Ali Zafar

Ali Zafar was born on May 18th, 1980 in Lahore, Pakistan to Mohammad Zafarullah, Professor of Fine Arts and Kanwal Ameen, who worked in the Library Sciences department at Punjab University at the time. Lahore is not only the place of birth for Ali, but also where he studied. He began his schooling at C.A.A. until 5th standard and excelled in his studies. He then moved to Beaconhouse School where he topped in his matriculate examinations in 1996. He then joined Government College University, where he completed his F.A. in Arts as the class of 1998. After that, Ali pursued his childhood love for painting and went to the “National College of Arts", from where he graduated with honors in 2002. Hence, completing his education. Ali Zafar hit the music scene in 2003 with his single "Channo" which sold half a million copies in just the first week and ended up selling over 5 million copies of his first album "Huqa Paani". The album went on to become one of the biggest hits the country had ever produced and made him a superstar over night. Prior to this, Ali was seen acting on television and modeling on the ramp. He also spend his evenings painting live portraits in a lobby of a 5 star hotel to help raise some extra money to produce his music.With his reputation of being a successful model,actor and a painter his move of releasing a dance single left the nation in awe. His tracks pumped up the dance floors at various weddings, balls and parties. This set a trend and the fever spread, increasing his fan following to a global scale. Apart from this his unique style became an inspiration to the youth and put him on a pedestal to becoming a national icon. He was awarded the "Youth Icon" award in 2007, by the biggest award ceremony in Pakistan: the Lux Style Awards. From then on there was no looking back.  During his career, Ali has managed to win almost all major awards starting from the “Best Album” in 2003 to the "Best Male Artist" at MTV Awards in 2009. He has been on the covers of various style and music magazines and has been the brand ambassador for the most premier companies in Pakistan. Who can resist Ali Zafar's youthful persona, million-dollar smile and charming looks, assets that give him a solid edge and make him the stand-alone choice for most multinational brands that use his image to sell their products. They couldn’t help signing him up even if in competition with each other. He would perhaps be the only celebrity to have endorsed Pepsi as well as Coke, Sony Ericsson along with LG mobile phones, and Instaphone, Telenor and Mobilink. He was the first male to endorse the biggest brand in soaps, Lux, with his hit single "Dekha" which starred all the big female actresses in Pakistan. He has also endorsed brands such as Head and Shoulders, Close Up, Tapal Tea, Tarang Tea Whitener, Lays Chips, Lu Bakery and many others. As of now, Ali Zafar is heading Mobilink Jazz, the biggest telecommunication brand in the region. Ali is now set to further enhance his career by becoming an international super star and cross all barriers. Recently his track "Dekha" has been picked up by the international block buster "Wall street part 2". He is in process of working on tracks sung by him in English for the international market and is looking for the best means and avenues to execute his plans.(http://www.alizafar.net/)

Junaid Saleem

Junaid Saleem's career in the field of journalism spans more than 2 decades. Mr Saleem did his Master's in Mass Communication from Punjab University and has worked with the renowned media groups in the country. He also has had the honour to work abroad for an Urdu Daily of the Arab News Group. Currently, he is the Editor-in-Chief of Daily Insaaf. He belongs to Okara.

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Annie Khalid

Annie was born in Lahore on 27 March 1987. She came to UK at the age of 6 months. She grew up in East London and later moved to Essex with her parents.

Annie was brought up in a multicultural town. She became a part of the East London Dance Company during her school years.

Her music career started in late 2005, when Annie, sitting bored at home, started humming a melody. She met a music arranger through a friend, who helped her compose the very simple, yet catchy song “Mahiya.”

Annie was encouraged by family and friends to take it a step further. She got in touch with a record company and preparations for an ordinary video were made.

The video was soon released in Pakistan. With her simple rendition and style of singing, along with catchy lyrics, the song became an instant hit. It started getting ripped from the video to be sold separately.

Mahiya became the most accessed Pakistani pop song on the Internet for in 2005 and 2006.

Annie won “The Most Wanted Song 2006” viewers choice award at TMA Pakistan, “The Most Wanted Female” 2006 and 2008, “Pride Of Performance” from the 14th August Committee Oslo, Norway and many more awards as her career progressed.

Bollywood cinema moguls Mahesh Bhatt and Mukesh Bhatt expressed their desire to use Annie's song Mahiya, for their movie “Awarapan,” which consequently gained her more fame and fan following.

After the success of Mahiya, she started working with various charities, raising awareness for education and health. Also within this short span of time, Annie became a household name and endorsed high profile brands, including Pepsi, Telenor and Tony & Guy, becoming the most popular female artist in Pakistan to date.

