Fauzia Viqar

Chairperson

Fauzia Viqar specializes in women’s empowerment with a focus on legislative and policy advocacy and community development.  With over 15 years of professional and voluntary work with government and civil society organizations, Fauzia is recognized for her expertise in gender and race based discrimination and promotion of women’s empowerment. Fauzia was appointed the first Chairperson of Punjab Commission on the Status of Women, a statutory institution established by the Government of Punjab to promote women’s empowerment and eliminate discrimination against them.

Dr. Aisha Ghaus Pasha

Aisha Ghaus Pasha is a Pakistani politician who has been a Member of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab, since June 2013. She earned the degrees of Bachelor of Arts (Hons), Master of Arts in Economics and a Masters of Applied Science in Economics from the University of Karachi. She did Doctor of Philosophy in Economics from the University of Leeds in 1991. She was elected to the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab as a candidate of Pakistan Muslim League (N) on a reserved seat for women in June 2013.In May 2015, she was inducted into the provincial cabinet of Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif and was made Provincial Minister of Punjab for Finance.

Dr. Lamya Adnan Al-Haj

Dr. Lamya A Al-Haj is an Assistant Professor at Sultan Qaboos University with a PhD in Structural & Molecular Biology from University College London (UCL) and an MSc in Environmental Science and Technology from UNSW (Australia) where she received the prestigious award “BobanMarcovic Prize in Environmental Science” in 2006. Apart from her passion for lecturing, she thoroughly enjoys public speaking and frequently represents women of the Sultanate at both national and international meetings. Dr. Al Haj had the privilege to present her research findings in many international conferences around the world including UK, Poland, France, Germany, Lebanon, UAE, China, Singapore, Canada and USA.

Aurelie Salvaire

Aurélie Salvaire is a French social entrepreneur from Barcelona. She has been working in the social innovation field for the past 10 years, collaborating with Oxfam, Ashoka, Unreasonable Institute and Impact Hub. She has founded and curated different TEDx events such as TEDxBarcelona Women, TEDxBarcelonaED and TEDxBarcelonaChange. Salvaire is passionate about storytelling and coaches teams and individuals all around the world to master their own narrative. She also founded the ShiftBalance association to coach women leaders in communication and storytelling in emerging countries. She has visited more than 100 countries and spoken at numerous leading conferences all around the world.

Jannat Ali

Jannat Ali is a highly qualified, MBA Degree Gold Medalist Transgender, who also has a research degree in performing arts. She is a transgender activist and first ever transgender Project Manager at Khawaja Sira Society. A CBO, led by the transgender community for prevention of HIV and AIDS, sexual health, human rights and advocacy in Pakistan. She has delivered lectures during Copenhagen Pride 2015 and in Oct 2016, she was invited to educate 400 students in 10 different schools in Denmark about gender, norms, society and performing art. She was an art director and a project coordinator in AKS Festival 2015 Copenhagen and AKS Festival 2016 in Pakistan. In July 2017, she presented the first transgender rights protection bill in Senate and the national assembly of Pakistan. She is the first Transgender who wasa part of the Global Shapers HUB and was also selected for World Economic Forum in Feb 2018. She was the first transgender speaker atTEDx Lahore.

Fatima Asad-Said:

Fatima Asad-Said, Regional Director, is an integral member of the top leadership at Abacus Consulting, a leading international professional services firm offering cutting edge technology, outsourcing and consulting solutions to clients across three continents. Her portfolio includes leading the Human Capital Solutions business, and internally the Corporate HR and PMO functions. She is, also, CEO of Abacus ELS (a subsidiary of AC) offering HR outsourcing solutions, and responsible for strategically managing the alliance partnership with Mercer, a leading global HR consulting firm. She has over twenty years of change management, organizational structuring and human capital development experience through strategic formulation and project management roles. An MBA from LUMS, and post graduate diploma from LSE, she started her career with Coopers & Lybrand International and then PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Jamshed Kazi

Prior to assuming his current job, Mr. Jamshed Kazi was Director a.i. of UNDP’s Global Policy Centre (Oslo Governance Centre) in Norway. From 2010-2014, he was global Practice Manager of the Democratic Governance portfolio at UNDP headquarters. He has also worked for UNV, UNDP in Ethiopia and Lao PDR, UNESCAP, UNEP and IUCN – The World Conservation Union.

A national of Bangladesh, Mr. Kazi holds Master’s degrees in Public Administration, Development Studies, and Environmental Assessment and Evaluation from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the London School of Economics. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Geography and International Development.

Hajra Khan

Ms. Hajra Khan is the captain of Pakistan’s national women’s football team. Growing up, Ms. Khan was a multi-sport athlete and represented Pakistan internationally in other sports as well. Starting her football journey at the age of 14, it took her only two years to move up the ranks from provincial to club to the national team in 2010.

Currently, playing for Balochistan United Women’s Football Club (BUWFC) and SHR Maldives, Ms. Khan is a four-time top scorer at the National Football Championships with a record of 30 goals in six matches and two-time Player of the Tournament.

