Trustees (Pakistan)
Parvez Iftikhar | CEO, Universal Service Fund (USF) Pakistan
Parvez Iftikhar has more than 40 (forty) years of field experience in Information Communication Technology (ICT) domain – Public as well as Private sectors, in-country as well as abroad.
Currently he is serving the country pro bono in various capacities, including: Member of ‘Prime Minister’s Task Force on IT and Telecom’; Member of Federal Govt’s ‘Advisory Committee for 5G Planning in Pakistan’; and Member of subgroup of Planning Commission’s Advisory Committee on ICT. Additionally, he also mentors tech startups.
As a professional, he provides consulting services on Telecom Policy and Regulation to various telecom administrations in Asia and Africa (over 14 countries so far), mainly through global organizations like World Bank, International Telecom Union (ITU, a UN body), USAID, DFID (UK), Commonwealth Telecom Organisation, and various private consulting houses in Europe and USA.
He was founding CEO of Universal Service Fund (USF) Pakistan – created for subsidising telecom services in un-served areas of Pakistan under the Federal Ministry of IT, and before that he was the country-head of German multinational Siemens “Com” in Pakistan.
A graduate of UET Lahore, he has been on sabbaticals to Carnegie Mellon University, and Harvard Kennedy School, USA; Oxford University, UK; and National Defense University, Islamabad. He received extensive technical and managerial training at Siemens, mainly in Germany.
Saima Rana | CEO, GEMS World Academy-Dubai
Dr Saima Rana is CEO and Principal of GEMS World Academy-Dubai, Chief Education Ambassador for the Varkey Foundation and Founding Trustee of The Shahnaz Foundation. With a background in school improvement in inner-city schools, and a PhD in Education, Dr. Rana has worked in areas with high deprivation indicators throughout her career. She combined traditional school improvement techniques with a commitment to collaboration between the local community and businesses in order to accelerate regeneration and raise standards. Dr Rana has worked as a senior educational consultant for Cambridge Education Islington with a particular focus on Teaching and Learning, Raising Standards, ICT, Assessment for Learning, Curriculum, Change Management and Building Schools for the Future.
Dr Rana is a member of the following boards: The Duke of York Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award (iDEA), Mosaic Community Trust (MCT), University College School (UCS), the Institute for Ethical AI in Education (IEAIED) and the BCS School Curriculum and Assessment Committee. Dr Rana has sat on the Board of International Baccalaureate Schools and Colleges Association (IBSCA), and is also a qualified Executive Leadership Coach.
Dr Rana has devoted herself to a variety of charitable educational projects, with a particular passion for building schools for children in poverty across the globe. She is the trustee of charitable schools in Pakistan and Kashmir, and provides teacher training to schools located in the slum areas in Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Sudan and other parts of Africa. She is a mental health ambassador for Refugee Mothers, where she has worked with a number of organisations to support language learning. She also supports several street schools in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Her latest project is to build an orphanage and a technical skills college in Pakistan. She believes passionately that education is the answer to eliminate poverty, inequality, and injustice, and has dedicated her career to the ideal of giving every child a world class education.
Gul-e-Mariam Wattoo | Member BOD, National Curriculum Council of Pakistan
Gul-e-Mariam Wattoo, a gold medal recipient in Masters in Educational Leadership and Management, has been promoting literacy in rural Punjab for over 14 years. She is a passionate advocate for female education and empowerment.
As a change catalyst, Ms. Wattoo has successfully introduced ICT in education in the challenging rural environment. In recognition of her services, the Governor of Punjab bestowed the “Outstanding Performance Award” upon her.
In 2014, Ms. Wattoo was selected for the International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP) by the US Department of State, and has represented Pakistan as a “Woman Social Entrepreneur” delegate along with fourteen other accomplished women from across the globe.
Besides the Pakistan Alliance for Girls Education, Ms. Wattoo also sits on the board of the National Curriculum Council of Pakistan where she is contributing towards devising a single national curriculum. She firmly believes that a nation cannot progress until its women are educated.
