Dr. Muhammad Mukaram Khan

Director General, CVD, PTA

Dr. Mukaram Khan is working as Director General Cyber Vigilance at Pakistan Telecommunication Authority. He is a Software Engineer from NUST and holds MPhil and PhD from the university of Manchester in Information Security and Super Computing respectively. He is a cyber security professional with CISSP to his credit, besides various technical certifications. Before this assignment, he has been working as CTO Pakistan Army and worked in various capacities to manage datacenters, designing enterprise architectures and leading nation-wide IT/cyber security projects. He is also associated with NUST as part-time academic to teach and supervise postgrad research in the areas of cyber security, AI, blockchain and system engineering.

Parvez Iftikhar

ICT Policy and Regulation Consultant

With more than 40 years of experience, Parvez Iftikhar is currently providing consulting services on ICT Policy and Regulation in various countries, mainly through global organizations like World Bank, ITU, DFID, USAID, and international consulting houses. Parvez has been the founding CEO of Universal Service Fund (USF) Pakistan (under the Ministry of IT), and the country-head of Siemens “Com” in Pakistan. He has been on sabbaticals to Carnegie Mellon, and Harvard Kennedy School, USA, and Oxford University UK. He received extensive technical and managerial training at Siemens, mainly in Europe. Parvez is also a member of Pakistan Prime Minister’s Task Force on IT and Telecom

Ms. Ameena Sohail

Legal and Regulatory Consultant

Ameena Sohail, a legal and regulatory consultant for network infrastructure entities and a lawyer by profession graduated from the International Islamic University, Islamabad in 1995. With experience of advising both public and private entities in the field of policy making, legislation, negotiating infrastructure contracts and defending clients before adjudicating bodies, she enjoys her work as a strategist for various advocacy assignments, the most. Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016 (PECA) is an important piece of legislation to her credit which was supervised by her from its formulation to its passage by the Parliament as Member (legal) at the Ministry of IT & Telecom, where all steps in the process were handled by Ameena herself and she further worked on the body of rules to be notified under PECA. Mrs. Sohail is currently the managing partner of M/s Precision Advocates and Consultants

Muhammad Shabbir

President of Internet Society Accessibility Special Interest Group

Mr. Muhammad Shabbir Awan is Founding President of Internet Society Accessibility Special Interest Group (Accessibility SIG) and member board of directors ISOC Pakistan Islamabad Chapter. Professionally a researcher in the domain of strategic studies, he is also pursuing his PhD in International Relations. Working in the domains of international relations and internet governance, Shabbir has a number of publications and international fellowships on his credit. He has also been working for the organizations of persons with disabilities since 1997 as a volunteer. Leading the working group on accessibility for persons with disabilities, Mr. Awan along with other representatives of PWDs, helped MOIT draft “Digital Pakistan” policy 2018. He is also the member of Pakistan School on Internet Governance (PKSIG) Steering Committee, Multi Stakeholder Group (MSG) of Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APRIGF), International Political Science Association (IPSA), Islamabad Council on World Affairs (ICWA), and member of Multi Stakeholder Group of Pakistan Internet Governance Forum.

Ahmed Bakhat Masood

Director (Cyber Security) in Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA)

Ahmed Bakhat Masood is currently working as Deputy Director (Cyber Security) in Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA), previously worked in PTCL and Instaphone. By qualification, he is MS Telecom & Networks, Master in Computer Science (MCS), Lead auditor ISO 27001, MCSE. Mr. Ahmed played a pivotal role in establishment of Pakistan IXP, in making consensus amongst all stakeholders of IXP in Pakistan and currently working as secretary to IXP board. He remained Chair of Task Force on Arabic Internationalized Domain Names (TF-AIDN), a subgroup of ICANN, from July 2017 to June 2020. He also remained a member of the Program Committee of the Middle East DNS Forum, ICANN for four from 2015 to 2018. He is currently a member of the steering committee of pkSIG since 2016 and managing secretariat. Apart from other achievements, Mr. Ahmed played a vital role in the success of South Asian Network Operators Group (SANOG) 29, at Islamabad Pakistan.