Ms. Khan has scored numerous goals for Pakistan internationally as well. She is the first female footballer to have been signed by an international club and the only one in South Asia to have a club career record of 103 goals in 45 matches. She is also the only football player from the country to have been invited by and trained with three German clubs. Ms. Khan is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Business and Management at London School of Economics.

Rameesha Shahid

Discovering Taekwondo at age 10 and earning her first black belt at the age of 14, Rameesha shahid knew she could not stop. Rameesha, a former student, is now currently a master kickboxer at K7 Fitness and Kickboxing. She is the first certified female kickboxing trainer in Karachi

Hooriya Asmat

Pakistani women usually beat a drum (or dhol) in the boundaries of their homes during traditional wedding ceremonies in the absence of men. But Horeya Asmat, a 24 year old from Lahore, broke these cultural boundaries when she pursued her passion of learning drum beating and turned it into her passion as well. Besides being Pakistan first and only drum beater, she is also a Media student and has showcased her skill at a number of events and shrines.

Shamim Akhtar:

Shamim Akhtar broke gender stereotypes by becoming Pakistan’s first truck-driver. She’s the only woman in Pakistan to have been issued a public service vehicle license, allowing her to drive tractors, trucks, and trailers. She thinks the only thing that stops someone from achieving something is the lack of will. She is not just an inspiration for women but is highly respected among all her male colleagues as well.

Sultana Siddiqui

Ms.Sultana Siddiqui is the founder and president of HUM Network Ltd. She started her career as a producer at state owned Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) in 1974. In 1996, she founded a production house by the name of ‘Moomal Productions’ specializing in fictional series and setting benchmarks for the entire industry. In 2004, she established HUM Network Ltd; the first TV broadcast station to be listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange. Thus Ms.Siddiqui became the first woman in South Asia to launch a television network and is currently leading it successfully. She is contributing with passion towards women social issues, including running schools in the rural area of Sindh, which mainly focuses on girl’s education to empower them. Ms.Siddiqui was ranked as one of the top 100 business leaders of Pakistan in 2012 and 2013 by CEO Summit Asia.

Muqaddas Iqbal

Muqaddas Iqbal is from Sialkot. Her qualification is M.phli in commerce. While doing her master’s degree,she faced a lot of financial problem like fee payments issues, rent for hostel and study dues.To resolve these issues, she started a job in the academy along with her studies and fulfilled the dream of her parents by completing Phil degree. When she came back to Sialkot she visited the Baidarie organization which was recommended by her friend. When she visited this organization, she got a chance to understand the gender gap in Sialkot industry. She joined the Force Five company and currently, she is working there as a production planning controller (ppc) manager. The aim of her life is to build surgical organization in Sialkot just for female where they can use their skill and abilities in affective ways and work over there without any difficulties and breaking any Islamic rules.

If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.”

(Margaret Thatcher

Rehana Kousar

Ms. Rehana Kousar is the Head of Compliance Section at Awan Sports (Pvt) Ltd Sialkot.She has been continuously working to pace up the process of economic empowerment of women workers. Recently she successfully executed Women Empowerment Programme in collaboration with Baidarie and UN WOMEN. She has travelled to many countries including France, Switzerland, Italy, Indonesia and Thailand to participate in the activities aiming at building of knowledge relating Compliances, CSR and Women empowerment. She has been associated with Baidarie since 2000 and has been actively taking part in the women empowerment initiatives of the organization. For the last two years she is also on the Board of the organization.

Samina Kausar

Ms.Samina is currently running a small business where ten machines are installed under her supervision. Center was established through technical and financial support provided by UN WOMEN and Baidarie.

Her husband was a drug addict and used to beat her. Finally, 5 years ago she separated from him and came to her father’s house. She has 5 children, 3 son and 2 daughters. She was worried about her children’s growth and their future. Finally, she was approached by the Baidarie Team. She got skills training from Baidarie Training Cum Work center under the program “Socio economic rehabilitation for the jobless women workers in Sialkot” funded by UN WOMEN. After getting trained, she started her small enterprises and started earning more than Rs. 14000/month through provided financial and technical support by joint venture Baidarie and UN WOMEN.

Suhaee Abro

Suhaee Abro is a Pakistani dancer and actress. She specialises in the field of dance and is a trained classical dancer. Suhaee works in television plays, theatre, documentaries and music videos. She won best New Television Sensation Awarad at 1st Hum Awards 2013

Shazia Saad

Shazia Saad is an international certified executive female coach, Philanthropist, trainer, a wife and a mom of 2 sons and 1 daughter. Her vision is to work with Women on empowering them to come out to feel secure with going back to the workplace again. She has also helped small businesses owners and entrepreneurs who want more leverage and sales in their business.

Aqueela Mumtaz

Aqueela Mumtaz is currently working at Jazz as Head of Corporate Accounting Tax and Risk. Aqueela has a footprint of almost 21 years out of which 4 years have been as CFO and another 5 years as Director responsible for P & L of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia. She has been working with big names such as Telenor, Tameer Bank, Pepsi Co and more. She is also an entrepreneur with a business investment of $US 2 MM. Aqueela has an MBA from Lahore University of Management Sciences and has since been crossing milestones and breaking records in her career.