Fatima Khan | Muslim Chaplain
Ms. Fatima Khan was born in Pakistan, migrated to the United States in the late 70s, and has returned to continue her efforts in serving the underprivileged communities. In the US, she was a corporate and community leader. Ms. Khan worked with her husband, and together, they built a software business. She has also worked at Northwestern Hospital system in Chicago.
Ms. Khan has raised three daughters in becoming successful in their own right. In alignment with efforts to serve the underprivileged and to empower women, Ms. Khan has completed a Master’s from the Hartford Seminary. She is designated as a Muslim Chaplain. In Islamabad, she has helped Comprehensive Disaster Response Services (CDRS) establish an orphanage called House of Blessings. Ms. Khan continues her efforts in helping girls education in Pakistan.
Tayaba Mazhar | Legal Professional
Highly experienced and accomplished legal professional with a proven track record of providing strategic legal counsel and guidance to organizations. With a diverse background spanning both corporate and litigation settings, Ms. Mazhar possesses a unique blend of skills in legal strategy development, regulatory compliance, team leadership, and relationship management. Proficient in fostering strong corporate governance, ensuring legal compliance, and managing complex legal issues to protect the interests of the company. Adept at managing relationships with external law firms, regulatory authorities, and stakeholders to achieve optimal legal outcomes.
Ms. Mazhar got her law degree from SM Law College, Karachi, and has done LLM (part 1) from the University of London. Ms. Mazhar has worked on the legal side with both financial and non-financial sector companies in Pakistan. She has completed the Director Training Program in 2021, in addition to many other training programs from time to time.
Presently she is working with Saudi Pak Industrial & Agricultural Company Ltd as Head of Legal and Company Secretary. Before that she worked with leading commercial banks such as HBL and Samba. She also had the privilege of working with Lotte Pakistan Ltd (previously known as Pakistan PTA Ltd) and ICI Pakistan Ltd.
Besides pursuing an active professional corporate law career, she has also been involved with community volunteer services such as being an elected member of the Parent-Teacher Association at American International School Lagos-Nigeria and American International School -Lahore, fostering parent-teacher-school relationships, and also played an active volunteer role in the admission process at Teach A Child School System in Lahore.
Farzana Yaqoob | Advisor, Brussels Consulting
Farzana Yaqoob is a former minister for Social Welfare and Women Development, Azad Jammu and Kashmir. She is the founding member and Chief Executive of Mantaq Center for Research. She is Senior Associate and Secretary General of Working Group on Kashmir, Institute of Policy Studies, Islamabad, Pakistan.
She is advisor to Brussels Consulting, Brussels, Belgium. She is Advisor to Center for Strategic and Contemporary Research, Islamabad, Pakistan. She is a Board member of Aiming Change for Tomorrow (ACT). Yaqoob is Secretary General Eisenhower Fellowship, Pakistan. She is an alumnus of National Defence University and Naval War College. Yaqoob is Eisenhower fellow 2016. Yaqoob is Young Global Leader 2017 of World Economic Forum.
Dr. Tariq H. Cheema | Country Representative, ARC Pakistan
Tariq H. Cheema, MD is a renowned philanthropist, entrepreneur, and social innovator. He is the founder of the World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists, the Global Donors Forum, and Doctors Worldwide. Since he left a lucrative career as a surgeon to focus on righting global inequalities in 1997, Dr. Cheema has built a diverse career as a senior executive and advisor, in both the social and private sectors. He has left an indelible mark on several social initiatives during his career, managed medium-to-large grant programs, and worked closely with world leaders, endowments, foundations, and businesses to strategically design philanthropic and social investment models. In recent years, his trendsetting efforts towards developing ideas into institutions of Muslim philanthropy worldwide have earned him international acclaim. For many years, Dr. Cheema has been ranked amongst the top 500 Most Influential Muslims impacting the world today.
