Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid is a man who has devoted himself to legal rights advocacy since the last 16 years after his retirement from the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2000. He has remained the Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court from 1992 to 1994 and was elevated to the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 1996. He is the Chairman for the Committee for the Welfare of Prisoners, a Sindh Home Department notified committee working to mainstream prison administration and has also been founder and the Dean for the Hamdard School of Law.
Mr. Asadullah Jamil is an IT professional with 40 years of experience working in Information Technology Division in various national and international banks. During this period he has worked for banks in Pakistan, USA, and U.A.E. Having spent about 17 years with a large international bank based in UK he was directly involved in designing, developing, implementing, and maintaining online real time system operating in 74 countries worldwide.
Justice Arif Hussain Khilji was elevated as a Judge of the High Court of Sindh in 2001. In 2007, he refused to take oath under the Provisional Constitution Order. In 2009 he was elevated as judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and retired in 2014. He was appointed as ad-hoc judge for the Supreme Court in 2015 for one year. In 2017 he was appointed as the Director General of the Sindh Judicial Academy.
Dr. Habiba Hassan is a Pediatrician by profession but is both an educationist and a human rights activist. Currently she is a senior member of the faculty at Jinnah Medical and Dental College, Karachi. She has devoted more than forty years of her life to her professional work as a doctor as well as to improve the lives of women and children in Pakistan. She has pioneered many projects and has been the first Pakistani to head Amnesty International representing it at various global forums including at the United Nations.
Barrister Furkan Ali is a Partner at the LMA Ebrahim Hosain. He is member of Lincoln’s Inn, the Sindh Bar Council and the Karachi Bar Association and is enrolled as an Advocate of the High Court of Sindh.Mr. Furkan Ali has successfully acted as the counsel for multinational corporations as well as local companies in Pakistan. The internationally renowned Legal 500 recommends Mr. Furkan Ali for his advisory work in the corporate sector and for contentious work in relation to insurance and regulatory disputes. Mr. Furkan Ali served as full time consultant to the Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan in 2013 and has also been engaged by the Hague Institute for Global Justice.
Mr, Muhammad Ather Saeed joined his father late Syed Saiduddin in 1973 as tax associate. He was enrolled as an advocate in May 1975 and Advocate of the High Court in May 1981. In 1981 he took over the firm and practiced tax laws and corporate laws from original side up to the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
In October 2005, he was elevated as a Judge of the Honorable High Court of Sindh and served with distinction in this Court and headed the Tax Bench of this Court for almost four years. In 2011 he was elevated as a Judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and retired from this Court in September 2014. After his retirement he re-joined Saiduddin & Co., as a partner. He has authored a number of land mark judgments not only in tax matters but in the field of banking, criminal law, intellectual property, arbitration, service law and almost all branches of law. Presently he is involved in number of arbitration proceedings and rendering opinion and advices on tax and other branches of law.
Mr. Muhammad Ather Saeed remained a prolific speaker on tax and corporate matters on various forums and discussions on various TV channels. During this period he served as President of the Income Tax Bar Association for 3 terms and Karachi Gymkhana for 2 terms.
Ms Rabiya Javeri Agha has remained one of the senior most female officers of the Pakistan Administrative Service, Government of Pakistan. She is a graduate in Politics and Literature from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts USA who entered the civil service in 1986. Ms Agha has served the Government in several capacities. In her judicial assignments she was both ‘first class’ and juvenile magistrate. She has worked as Director General, Federal Ombudsman, Secretary Local Government Board, and Financial Advisor to the Mayor and City of Karachi from 1998 to 2000. As Secretary Women’s Development Department, she was instrumental in initiating free legal aid facilities for indigent women and for the setup of women’s shelters throughout Sindh. Prior to this, Ms Rabiya also served as Secretary, Energy, Secretary Tourism, and Special Secretary to the Governor of Sindh.
Prior to her posting in the Human Rights Division, Rabiya Javeri Agha was Secretary of the Trade Development Authority (TDAP), responsible for trade marketing & facilitation as well as trade policy formulation. At TDAP, she was instrumental in framing TDAP HR & Financial Rules after a lapse of 9 years. Ms Agha also undertook a complete restructure of TDAP offices and developed strong national brands such as “Aalishan Pakistan’ and “TEXPO Pakistan’. She is recipient of FPCCI gold medal conferred by the Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr. Nawaz Sharif in acknowledgement of her organization’s outstanding performance in EXPO Pakistan.
