Muhammad Ishaq Dar

Muhammad Ishaq Dar is the former Finance Minister of Pakistan and Minister for Economic Affairs and Statistics in the PM Yousaf Raza Gillani cabinet. He also served as the Commerce and Finance Minister in the Nawaz Sharif cabinet of 1997-1999. Ishaq Dar was assigned the finance ministry when Sartaj Aziz was posted as the Foreign Minister of Pakistan in 1998. Dar continued on the post till the Sharif government''s overthrow by the military coup of General Pervez Musharraf. Ishaq Dar is also a central leader of PML-N and the parliamentary leader of PML-N in the current Senate session of 2006-2009. He was elected for the only time in the National Assembly in the 1997 general elections, when he won the NA-97 Lahore-VI general seat.

Dars economic policy achievement in the Sharif government was export-led growth as a cornerstone of economic strategy. Being made the finance minister in November 1998, he negotiated an IMF rescue package to meet an economic crisis triggered by sanctions over nuclear tests in May that year. The head of a state-run bank later proclaimed that Whether you call it voodoo economics or Darnomics, he has moved things,referring Darnomics as the unique working of Ishaq Dar when he refused to accept a devaluation or a rise in utility charges or tax rates.

For the 2008 government formation and search for the post of Finance Minister, the coalition partners PML-N and PPP are mulling over PML-N''s Ishaq Dar or PPP''s Naveed Qamar to be the new head of Finance Ministry. But whoever gets the job will have to deal with widening budget and trade deficits in an economy pressured by rising international oil prices and chronic shortages of energy and staples.

He finally won over Naveed Qamar when he was slated to become the Finance Minister in the coalition government of PPP, PML-N, ANP and JUI-F formed after 2008 elections. Naveed Qamar, on the other hand, will be the new Minister for Privatization and Investment, with additional portfolio of Minister for Ports and Shipping.

Anwar Masood

Anwar Masood is a well known Pakistani comic poet but he has also done other genres works. He writes poetry in Urdu, Punjabi and Persian. He was born in Gujrat on 8th November 1935 and migrated to Lahore in 1941. He also got early education form Lahore. Later on in 1947 he went backed to Gujrat and done matriculation from “Public School”. He studies at “Zamindara College Gujrat” and achieved degree of B.A Honor. He taught in Government Islamia High School, Kunjah. He got masters degree in Persian from “Oriental College, Lahore in 1961 and attain gold medal. He started his career as a lecturer in 1962 and taught in different colleges. He got retirement in 1996. Anwar Masood is a multilingual poet. He teaches Persian language and also a poet of Persian, Urdu and Punjabi. His poetry provides message and reflection of original and true culture of Punjab.

He is the only poet who is popular among a lot of people. He describes different aspects of real life in his poetry that has never been described before. His some poems has become so popular in people that when ever he read out his poetry people requested him to recite their poetry again and again before them. His most popular poetry includes “Anar Kali Diyan Shana, Juma Bazaar Jehlam Da Pul, Aj Ke Pakaeay, Umree” and many more.

Rubab Raza

Rubab Raza is a Pakistani swimmer .Rubab Was born on January 15, 1991 at Lahore. At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece she became first Pakistani female swimmer to compete at the event when she contested the 50 meter freestyle.

She has won two silver medals and one bronze in the ninth South Asian games held in Islamabad the year 2004 .

Rubab has won a wild card entry for the 2004 Olympics due to her performances in swimming championships around the world. She also became the youngest sportswoman to represent Pakistan in any Olympics event when she took part in the 2004 Olympics at the age of 13.She has won a number of national titles, and has seen success at Asian swimming tournaments.

Amjad Islam Amjad

Amjad Islam Amjad - a great name in Pakistan's literary history. Amjad was born in Sialkot but had his higher education from Lahore. He started his practical life as a lecturer in the Islamia College and thereafter worked as a director in Pakistan Television Centre Lahore from 1975-1979. In 1997, he was appointed as the director general of the Urdu Science Board. At present he is the project director of the Children Library Complex.