His vision of responding to social challenges through economic empowerment has successfully resulted in establishing a strong global network of businesses to integrate emerging economies with leading international markets, as well as support, and solutions for, rapidly changing global value chains.
Kaleem Kamboj | Assistant Professor, Parsons School of Design – The New School University, New York
Professor of Design Strategy and Managerial Entrepreneurship
Parsons School of Design – The New School University, New York
A serial entrepreneur, successfully orchestrating Start-ups, plus elevating organizational performance through skillful restructuring, Kaleem builds and leads top-performing teams focused on collaboration and exceeding goals in the areas of operations, marketing, and comprehensive development.
An expert in the identification, analysis, and resolution of diverse operational issues, continuously maintaining top performance while offering superior programs and services. Kaleem specializes in R&D, AI, Data Science, Strategic/Tactical Planning, Competitor Analysis Marketing Strategies, Policy/Procedure Development, Problem Resolution, Project Planning, and Risk Management.
Kaleem is recipient of the Faculty Award in 2000 from Parsons School for Design, where he is faculty since 1998. He has co-authored and published several papers on Design and Organizational Management. At Parsons, he is currently Assistant Professor, teaching Game Theory by Design and Global Professional Practices.
Trustees (UK)
Suniya Qureshi | Senior Strategy Adviser
Suniya is currently working on a Pakistan project for the London 2018 Design Biennial.
Suniya was a Campaign Manager in the Westminster for May 2018 Local Elections for the Conservative Party.
She has been a Senior Strategy Adviser at the International Unit G20 of the Department for Work Pensions and worked across UK government departments on social protection and human rights, international labour markets, andemployment strategies in some of the UK’s most deprived wards. She ran the British Pakistan Foundation as Executive Director for two years whilst on a sabbatical from the civil service, creating a formidable platform for the British Pakistani Diaspora.
In her recent role as Business Development Executive at Algebra Consulting, she delivered a successful two day event at Olympia London in 2016, with a footfall of 20,000 people. She was responsible for managing stakeholders, campaigns and online outreach to increase subscriber-ship and curate and launch campaigns. Her core achievements have been fundraising, community outreach, managing stakeholder relationships, campaigning, and media marketing. She has also written and produced six theatrical plays and is currently working on her seventh venture with their groupwww.ludooproductions.com. She has also written an unpublished novel. She has additionally consulted for Oxfam policy and Southbank Alchemy Festivals, on cultural and community, fundraising and engagement.
Film/Arts/Culture Space:
She is on the committee for the Tongues on Fire Film Festival run in the UK for the past 18 years, brokering Pak films in the UK. She is part of the steering committee for the Alchemy Festival at the Southbank for the past 5 years, bringing Pak content to the UK and have working ties with Asia House/RSA/BFI. She has worked on the steering committee for Karachi Literature Festival at Alchemy in 2017.
Nadia Qureshi | Global Pharmacy Ambassador, UCL
Nadia Bukhari is an academic pharmacist and Global Pharmacy Ambassador for University College London (UCL).
She is a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, an honor recognizing outstanding commitment and professional excellence. Nadia was the youngest female to be awarded this honor.
Ms. Bukhari is an elected Board member for the Pharmacy Board in England for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, making her the first Muslim female and first woman of Pakistani origin to be elected onto the Board.
Recently, Nadia has taken on the role as associate Non-Executive Director for the London North West Hospitals NHS Trust.
By breaking glass ceilings and overcoming challenges faced within her professional career, Nadia is a firm believer and advocate for women empowerment and is a role model for young girls and women, especially those from an ethnic minority’s background.
Nadia has been an ambassador for PAGE for over a year and has shown a great passion for promoting gender equality in education and increasing access to education for children, across Pakistan. She has been an extremely active advocate and ambassador and has shown great commitment for our cause.
Nadia is determined to continue the work, passion and drive she has for PAGE as a valued Trustee.
Ayub Dosani | Accountant
Ayub is an Accountant by profession and has been running a successful accountancy practice in London for 10 years. Helping and mentoring start-ups through to becoming successful multi-million-pound turnover companies is his forte.
