The late Karamat Ali, an eminent labour and development activist for over four decades, was the founder of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education & Research (PILER). He was also among the founding members of several local and regional networks, including the Pakistan Peace Coalition, the Pakistan-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy, and the South Asia Labour Forum. Throughout his life, he actively participated in labour and peace movements in Pakistan and played a pivotal role in connecting these movements with their regional and global counterparts.
Mr. Mohammad Tahseen is the founding Director of South Asia Partnership Pakistan (a consortium of Canadian and South Asian NGOs) and a leading national NGO in Pakistan, working for social, political and economic empowerment of the weakest, especially peasants, women and religious minorities.
Mr. Tahmasp is a graduate, with honours, from the University of Wolverhampton school of Law. He completed his LLM in International Law from Oxford Brookes University. He was enrolled with the Sindh Bar Counsel as an advocate in February 2006 and later as an advocate of the High Courts in March 2008. Tahmasp is also an accredited mediator from CEDR (Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution) London.
Mr. Tahmasp joined M/s Rasheed Razvi & Associates in the summer of 2006. Mr. Tahmasp frequently appears before the district courts in Karachi and the High Court of Sindh and has several reported judgments to his name.
Mahnaz Rahman is a senior writer, journalist and activist. Till June 2024, she had been working as Resident Director at Aurat Foundation’s regional office based at Karachi, a role she took on in 2010. Currently she works as a freelance policy analyst and consultant. She is a known practitioner on women rights and socio political issues having a journalistic background which adds to her strengths in terms of networking, liaison and communication with media, civil society, political parties and parliamentarians. She has been serving as development practitioner and has acquired versatile skills in terms of trainings on human right advocacy, developing research papers and technical backstopping on programme development aspects. Her experiential background while working with diverse institutions ranging from media, Aga Khan University and Church World Service significantly contributed to attain the desired set of skills and competencies to serve her last full time leadership role as Resident Director at AF.
Dr. Syed Jaffar Ahmed, Director of the Pakistan Study Centre, University of Karachi, holds a doctorate in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge, UK. He has written extensively on politics, history and constitution, authored and edited several books and contributed numerous articles in research journals and edited works.
Dr. Aqdas Afzal attended The Ohio State University, where he earned his bachelor’s in political science and economics. In 2006, he completed his master’s in political science from The Ohio State University and returned to his native Pakistan.
From 2006 through 2012, Dr. Aqdas Afzal worked in the development sector in both Lahore and Islamabad. Additionally, he taught as an adjunct faculty member at the Lahore University of Management Sciences and at the Government College University, Lahore.
In 2011, Dr. Aqdas Afzal won the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to pursue a doctorate in economics at the University of Missouri – Kansas City. In 2013, he interned at the United Nations in New York City. In 2015, he won the Association of Institutional Thought’s (AFIT) prestigious “Student Scholars Prize” in economics. In 2016, Dr. Aqdas Afzal was the “Three-Minute Thesis” champion at his university. In the same year, he won the Journal of Interdisciplinary Research’s (JIDR) best paper prize, while also bagging the “Graduate Studies Dissertation Research Award.” Dr. Aqdas Afzal also taught at the Rockhurst University in Kansas City.
Dr. Aqdas Afzal is now teaching at Habib University in Karachi; he also writes regularly for DAWN, Pakistan’s most-widely read English newspaper. In addition to speaking at various academic and corporate events, Dr. Aqdas Afzal also appears provides analysis on different TV programs
Dr. Riaz Ahmed Shaikh, Head of Social Sciences Department and Associate Professor at Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST) is an active academician who keeps engaged with different civil and human rights forums. A number of research articles and academic papers are on his credit.
Abbas Haider is a seasoned labour rights advocate and human rights defender with over two decades of dedicated service to promoting fair wages, safe working conditions, and social justice for marginalized labour communities. Renowned for his steadfast commitment and leadership, he has played a pivotal role in advancing labour justice and enhancing the role of civil society in rights-based governance. In recognition of his significant contributions, the Human Rights Department, Government of Sindh, honoured him with a prestigious Certificate of Appreciation for his unwavering efforts toward the protection and promotion of human rights.