Before joining the civil service, she worked as a full-time journalist with the Dawn Group of Newspapers and has published over 300 articles on social and cultural issues. She has attended several courses in Management and Public policy, as well as courses on Conservation and Sustainable Tourism. She is a certified mediator from CEDR (Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution), UK. At present she serves as the Chairperson of the National Commission on Human Rights.
Samia Babar has twenty three years of experience in the Public Relations sector. Her area of expertise has been in the health sector where she has developed and implemented awareness programs for Breast Cancer Awareness, Asthma and its management, Diabetes management, Childhood diseases and vaccination, Cervical Cancer Prevention and Invasive Pneumococcal Disease Awareness along with leading pharmaceutical companies. A successful two years campaign by Tetrapak was also conducted by her in the schools of Karachi.
She along with her team developed and implemented an Intellectual Property Rights / Anti-Piracy campaign for Oxford University Press. The campaign won the London Book Fair International Book Industry Award. And it was named as a finalist at the PR News’ Nonprofit PR Awards. She is responsible for all day-to-day management decisions and for implementing the Company’s long and short term plans, supervising and coordination of all PR related concerns of the clients.
She has previously worked with UNICEF and USAID in awareness projects in low-income areas. A campaign Students Movement against Childhood Diseases (SMACD) designed for UNICEF and implemented by MPL won the IPRA Golden World Award 2017 as well as the UN Sustainable Development Goals Award 2017.
Mr. Adnan Javed is a Director at Fleuret Pakistan, a group which has been providing cutting edge solutions for the Pakistan Defence Markets since 1976. Mr. Adnan’s specialty lies in the realms of indenting with further specializations in risk mitigation, market analysis , research , due diligence and regulatory compliance. He has over a decade of experience in the retail banking sector having worked as Resident Vice President at Faysal Bank Ltd and being associated with Dubai Islamic Bank. Mr. Adnan completed his education in business administration from the University of Kent at Canterbury in the U.K.
Ms. Hajerah Saleem became part of Crescent Steel and Allied Products Limited in 2012 and currently holds dual leadership roles as the Group Head of Corporate Affairs and the Business Unit Head of the Investments and Infrastructure Development Division. She also serves as the Chief Executive Officer of CS Capital (Private) Limited and sits as a Non-Executive Director on the boards of Shakarganj Limited and Crescent Hadeed (Private) Limited.
Before joining Crescent Steel, Ms. Saleem was associated with Barclays Bank PLC Pakistan, where she specialized in corporate banking, with a strong focus on relationship management, business development, and transaction banking. She holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Economics from the University of Kent, United Kingdom, conferred in 2008.
At Crescent Steel, she oversees the management of diverse investment portfolios, including equity, commodities, and real estate. In her role as Group Head of Corporate Affairs, she is also responsible for leading the Human Resources, Administration, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and Communications functions across all business segments.
With over a decade of experience in leadership and organizational management, Ms. Saleem has played a key role in driving strategic initiatives at the Group level. Her contributions include spearheading the development and implementation of the company’s Core Values, leading the publication of the Corporate Responsibility Report, and designing stakeholder engagement programs aligned with the Group’s broader mission and values.
Jangbeen Atif Mirza is a practising lawyer and researcher. She is an Assistant Professor of Practice at the Shaikh Ahmad Hassan School of Law, LUMS. She is also a member of the Adjunct Faculty at the Punjab Judicial Academy. She holds a B.A., LL.B from LUMS (2008), and an LL.M from the University of Michigan Law School (2010). Angbeen’s primary area of interest currently lies in clinical legal education and access to justice work. She supervises a clinical programme at SAHSOL where students are responsible for weekly legal awareness sessions with secondary school students. She is a member of the Lahore High Court Bar Association on Gender Equality and Diversity, which works towards awareness and inclusion of all vulnerable groups.