Amjad is specially known for his drama writing - but equally captivating are his countless poems that reflect his thoughts about the beautifulness of life and its true face. He is author of more than 40 books, beside many critical works, columns and literary analyses. Amjad Islam Amjad is basically a sensitive poet who through the careful use of similes, metaphors and symbols has become one of the representative voices of his age. He is amongst the most popular poets of today and is known as the house-hold poet of Pakistan, since he is known and recognized everywhere one goes. This is mainly because of his captivating poetry and God-gifted qualities that a personality should possess.

Amjad Islam Amjad has written many a drama series for PTV with "Waaris" being the jewel in the crown. He may or may not write another serial so popular but his poetic talents have been abounding by day and night. His other famous TV dramas include Dehleez, Smandar, Raat, Waqt and Apnay Loug. The collection of his poetry includes: Fishar, Barzakh, Us par, Satwan dar, Zara phir say kehna, Seher aasar, Barish ke aawaz, Itnay khwab kahan rakhoon, Mairay bhe hain kuch khwab and Hum us kay hain.

Qateel Shifai

Qateel Shifai was born on 24th December, 1919. His actual name is Aurangzeb Khan. Qateel Shifai is his nom de plume, the pen-name under which he is known in the world of Urdu poetry. "Qateel" is his "takhallus" and "Shifai" is in honour of his ustaad Hakim Mohammed 'Shifa' whom he considered his mentor.

His father's death at an early age, forced Qateel to quit his education and start his own sporting goods shop. Success eluded him and he moved to Rawalpindi, where he worked at a transport company for a monthly salary of Rs.60. Finally in 1946, Nazir Ahmed called him to Lahore and made him the assistant editor of the monthly 'Adab-e-Latif'.

Qayeel Shifai's first ghazal was printed in the Lahore weekly 'Star', whose editor was Qamar Jalalabadi. In January 1947, a Lahore based film producer asked Qateel to pen the songs for his forthcoming film. His first film as a lyricist was "Teri Yaad". Since then he has won numerous awards as a lyricist. He has had quite a few of his poem collections published, one of which being "Mutriba" which was awarded the highest literature award in Pakistan.

Qateel's primary contribution to Urdu poetry has been to raise the standards of ghazals in films. Though this work was started by Tanvir Alvi and Sahir Ludhianvi,it has been brought to its natural conclusion by Qateel Shifai. His work brought a certain standard to ghazals in films and gave it a certain respectability. His work also brought Urdu poetry closer to the masses by using simple words, quite often words taken from Hindi.

Qateel Shifai has also been known for his collaborations with Jagjit and Chitra Singh on numerous ghazal albums.

Kishwar Naheed

Born in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, India in 1940, Kishwar Naheed is one of the best- known feminist poets of Pakistan. In a field dominated by traditional male voices, Naheed, writing in Urdu, was a pioneer of a new, distinctively feminine voice and has produced over the span of thirty years a body of work that is innovative, defiant, political, and self-aware.

Her poetry dared to go beyond the prescribed accepted 'feminine' realms to include hitherto unmined fields of female sexuality, politics, and social issues. In an interview with Rakhshanda Jalil for the Indian daily The Hindu (11/4/2001), Kishwar Naheed explained her writing as an attempt to redefine the man-woman relationship. Rejecting being branded as a radical or a bohemian, she declared herself "a realist" who "never let herself get pushed around by men or by circumstances."

Born into a traditional family that moved to Lahore, Pakistan during the 1947 Partition of the sub-continent, Naheed had to fight to pursue an education in a milieu where women did not go to school and "were not allowed to speak to boys." She studied at home and obtained a high school diploma through correspondence courses, but went on to receive a masters degree in Economics from Punjab University.