She has also walked the ramp as a showstopper at the 2010 L'Oreal Karachi fashion week, for BNS couture.

2010 proved to be a lucky year for the star. On 25th November 2010 Annie released her UK Debut single “BE MY BABY” along with the remix of the track done by the UK’s Top DJ Judge Jules.

Along with music her charity work was also recognized when she was appointed to be the Goodwill Ambassador for the International Red Cross on September 23rd, 2010, in Norway, where she raised money with the Red Cross for the flood victims in Pakistan by supporting and contributing in various activities. All the proceeds from her UK debut single "Be My Baby" were donated to the flood victims in Pakistan.

This honour gave her the opportunity to represent Pakistan on an international level.

In June 2011, Annie was the first South Asian celebrity to be featured in LOOK, a high-end fashion and celebrity weekly magazine coming out of The UK.

The same month, she launched her café in Lahore, which is located in one of the most popular areas and was an instant hit among the youngsters. AK Lounge continues to grow with the star herself.

She is the first Pakistani Artist to endorse a Label internationally. In August 2011, she signed a contract with Lebara, a telecommunication company, in Norway, for their current campaign. Besides newspapers and billboards, she can be seen on every bus, tube, train and their stations in Norway.

She is at the moment working on collaboration with the famous British – Norwegian boy band “A1″ for a single “Just 3 words” which they will unveil on a performance this October 31st at the O2 Academy in London.

Umar Saif

Dr. Umar Saif received his academic training from LUMS, Cambridge and MIT. He did his BSc (Hons) from LUMS (1998), PhD from University of Cambridge (2001) and Postdoctorate from MIT (2002), all in Computer Science. Dr. Saif worked and taught at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) as a research scientist for four years, where he was part of the group (O2S) that developed system technologies for project Oxygen -- a US$28 million project sponsored by the US Department of Defense (DARPA) and an industrial Alliance of world-class companies including Nokia, HP, Compaq, NTT DoCommo, Phillips, Acer and Delta.

While at MIT, Dr. Saif also managed the multi-million dollar collaboration on future computing technologies between University of Cambridge and MIT sponsored by the Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI) and a consortium of hightech British companies.

Dr. Saif's research interests broadly span areas of Ubiquitous Computing, Distributed Systems, Mobile Systems, Network Protocols and Architectures and ICT for developing world countries. Dr. Saif has authored several influential publications and is a Fellow of the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust. Dr. Saif's research has been featured in popular media, including BBC, New Scientist, MIT Technology Review, Distributed Systems Online, and Dawn News. His research has received grants from Microsoft Research (MSR), Oxygen Consortium at MIT, Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI), US State Department/USAID, HEC and PITB.

Dr. Saif was selected as a Young Global Leader (YGL) by the World Economic Forum in 2010. Dr. Saif received the MIT Technovator Award in 2008, Mark Weiser Award at IEEE Percom'08, Digital Inclusion Award from Microsoft Research in 2006 and the IDG CIO Technology Pioneer Award in 2008. During his doctorate studies, Dr .Saif was a Trinity College Overseas Scholar and Commonwealth Scholar at University of Cambridge.

Dr. Saif has (co-)founded four technology startups: BumpIn.com (contextual chatting), SeeNreport.com (citizen journalism), ChOpaal.pk (SMS social networking) and TicketMy.com (event tickets). Dr. Saif is the founder of one of the first startup incubators in Lahore, Pakistan, called SCI. 

Syed Yawar Ali

Syed Yawar Ali was educated at Aitchison College Lahore and got his Bachelors in Chemical Engineering and Masters in Management Science from Stevens Institute of Technology. He joined the family business, Packages Limited and then became Managing Director of Milk Pak Ltd. After 3 years of the Joint Venture with Nestlé he was elevated to Chairman of the Board.

Syed Yawar Ali is currently Chairman of Nestlé Pakistan Limited, Chairman, Wazir Ali Industries Limited and Past Chairman of Pakistan Dairy Association. He is serving on many other boards and has also been on the Board of Directors of State Bank of Pakistan, Pakistan International Airlines, Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan and Lahore Electric Supply Company.

Currently he is Vice-President of the India-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and is heading a committee to ‘Promote Trade with India.’

Ayesha Omer

Ayesha Omar (born October 12, 1980) is a Pakistani actress, model, singer, former MTV Pakistan VJ and painter. She is best known for portraying the character of Khoobsurat in ARY Digital's sitcom Bulbulay.