She has 8 years of litigation experience in Karachi and Lahore. She joined the Legal Aid Office as part of its juvenile litigation team in 2010. She also helped developed material for and organize gender sensitization trainings for judicial officers, police and prison staff. She has been involved in human rights work in various capacities including public interest litigation, research, advocacy, development of training material for judges and police staff, and preparation of community outreach material relating to constitutional, women’s, minorities and children’s rights.
Dr. Asha Bedar has a PhD from the University Of Melbourne, Australia and is a practicing clinical psychologist, trainer, facilitator and researcher. She has been working with individuals, families, groups and professionals, for over 20 years, on issues related to trauma, gender, violence against women and children, psychosocial support in emergencies, and human rights.
Ahtesham Gul is a development practitioner with extensive experience providing sound consultation and guidance to Governmental institutions, Donor agencies, INGOs and leading, high-performing teams in monitoring, evaluation, and learning. He holds an MBA (Management) degree from UK, an MSc in Statistics from Pakistan and project management certification from the Association of Project Managers, UK.
During his 16+ years of professional career, he has remained associated with Adam Smith International, UNDP, Management System International (MSI), Coffey Development International, GIZ, Interoperation, London Schools of Economics (LSE), Government Counterparts, academic institutions and national organizations. He was a part of large scale projects/programmes funded by different donors (USAID, FCDO, EU, Japan, SDC, CSSF, BHC, UNHCR).
He has a sound working knowledge of different thematic areas i.e., Stability, Conflict, Early Recovery, Relief & Rehabilitation, Governance, Social Cohesion/Community Engagement & development, Community Resilience, Economic Revitalisation, Growth & Livelihoods, Education, Rule of Law, Health, WASH, Climate Change Adaptation and Women Empowerment. He was responsible to design M&E systems & plans, develop data collection tools and establish routines, building staff and counterpart capacity, contribute to ToC and result frameworks, conduct programme level performance stocktakes and progress reviews, support in designing performance dashboards and integrated data management systems, and contributed to internal and external evaluations.
At the Legal Aid Society, Ahtesham is working as a MEL advisor where he works closely with Program teams to maintain operational efficiencies, learn and adapt for effective programming and achieve high quality and desirable results.
Fahad Mehsood holds an LLB degree from Lahore University of Management Sciences. He is a practising lawyer based in Lahore, focusing on civil and criminal law. As a researcher, he focuses on environmental regulations and water jurisprudence. He has worked with Coffey International, MSI and UNDP as a consultant. Recently, he conducted a scoping study for LAS on the demand and prevalence of Alternative Dispute Resolution in Gilgit Baltistan. Besides, he has also worked as an Editorial Assistant at The Nation.
Ameel has an MBA from Melbourne Business School and a BSc (Honours) in Computer Science from Lahore University of Management Sciences. He has a technology, strategy, marketing, communications, and consulting background. He has worked at large multinationals, small start-ups, local and global non-profits, and government organizations. He has been active on social media since 1996 and has built websites and intranets professionally since 1997.
Ameel specializes in solving complex, cross-business technical and communications challenges. He is currently the Insights, Digital, and Social Media Manager at Transurban (based in Melbourne, Australia). Over the last five years, he has used research, data, and 20+ years of experience to evolve Transurban’s digital and social media strategies and storytelling capabilities. In the six years before that, he built and managed the social media presence of Jetstar, an Asia-Pacific regional airline owned by the Qantas Group.
Justice Arif Hussain Khilji was elevated as a Judge of the High Court of Sindh in 2001. In 2007, he refused to take oath under the Provisional Constitution Order. In 2009 he was elevated as judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and retired in 2014. He was appointed as ad-hoc judge for the Supreme Court in 2015 for one year. In 2017 he was appointed as the Director General of the Sindh Judicial Academy.
Haya Emaan Zahid is a Barrister-at-Law with more than 10 years of experience working as a legal empowerment professional. She is nominated by the Government of Sindh as a legal expert for the Committee for the Welfare of Prisoners ( a committee that has been providing legal aid, assistance and empowerment to prisoners in Sindh since establishment in 2004). She has been working within the prison landscape both at the grass roots and policy and research level having made key contributions to reforming prison legislation in Sindh. Haya has worked as a special assistant/ co-opted member for federal government committees notified to improve the situation of prisoners across Pakistan. Haya is a member of the Sindh Public Safety and Police Complaints Commission , National Commission on the Status of Women and Board Member of the Legal Aid and Justice Authority. She is a founding member of the Legal Aid Society where she started working in the role of a Project Director.