Naheed's first collection of poetry, Lab-i goya, published in 1968, won the prestigious Adamjee Prize of Literature. This collection of traditional ghazals was followed by a collection of nazms, by translations of foreign poetry, and by many works in free verse. She also wrote for children and for the daily Jang, published her autobiography in 1994 (it appeared the following year in India), and in 2001 saw her collected poetic work released in a 1312 page volume entitled Dasht-i qais men Lail'a. Her daily columns in Jang were also collected and published in 1999. Her poetry has been translated into English and Spanish and her famous poem "We, sinful women" gave its title to a path-breaking anthology of contemporary Urdu feminist poetry translated and edited by Rukhsana Ahmad, published in London by The Women's Press in 1991.

Kishwar Naheed has held the position of Director General of Pakistan National Council of the Arts before her retirement, has edited a prestigious literary magazine Mah-i naw, and has founded an organization named Hawwa (Eve) whose goal is to help homebound women become financially independent through cottage industries and the marketing of handicrafts.

The Library of Congress has twenty-five works by Naheed in its collection. She read for the Library in Lahore on December 13, 1977.

Bano Qudsia

Bano Qudsia is a writer, intellectual and playwright who is regarded among the best Urdu novelists and short story writers of modern times. She is best known for her novel Raja Gidh. She writes for television and stage in both Urdu and Punjabi languages. The Graduate Award for Best Playwright was conferred on Bano in 1986, followed by the same award for three consecutive years from 1988 to 1990. In 1986, she was also given the Taj Award for Best Playwright.

Umer Mujib Shami

Umer Mujib Shami is among the breed of young newspaper entrepreneurs who have recently joined the ranks of A.P.N.S. He holds Masters Degree in Business Administration from Lahore University of Management Science (LUMS). He had a distinguished educational career and also let the LUMS team to victory in World Business Games held in Georgia USA. He got his initial journalistic training in The News International and worked there as Commerce Reporter for one year before joining LUMS. He remained an avid reader and a regular contributor to different newspapers and periodicals on issue of national importance. 

He also worked in Jardine Fleming, a renowned Honk Kong based investment group for some time. He also briefly worked as editor of weekly “Zindagi” an influential political weekly after his graduation. Mr. Umer Mujib Shami assumed the responsibility of publisher and Managing Editor of Daily Pakistan on January 01, 1999. one of the largest national urdu newspaper. The Newspaper at that time was facing financial difficulties and was confronted by declining revenues in the face of ever increasing competition. However in the last seven years, the newspaper is put back on the road to growth and progress under his management. At present the newspaper is being published from five stations simultaneously and is among the most respected and trusted names in the Pakistani Journalism. He served as the Finance Secretary of APNS from April 2007 to March 2009. The Pakistan group of Publication is at present participating in a number of new venture in media and IT sector, under his management.

Nasreen Mahmud Kasuri

Mrs. Nasreen Mahmud Kasuri, comes from a business family. She did her Bachelor’s in Applied Psychology and History from Kinnaird College – Lahore. She studied Child Psychology at the postgraduate level at the Punjab University. She has also done her Master in Business Administration (MBA) and holds a joint degree issued by the Universities of NYU (USA), LSE (UK), and HEC (France). Mrs. Kasuri founded the Beaconhouse School System in 1975 which is today the largest and oldest private school system in Pakistan, perhaps even in South Asia. It is spread over 30 Cities throughout the country and overseas and has a student body nearing 181,958 and a staff exceeding 15,613. Beaconhouse prepares its student for the Cambridge ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels as well as the local Matriculation examinations.

Seema Aziz

Seema Aziz is an industrialist, a social worker, and an educationist. She founded CARE Foundation in 1988 to educate those children who would otherwise not have gone to school. The CARE concept has blossomed and today CARE manages and runs 200 schools for 135,000 children. CARE receives no funding from any foreign donor agencies or from the Government of Pakistan.

As an industrialist she set up Sefam (Pvt.) Ltd., which manufactures and retails quality embroidered fabrics under the brand name of Bareeze. Seema is also the Managing Director of Sarena Industries and Embroidery Mills (Pvt.) Ltd.