing her Master’s degree in Mass Communication. She is the Founder and CEO of the startup KleanArth. She is working as a Web and blockchain developer in the business incubation center, PITB. She has maintained a full scholarship during her bachelor’s. Her project got selected for the Prime Minister Youth Innovation Award 2023 and its training Bootcamp at UET, Lahore. She has done her first International Leadership program at University College Cork, Ireland. She was also a team leader in the entrepreneurship program at Saarland University, Germany. She has completed an Introduction to Leadership course from Wedu, Bangkok. Nimrah is a part of Your Big Year Organization, Social Shifters Incubation Program, IOC Young Leaders Program of the International Olympic Committee. She is the Ambassador at NetMission Academy, Hong Kong, and the Kectil Program, and is a Young Leader at Atlas Corps and Aspire Leadership Institute 2023. Her project was selected as a startup under the NEP of NIC. She completed her Game Development course at Michigan State University, USA. She has attended many seminars organized by AWS, Google, Microsoft, ASEF, etc. She has participated in hackathons like Appathon by TIE University, Heckfest by Remote base, AI by LABLAB, etc. She also participated in a hackathon at the 23rd Summer University ASEF, Singapore. She is a Student Brand Ambassador at the State Bank of Pakistan. She has strong skills in graphic designing, digital marketing, SEO, freelancing, MOS, entrepreneurship, drawing, etc.

Joshua Dilawar is a youth activist from Lahore, Pakistan with over 10 years of experience in humanitarian services, project management, and community development around different thematic areas. He founded the Institute for Social and Youth Development (ISYD), is the National Coordinator of YPEER Pakistan, and also leads the Pakistan Advocacy Network (PAN) and Artivism Academy. Additionally, he is a member of the Strategic Advocacy Committee of PMNCH and the Prime Minister’s National Youth Council. He has performed more than 1500 theater performances and has trained more than 25 theater groups across Pakistan to spread awareness on different thematic areas. In 2022, for the very first time in Pakistan, Joshua initiated and led a project entitled, “Meri Awaz – giving voice to voiceless people,” a project focusing on leadership and reproductive health of deaf and hard-of-hearing young people. In this project, he is building the capacity building of deaf and hard-of-hearing young people around reproductive health. The project established the first-ever comic in Pakistan on gender equality and reproductive health, and animated videos, for the storytelling sessions with the deaf community. Joshua is a social reformer and transformer, who is proactive about addressing social issues. His understanding of social issues, such as gender inequality, human rights, reproductive health, family planning, HIV/AIDS, and climate change, resulted in numerous achievements in the communities where he worked. He has been involved in many projects, campaigns, and movements to empower youth and reduce inequalities leaving no one is left behind.

Wardah Iftikhar, with a Master of Science in Gender and Women Studies, is a staunch believer in women’s empowerment and thinks that women are the catalyst of socio-economic change in any society. She is currently leading the project Fostering Critical Thinking and Entrepreneurship Skills in Young Women for Gender Inclusive Socio-Economic Development which works with four public sector female universities in Pakistan to train the students on social cohesion, critical thinking, conflict resolution, and economic empowerment. She has provided consultancy to UNICEF Pakistan on social protection and gender-responsive programming, which includes advocacy for public financing for children and capacity building of MoPDR for district-level SDG scorecards. She has worked extensively with the SDG Secretariat at the National Assembly of Pakistan to conceptualize, develop and lead the work plan for the Secretariat with close coordination with PMU, donors, parliamentarians, and standing committees. She is part of the Community Engagement Exchange Program selection committee for the last three years, where she helps select global civil society community members to undergo training in the US. Wardah is an alumna of the International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP) on women in politics and civil society whereby she explored practices in promoting women’s contributions to social and political affairs and examined legal, regulatory, and policy issues. She was also awarded Emerging Young Women Leader’s Award supported by the Australian High Commission. With her work at ‘Women Can Do,’ she has traveled to 20 districts of Pakistan and has worked with more than 5,000 women from women’s universities and seminaries to develop their entrepreneurial skills.

Wajid Zahid is from Lahore, Pakistan. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Gender Studies from Punjab University and is now pursuing a Master’s degree in Gender Studies. His areas of Interest lie in gender equality, sexual reproductive health & rights (SRHR), climate change, and peacebuilding. He has been working with international and national nonprofit organizations for the last few years. He is a fellow at the United Nations Office of Counter Terrorism (UNOCT) and the Youth Engagement and Empowerment Program (YEEP), in which he played a role in making regional-level policy recommendations around gender mainstreaming in P/CVE efforts. He is implementing a social action project at the regional level called Message of Love/ Paigham E Mohabbat under the EU Amplifying Leadership of Local Youth Fellowship, which aims to highlight common aspirations and suffering across borders and create a space for dialogue and discussion for the youth. He is a Youth Regional Committee Member at the Youth Coalition for Sexual Reproductive Rights (YCSRR) and is working on the integration of life skills-based education/ comprehensive sexuality education in the National Curriculum. He was part of the Accountability Lab Pakistan Incubator Program Cohort 2022 as an Accountapreneur where he designed and implemented his initiative to equip college and university students with the necessary information to identify signs of violations before their occurrence. He worked with the Asian Pacific Resource & Research Center for Women (ARROW) as a grantee and implemented an initiative called Equality Based on Humanity. The aim was to highlight and prevent violence against transgender communities.

Umer Farooq says that he never gives up on life. Despite initial difficulties, he ended up gaining a degree from a well-respected university. He later went on to become the founding member of Rab Raziq Foundation and a winner of Hostel Fiesta. In his professional life, he adopts a growth mindset. Beyond his academic and professional experiences, he is confident about his leadership and communication skills. The best thing he likes about himself is his ability to work under stress. In parallel with his engineering degree, he has offered the services of a virtual assistant at Amazon. Right now, he works as a Product Research Executive at Leverify.

Ubaid Ullah is a results-driven business leader with over nine years of experience in building and scaling businesses from scratch. He is passionate and committed to leveraging technology and entrepreneurship for social development. He is an influential thought leader and nationally recognized speaker at events such as USAID, UNDP, KPIC, Eventify, and TEDx. His recent experience in one of the highest leadership positions in the public sector has given him an added understanding of how to engage different stakeholders from government and developmental partners efficiently and effectively. He has led the team Darewro and has made it one of the most successful businesses in the region. He spearheaded DIPL and secured five grants worth 41 million USD in the year 2020-21. Ubaid has a wider arena of working with leading corporate sector companies and prestigious institutions in Pakistan such as working with GlaxoSmithKline. Later on, he joined Darewro as marketing manager and has worked to give it nationwide recognition. In the meantime, he has worked with the Center for Excellence in Islamic Finance as a marketing manager and planned and executed many activities. Currently, he is serving the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as an advisor in public-private partnerships.

He / Him / His Pakistan 11 Taimur Ashfaq has five years of experience in the energy sector of Pakistan and earned a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology Lahore. While working with Mari Petroleum (Pakistan’s third-largest exploration and production company), he completed a Strategic Leadership fellowship from the Al-Sharq forum. Through this fellowship, he defined his trajectory of service delivery in correlating energy, climate change, and education in Pakistan for inculcating behavior-based change mechanisms among the community. Taimur has immense volunteer experience in the education sector, and he enjoys focusing on topics of climate change awareness, youth empowerment, and leadership diversity.