Nirdosh is a finance graduate and certified mediator with 15 years of experience in the development sector, specializing in organizational management, strategic planning, and operational leadership. He has a proven track record of aligning operational activities with organizational mission and vision, driving sustainable growth, and ensuring program effectiveness.
Nirdosh has extensive experience working with different NGOs at various stages of their life cycles. His expertise includes designing and implementing systems, procedures, and controls. Nirdosh began his career as an audit associate and has held multiple leadership roles. He is currently serving as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at the Legal Aid Society and has managed grants from donors including but not limited to Concern Worldwide, ECHO, EU, DFID, UNICEF, USAID, FCDO, IOSF, UN Women, UNDF, IMO, UNFPA, USIP, and the Sindh Government of Pakistan.
His experience in grant management, donor compliance, internal audit, and addressing challenges has directly contributed to the growth of Legal Aid Society and its respective brand spectrum.
Maliha Zia holds an LLM in International Protection of Human Rights from the School of Oriental and African Studies and is an Advocate of the High Court. She has practiced in Islamabad and Karachi, focusing on criminal, family, constitutional, and human rights law. Maliha is a trained legislative drafter, gender and law trainer, and published researcher with national and provincial experience. She currently serves as Associate Director at the Legal Aid Society. Maliha specializes in gender and law, addressing discrimination and human rights violations affecting marginalized communities, including women, minorities, and transgender individuals, focusing on gender-based violence. She integrates evidence-based research into training methodologies, blending gender and law in the Pakistani context. Her training spans police and judiciary personnel at various judicial academies and police institutes across Sindh and Islamabad.
As a legislative drafter, she has contributed to key laws such as domestic violence legislation in Sindh and Balochistan, the Sindh Hindu Marriage Registration Act 2014, and the Representation of the People (Amendment) Act 2017, among others in progress. At the Legal Aid Society, Maliha oversees the prison program, emphasizing prisoner rehabilitation through sports, mental health care, and Pakistan’s first paralegal program. She ensures diversity measures across programs, focusing on gender, minorities, and transgender communities while leading the design and implementation of training materials for justice system actors.
Shahzar Ilahi is an Economics and Political Science graduate of the Lahore University of Management Sciences and holds extensive consultancy experience in the development sector. He has previously worked with the Chief Minister Punjab’s Delivery Unit on the Primary Healthcare Reform Roadmap that aimed to improve the indicators linked to primary healthcare units (Basic Health Units and Rural Health Centers) across Punjab.
Shahzar has also worked with the Aman Foundation’s Strategy and Business Development Unit that was responsible to devise and deploy sustainable interventions in Pakistan’s vocational training sector. While at Aman Foundation, Shahzar co-authored a policy paper titled “Strengthening Skills: A National Investment for Tackling Youth Unemployment” that proposed strategies for relevant stakeholders including Federal and Provincial governments, businesses and vocational training institutes to jumpstart the vocational training sector.
At the Legal Aid Society, Shahzar is working as a Program Delivery Specialist where he works closely with Program Managers to ensure smooth and efficient execution of deliverables and also engages with relevant actors in the Criminal Justice System to further organizational goals.
Ms. Rukhsana Parveen Khokhar is a graduate of Islamia University Bahawalpur with a bachelor in Political Science and Education. She completed her Master’s Degree in English Literature from IUB Punjab in 2005. She is a well-known Woman/Human Rights Defender, revolutionary writer and has overall 14 years of extensive work experience in the development sector. Rukhsana has worked extensively on Education programs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Baluchistan, Punjab and Sindh. She has been associated with several distinguished INGOs, Donors and NGOs such as Save the Children International, Catholic Relief Services International, USAID, DFID, Reach Out to Asia, Human Development Foundation, IMC Worldwide UK, Creative Associates International and Louis Berger International.
