Alumni Awards 2019

Muhammad Shahzad, University of Glasgow

Muhammad Shahzad is assistant, professor and PhD Research Coordinator at Khyber Medical University, Peshawar. Shahzad has been instrumental in establishing the first ever Human Nutrition department at a medical university in Pakistan offering MPhil and PhD courses. His work as a supervisor, PhD advisor and a student mentor has been recognised by Khyber Medical University as a vital member of the university. 

For Shahzad, studying at University of Glasgow was truly a life changing experience. During his stay at Glasgow, Shahzad received enormous support, guidance and learned the skill of self-belief which has not only helped him to earn a doctorate degree but also rose to international fame as the nation’s first ever lawn bowl athlete and represented Pakistan in Commonwealth Games 2014.

Shahzad is now taking his skills and achievements to the local youth and aims to motivate and inspire them towards a career in sports and science.

WINNER: Shahzaib Ali, University of Manchester

Shahzaib Ali is currently working with one of the largest bank of Pakistan as a lead on Process Digitization in the Innovation and Financial Inclusion department. Earlier, he worked on key positions within Strategy, Finance and Business Development with Bank Alfalah and KPMG, UK.

 Shahzaib attributes his successful and rewarding career to the University of Manchester for honing his ambition to excel professionally, whilst instilling the need to share his learning within his community. His experience has a student was humbling and made him understand the importance of good education.

Shahzaib now inspires students from challenging backgrounds to excel in life with a smile.

Nasira Hayat, London Metropolitan University

Nasira Hayat is an active and enthusiastic clinical and health psychologist at Shuakat Khanum Memorial cancer hospital and research centre. 

Her work in the fielf of mental health care has been instrumental in creating awareness about mental health issues, which has led to an impressive increase in acceptance of mental instability as an alarming issue.

London Metropolitan University provided me with the right education, skills and exposure. I was encouraged to interact with a culti-cultural environment and was taught values that helped me gain insights and skills for a career in clinical and health pyschology. 

 Nasira is working with pink ribbon campaign for breast cancer awareness and has represented her institute at conferences at national and international platforms.

Osman Gilani, City, University of London

Osman Gilani is the Vice President at M&D Productions, which is an award winning film production company based in Karachi. Osman has worked across various streams of the Pakistani media industry, from current affairs and newsrooms to mainstream entertainment channels; he holds a diverse portfolio of working in the Pakistan media sector.

His most recent project was “Parwaaz Hai Junoon”, an Urdu feature film that showcased the story of a female fighter pilot and was made with the collaboration of Pakistan Air Force and saw major box office success in Pakistan.

Osman believes that the multicultural environment, the people and the process of learning at City University was essential for him to grow as a media professional and helped him make important career decisions. His one-year at City University London helped him understand the importance of film and visual narratives and provided him with the skills he needed to develop good stories.

His films are now nurturing the best creative minds in Pakistan and taking them to a global audience. Their aim is to use the medium of film as a form of expression and show the world what Pakistani filmmakers can achieve.

Nausheen Zakaria, University of Leeds and The University of Sheffield 

Dr. Nousheen is the Founder and CEO of Out of Box Ltd, U.K. and The Code It Company in Pakistan. She has worked with some of the most prestigious global clients and has set new and intuitive websites and apps both globally and locally. She has emerged as a leader in her field of work and is actively involved in endeavours of social welfare and community building. She also extends support to people with special needs by creating equal-employment opportunities for them to work within her firm

Nousheen believes that her experience of studying in the UK not only enhanced her critical thinking skills, but also provided her with a global perspective. She attributes her current practices of employing diverse staff and people with special needs and introducing policies to support them in her organisation to the trainings she received in the UK.

Tauseef Zahid, London Metropolitan University and City University, London

Tauseef Zahid is the founder and partner in a leading digital commerce agency in Pakistan called onewood He founded the company in 2013 when he returned from the UK where he completed his BSc Hon in Computer Science from London Metropolitan University and Masters in Human Centred Systems from City University London. onewood provides services in the areas of digital marketing, e-commerce, help desk and cloud solutions.

I want to create a global micro-organization with customers across the globe served via a strong technical workforce from Pakistan contributing in reversal of brain drain for the country.

Over the last six years, his company has worked with large corporations including HP, Coke and Mondelez. 

Tauseef believes that the education he received in the UK, along with multicural enviornment exposure provided him with the qualities and skills which are vital in today’s globally competitive business environment.