Social work is a huge part of Ayub’s life, having started speaking on behalf of the Edhi Foundation from the age of 6 and volunteering at various charities since then. Currently, he’s an advisor to the Omnibus Charity in London as well as a trustee of Goodwill Caravan, a charity that assists refugees.
Having seen his parents fund-raise for the now self-sufficient Al Khadeeja School in Karachi gave Ayub the motivation to join a charity like PAGE. Seeing the positive effects of education, especially for girls has been a real eye-opener and he’s really keen on assisting as best as possible.
We believe that his set of skills and experience will prove to be beneficial for girls in Pakistan and his passion to see the girls in Pakistan thrive, and lead successful, independent and empowered lives, will be of great benefit to a cause like PAGE. We are eager to work with Ayub and welcome him on board! We hope that together we can help make a real difference in shaping the future of Pakistan.
Kassim Gaffar
Kassim Gaffar is a corporate executive-turned-entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in financial services and information technology.
He has a professional background in audit, investment banking and healthcare sectors. He has management experience in financial services both in the UK and Asia. He has served on not-for-profit sector Boards, driving improvements in reporting, governance, risk management, and development and execution of strategy.
Kassim is an insightful, highly performing, and responsive “C-suite” finance executive with a track record of delivering sustained, outstanding business performance and multiple transformations through inspiring leadership, strategic thinking, and change management.
Dr. Tariq H. Cheema | Country Representative, ARC Pakistan
Tariq H. Cheema, MD is a renowned philanthropist, entrepreneur, and social innovator. He is the founder of the World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists, the Global Donors Forum, and Doctors Worldwide. Since he left a lucrative career as a surgeon to focus on righting global inequalities in 1997, Dr. Cheema has built a diverse career as a senior executive and advisor, in both the social and private sectors. He has left an indelible mark on several social initiatives during his career, managed medium-to-large grant programs, and worked closely with world leaders, endowments, foundations, and businesses to strategically design philanthropic and social investment models. In recent years, his trendsetting efforts towards developing ideas into institutions of Muslim philanthropy worldwide have earned him international acclaim. For many years, Dr. Cheema has been ranked amongst the top 500 Most Influential Muslims impacting the world today.
His vision of responding to social challenges through economic empowerment has successfully resulted in establishing a strong global network of businesses to integrate emerging economies with leading international markets, as well as support, and solutions for, rapidly changing global value chains.
Sara Rathore | National Engagement Lead
Sara Rathore is a British Pakistani. She graduated from the University of Leeds in Modern Arabic and was inspired by her feminist Algerian lecturer Dr Zahia Salhi to read for a Postgraduate Masters in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Manchester. Sara is a career civil servant and believes that her passion and drive to excel combined with the equal opportunities within the Home Office enabled her to explore non traditional roles in law enforcement for BAME women. Until 2016 she was one of few BAME & Muslim arrest trained PIP II (Professionalising Investigation Programme) officers with Customs and Immigration powers. She believes this has reinforced her values as a Muslim, to be accountable, transparent and fair.
Sara is currently the National Engagement Lead for the Pakistani Community within Immigration Enforcement, and Chair of the Home Office Islamic Network. She is also a solo parent to her two teenage sons aged 18 and 13; acting as a role model to raise them as young conscious and ethical Muslim men. She loves to backpack from Europe to Jerusalem and across the amazing borders of Mozambique; every journey teaches her something about life. Sara is an advocate for supporting women globally to live free without fear and shame, supporting the fundamental need for women’s access to education. She believes Women should be in control over their bodies, and her life ambition is to eradicate gender shaming Muslim women on the basis of faith, abolishing period tax and a woman only day in the Haram area.
During her recent official trip to Pakistan, she realized how important it was for her, being the daughter of migrant parents, to give something back to the daughters of the land her amazing father left many years ago. She is hoping to bring some real value to Page and looks forward to the challenges of supporting young women in Pakistan.