Mr. Abbas is an analytical and versatile social development professional with more than 08 years of experience in the nonprofit sector. He has an M.Phil degree in Government and Public Policy from the National Defence University, Islamabad, and a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Karachi University. He is an expert in program management with a demonstrative ability to lead teams in a fast pace and result oriented manner to achieve excellence in development. He remained actively engaged in designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluation of social development sector programs, including access to justice, women empowerment, gender based violence, youth, livelihood, education, environment and enterprise development. He worked for renowned NGOs including Community World Service Asia (CWSA), Hashoo Foundation, Aurat Foundation and Drug Free Pakistan Foundation. He has proven partnership building and networking skills with stakeholders and delivering multimillion – dollar projects across Pakistan.
Fatima Aamir is a Research Manager at the Legal Aid Society. She graduated from Lahore University of Management Sciences with a degree in Economics and a minor in Political Science. She has previously worked as a Research Consultant in Pakistan’s foremost social research lab and, with more than 5 years of experience in evidence-based research and policy analysis, is currently involved in executing socio-legal research across LAS. Her current research marries her interest in gender with her admiration for data-driven policy by exploring the impact of operationalizing special protection measures on victims of sexual and gender-based violence in Pakistan.
Zohaib is a certified and experienced Mar-Comms professional. Having 13 years of diverse working experience in the field of Corporate Communications, Zohaib has been Associated with the Legal Aid Society since December of 2020, extending his support to the Government funded Sindh Legal Advisory Call Centre (SLACC) & Committee for the Welfare of Prisoners (CWP-LAO). Since then Zohaib has taken over the challenge of taking control of the Communications department and its activities; which include Strategy Development, Content Development, Digital & Direct Marketing, along with Event management.
He had earlier remained associated with several well-known several national & globalized organizations such as Precision Health Consultants, Deloitte Yousuf Adil Chartered Accountants, SINA Welfare Trust, Marie Stopes Society, Pakistan National Shipping Corporation, and the like. He has been associated with the development sector for over 9 years, serving the Health, Education, & Legal sectors of Pakistan’s government & non-government sectors.
His area of expertise can be more comprehensively subcategorized into Branding & Marking, Social & Digital Media Management, Graphic Designing, Film making, Photography, Content Writing, Donor Liaison, and relationship management. He had earlier done his Graduation & Masters in the field of Marketing from PAF-KIET & Iqra University respectively.
Syed-Rabi Shad is an accomplished professional with a proven track record, ready to bring leadership, innovation, and professionalism to the role of Procurement and administration Operations with more than 14 years of experience working as a professional. Aspiring professional seeking a challenging and dynamic position as an Admin & Procurement Manager in Legal Aid Society committed to fostering long-term growth and maintaining high standards of excellence. Eager to contribute leadership, innovation, and professionalism to drive organizational success.
With a proven track record, he is an accomplished professional known for his commitment to leadership, innovation, and professionalism—a valuable asset to any organization. Having completed an MBA from the esteemed University of Karachi, he is an aspiring professional seeking a challenging position that aligns with his dedication to long-term growth and excellence. Eager to contribute his skills and experience, he is poised to drive success within an organization.
Qualified Audit and Finance professional having experience of more than 10 years in the field of Internal Audit, Risk and Controls. His professional qualification includes Chartered Accountancy, ACCA & APFA. He is also, an active member of ACCA-UK, PIPFA & IFAC. Currently working as Head of Internal Audit at LAS, he primarily involves in identifying system deficiencies, risks & testing of existing controls and provide guidance to improve the current system to minimize risks and strengthen internal controls.
Usama Fahad is CA Finalist from Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan and Finance Graduate with over 14 years of extensive experience in audit, accounts and finance. He has been working in Managerial Positions for the last 7 years in the Audit and Finance Departments of Reputed Organizations within both corporate and development sectors.
Usama possesses a deep understanding of financial regulations, compliance frameworks, and best practices in financial reporting. Usama has a proven track record in leading audit teams, managing complex financial processes, and ensuring robust compliance with industry standards and regulatory requirements. His expertise includes streamlining financial operations, implementing risk management strategies, and providing strategic insights that drive organizational growth and sustainability. Usama has consistently delivered value in overseeing financial governance, optimizing internal controls, and ensuring transparency in financial reporting.