Muneeb Ahsan Malik, Imperial College London

Commonwealth scholar Muneeb Ahsan Malik is an Infrastructure and Management Associate at Reenergia Enhar and Secur Global, engaged in various research and development projects, focusing on renewable energy, technology integration, rural growth programs, environmental conservation poverty alleviation and much more.

Muneeb is currently engaged with start-ups and venture capital models for business development projects, interacting with national and international clients. Muneeb Ahsan Malik believes that Imperial College London polished his analytical skills and the extensive design modules he learned there enabled him to develop deep insights into the design and analysis of structural elements through a variety of software and elaborate modelling techniques. 

Muneeb Ahsan Malik aims at bridging the renewable energy and logistics/ trade facilitation sectors through technological integration aiming at economic growth and development of Pakistan.

WINNER: Osman Haneef, University of Oxford

Osman Haneef is the CEO of MILVIK Pakistan  (“BIMA Mobile”), a subsidiary of BIMA, the world’s largest digital and mobile technology enhanced micro insurance and telehealth company.  

Osman credits the academic rigor, the extracurricular activities, and the expectation of excellence at the University of Oxford for giving him the courage to pursue an unconventional path. 

BIMA Mobile has over 1,100 employees who provide health programs, doctor consultations, and insurance services to over 2 million Pakistanis.  BIMA Mobile plans to eventually protect the lives and future of every family in Pakistan.

WINNER: Salima Begum, UCL Institute of Education

Salima has been working for Aga Khan University-Professional Development Centre North, as a teacher educator, Karakoram International University as an Assistant Professor and College of Education for Women as an instructor.

She says that the Programme structure and content was very relevant to her existing experience and offered her an opportunity to learn more about education systems of different countries and their commitment for promoting education. 

In recognition of her contribution in improving quality of teaching/learning, engaging communities in education, developing strong home-school partnerships, implementing environmental projects, promoting girls’ education and introducing entrepreneurship concepts in community to empower women, she qualified as a finalist for the Global Teachers Prize 2017 and was awarded a Gold Medal and meritorious certificates.

Gouhar Pirzada, London Metropolitan University

Gouhar Pirzada is Chairperson of STEP Skills Development Foundation and CEO of STEP Institute of Art, Design Management. He is also a national TVET trainer and a consultant with GIZ and Government of Pakistan, supporting the implementation of TVET reformation.

Gouhar believes that London Metropolitan University provided him with competencies and skills related to stakeholder engagement, creative entrepreneurship and developing sustainable collaborations with international organisations while dealing with and managing diversity and social inclusion.

Gouhar is now training institution heads at a national level to upgrade Pakistan’s TVET sector in light of UNESCO’s TVET strategy. He also writes for TVET Asia.

Faran Mehmood, University of Cambridge 

Faran Mahmood is an expert on SDGs with a full spectrum of advisory, policy, fund-raising and programme management experience on his palette in government, international and local development sectors. As USAID’s MAVC programme fellow, he spearheaded the tech4gov movement to bring accountability in million-dollar megaprojects.

At Cambridge, Faran learned to apply a systems approach to complex dynamic problems and applied a new gamification technique for policy experiments during a fellowship – which landed him with a finalist spot at the UK Trade and Investment’s annual festival.

Currently, he is advising the Government of Pakistan on SDG policy matters and has received numerous commendation letters/medals for his work.

Muhammad Atif, University of East Anglia (UEA)

Muhammad Atif Sheikh has been an activist for the rights of persons with disabilities for more than 13 years.  He is the President of the Special Talent Exchange Program (STEP), a self- help organization for persons with disabilities. Founded in 1997, STEP under the leadership of Mr. Sheikh has become a strong voice for citizens with disabilities in Pakistan.

In 2002, he represented Pakistan in the World Assembly of Disabled Peoples’ International and the Osaka Forum on Disability and Development. In the following years, he established affiliations with global partners and conducted training and capacity building with prominent persons with disabilities. He is the founder of a number of entities led by persons with disabilities at national and regional levels, including the Assistive Technology Center in Pakistan and the South Asian Disability Forum.  

He has also served as the first Chairperson of the South Asian Disability Forum and regularly shares information and insights with activist persons with disabilities, within South Asia and in other ESCAP subregions through the online disability information resource site (APCD Empowerment Café). Atif Sheikh has also presented technical papers on different aspects of disability and development at more than 30 policy meetings and seminars across the world.