Born on October 12, 1980, Ayesha graduated from the prestigious National College of Arts, Lahore, Pakistan, where she mastered the art of painting fine art. She acquired fame with two of her hit singles, "Aao" and "Koi To Ho".

Since her early days at school, Ayesha had been keen in theater and charity work. She was a president at her arts school and managed theater productions along with doing costumes and conceptual creative work. She would dedicate her summers at the Rising Sun School for special children. At the age of eight, she started hosting a show with Muneeza Hashmi called Meray Bachpan Kay Din in which she would interview celebrities about their early days.

However, it was her break in the light teen comedy Kollege Jeans that prompted her career in television. The show was directed by another NCA graduate Jawad Bashir and cast her alongside Ali Zafar and other prominent TV personalities. Soon after she was invited to host a show called Rhythm for Prime TV where she interviewed musicians from all over Pakistan including veterans like Arif Lohar and Shazia Manzoor.

She would even act with Nautanki, NCA’s drama group, even before she joined the college whence she gathered that a formal training is required. The National College of Arts (NCA) provided her every other reason to indulge into any prospect of performing arts. During her tenure at the institution she also modelled 18 fashion shows held as well as perform in seven plays with Lahore’s amateur theater groups.

In 2003, a set of paintings that Ayesha created for her final NCA thesis generated excitement and controversy when exhibited. The controversy surrounded her submission of two semi-nude self portraits, also a part of the exhibition. Asked, Ayesha would say that the Pakistani society has forgotten the integral preciousness of life and quoted that “the human body is the purest of all natural forms, it’s chaste, it’s innocent, but you have to see beyond the apparent to perceive the metaphysical.

Ayehsa Omar hosted ‘Hot Chocolate’ on ARY Zauq. She is now hosting a morning show 'Ye Waqt Hai Mera' on CNBC Pakistan and Samaa tv (Source: Wikipedia)

Salim Bokhari

Salim Bokhari is presently working as Editor of TheNation. Salim Bokhari is a seasoned journalist and has seen it all in a career spanning more than four decades. He co-hosted Bolta Pakistan programme on Aaj TV. In his lengthy career, Bokhari was also associated with The Sun and The Muslim (both defunct), The News and The National. He has been a regular feature on several talk shows on television and is well -respected in the profession to which he has given his best years. He received President’s Pride of Performance Award in 2005 and the Best English Reporting Award of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society in 1984-85. He is a widely travelled journalist and has on his credit interviews of international personalitie.

Farida Gul Haroon

Farida Gul Haroon is a self taught artist who attended Art College in Lahore, Pakistan.
But the muse that inspired her creativity was the experiences and the tribulations that she witnessed.
Oppression, misery and suppression make the silent tales of the inner world of women.
It is an indelible stain on humanity void of compassion, dehumanizing both the oppressed and the oppressor, and the evidence of it is so offensive to modern sensibilities and sensitivities that we preserve proof of it as lessons for the coming generations.
She tried to put on to canvas what she felt and by not taking the “side road”. She is more interested in the philosophy of life and the struggle of the feminine role. Farida has a unique perception which some refer to as mysticism. This is the spiritual influence that greatly impacts her work.
She paints in different mediums at different times,although she loves gold leaf addition to her work!!!
Website: www.karmaartgallery.org

Mazhar Barlas

TV Anchor
Columnist
Poet, Political Analyst, Media consultant
Chairman Media Art Group
President MAPAA
President Samaj (NGO)
Sec Gen. SOCH, UK
Director Medis & Publication (IBHI & ICIHI)
Member Seminar Committee, National Press Club, Islamabad.
Chairman Media Committee, BARDASHT
Published a book titled: "Shaheed-e-Mashriq" about Benazir Bhutto Shaheed in 2009 on her birthday.
Member Film Censor Board, Government of Pakistan
Old Ravian

Shaheen Atiq-ur-Rehman

Shaheen Atiq-ur-Rehman is a social worker and politician. She was born in April 1948 at Sialkot.
She obtained the degree of M.A (Administrative Sciences) in 1971 and that of LL.B. in 1975 from University of the Punjab, Lahore.
She also remained  Member, Punjab Assembly during 1985-88 and also functioned as Minister for Social Welfare & Women’s Development during 1985-87. She has returned to Punjab Assembly for the second term in General Elections 2002 against one of the seats reserved for women.
Shaeen atiq ur Rehman was awarded Communes Medal in 1998, by UNESCO in Paris for getting international recognition for her work in literacy.