I did my masters in mathematics but my passion was social & political activism since my young age. I founded, AwazCDS-Pakistan, a national civil society & human rights organization in Pakistan, in 1995. I did my post-graduation in leadership & management from BRAC Bangladesh and School for International Training (SIT), Vermont, USA in 1997 after winning a scholarship from Global Partnerships. I also won a scholarship from Canadian International Development Agency-CIDA to complete a yearlong post graduate diploma with a specialization on Managing People Organizations under LUMS- McGill Social Enterprise Development Program. I worked for the socio-economic development and political empowerment of young people and women. I am known as development advocate and lobbyist, community level civil and political rights activist, writer and occasional poet in the development sector especially in Pakistan, Asia and around the globe. I have conceived and conducted many studies on women, girls and young peoples’ rights in Pakistan. http://awazcds.org.pk/category/publications/research-studies/.  I remained board member of Punjab Government’s Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW) 2015-2018, Global Co-Chair of Transparency, Accountability and Partnerships –TAP Network (2017-2019), Global Council member of Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP)-2014-2020, Asia Development Alliance (ADA)-2014-2020 and Facilitation Group member of Action 4 Sustainable Development (A4SD)-2017-2020. I was nominated as one of the finalists for Nelson Mandela Graca Michael Award 2016 against my struggles for youth engagement in democratic process and restoration of local governance in Pakistan. I have represented Pakistan and spoken on behalf Pakistani and Asian CSOs many times in various local, national, regional and global conferences including UN. I was also part of CSOs delegation who met with UN’s Secretary General Antonio Guterres on the issue of shrinking civic spaces across the world. ​​

Currently I am leading Pakistan Development Alliance –PDA- a forum of national NGOs and CSOs working together for implementation of SDGs with a focus on governance and accountability processes in Pakistan. Very recently I am elected as the Executive Council Member of Pakistan National Committee of International Union of Nature Conservation (IUCN) for the year 2020-2021 as well as global steering committee member of AGNA/CIVICUS for the year 2022-2023. ​​

Having served at various national , regional and global forums during the last two & half decades, I believe I will be able to contribute in further strengthening the civil society lead forum like CIVICUS. Being a champion of grassroots civil society organizations, I strongly believe that my inclusion in the CIVICUS board will open up new avenues of engagement and further harnessing the potential of local civil societies across the world. I also strongly support human rights based approaches in our developmental interventions. I have realized that taking up rights agenda at the center of our actions is really challenging now a days due to stringent regulatory frameworks and shrinking civic spaces. Most of the large and small scale organizations have left working for rights rather they are more comfortable for being sub-servient to governments and private sectors as well as global financial institutions/ funders. I will encourage CIVICUS to invest more on retrieving rights based approaches in civil societies and strengthen them further for meaningful local actions and interventions. ​

“What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.” Nelson Mandela ​

I am critical thinker and risk taker- strategist and campaigner for civil and political rights of marginalized communities. My specialization is in leading and managing peoples’ organizations and strategic thinking. I want to learn diplomacy for effective advocacy and lobbying on democracy and human rights. ​

My vision for civil society is encourage them to reclaim their rightful spaces and choices to follow human rights based approaches to hold state and private sector to account. I am not in favor of civil society to act as parallel to state and private sector for service delivery rather civil society need to act as watchdogs for rights of marginalized and citizens at large. I also strongly support strengthening local civil society voices and organizations for meaningful engagement of citizens in social and political discourse. ​

I always try to learn from failures. 27 years ago when I founded AwazCDS-Pakistan, our first project on sanitation services for a suburban area in Multan-Pakistan, was a failure. We learned that service delivery is not the kind of work that we should do and since then we started empowering people to struggle and get their basic social amenities through duty bearers and government departments. One of our learning is to believe and leverage upon peoples’ own potential, connecting dots and strengthening civil society alliances for better outcomes of our rights based interventions. ​