Waqas Hassan

Assistant Director, PTA and Vice-Chair, Asia-Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum

Waqas has telecom/ICT regulatory experience of 16 years and contributes actively at the national and global forums such as APrIGF, APSIG, pkSIG, pkIGF, ISOC Pak chapter. He is an expert in internet public policy, stakeholder management and partnerships, advocacy and program development. He is alumni of DIPLO, APrIGF, APSIG, SANOG, CLDP and LIRNEasia. He manages PTA’s engagements with ITU, APT, GSMA, SAMENA and global tech companies. Waqas believes in an open, secure and all-inclusive Internet.

Fahd Batayneh

Stakeholder Engagement Director- Middle East

Fahd Batayneh has been part of the ICANN world since the summer of 2008 where he was active in a number of ICANN working groups. In October 2013, he joined ICANN Org as part of the Global Stakeholder Engagement Team (GSE) supporting the Middle East. Today, he is deeply involved in a number of regional projects that promote ICANN‘s work in the region. He holds a BSc in Computer Engineering with honors, and an MBA. He is happily married and has 3 kids, and calls Amman, Jordan his home.

Fouad Bajwa

CEO, Digital Dera

Fouad Riaz Bajwa is the Co-founder and CEO of Agriculture Republic think tank and its Digital Dera Climate Resilient Smart Villages Network PakPattan.

Fouad is a public policy entrepreneur and agriculture innovator.

He has been engaged with regenerative agriculture, rural Internet connectivity, technological innovation and policy initiatives focused on industrialization and future economic growth.

Fouad’s notable initiatives have been aimed at developing and introducing low-cost affordable technologies in Pakistan and across the world.

Fouad has served as a member of the United Nations Secretary General’s advisory group for the Internet Governance Forum in Geneva from 2009-2012. He has consulted and advised various UN bodies in various capacities.

Since 2015, Fouad has been contributing as an Adjunct faculty member at the Centre for Public Policy and Governance CPPG at Forman Christian College University FCCU.

He has been mentoring and advising numerous startups across the country and globally at United Nations, TechStars, Founders Institute, National Incubation Centres and Startup Cup Pakistan

Mohammad Ismail

CEO Pacific Connect Private Limited

An Experienced Network and Telecom Professional with skills to design,
map, sell, deploy complex solutions for the Telecom, Networks, Security,
Lawful Intercept for Data, Internet as well as LTE.
 

Nonresident Senior Fellow, South Asia Center

Dr Kyle J. Gardner

Kyle Gardner is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center and leads public policy for Google in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bhutan. Prior to Google, Gardner was a senior associate at McLarty Associates, where he helped companies navigate policy issues across South Asia. Before joining McLarty in 2019, he taught South Asian history at the University of Chicago.

Gardner has written extensively on South Asian history and politics. His book on the India-China border, The Frontier Complex, was published worldwide by Cambridge University Press in 2021. He received a PhD in history, with distinction, from the University of Chicago; an MA from the University of Chicago; and a BA, with high honors, from Wesleyan University. Gardner has studied French, Hindi, Tibetan, and Urdu. He is also a nonresident scholar at the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at George Washington University and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Muhammad Adil Ali

Executive , Fauji Fertilizer Company Ltd

Mr Muhammad Adil Ali has been volunteering for Pakistan School on Internet Governance since long. He served multiple tenures as office bearer of Internet Society Pakistan Islamabad Chapter. Helped in organizing and conducting multiple editions of pkSIG along with different other events under the umbrella of ISOC Islamabad Chapter. He is serving in Fauji Fertilizer Company as Executive – Information Systems. He is certified in different Microsoft, Cisco, SAP and Information Security Domains. 

Lu Heng

Founder & CEO of LARUS Limited, Advisory Council Member of Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC)

Mr. Lu Heng founded his very first company at the age of 18 – a company which did business in the game industry from which he made his first success as an entrepreneur. During his studies in the Netherlands, Mr Lu learnt about the Internet in depth and had established extensive network in the industry. He foresaw that the Internet would be the future of our world, while cloud service and IP (Internet Protocol) would be the core which supported this world.
With this belief, he founded Cloud Innovation Limited in 2013, now providing millions of IP (Internet Protocol) addresses to the market. In 2016, he founded LARUS Limited, which has since become the market leader of IP (Internet Protocol) solutions provider in the world.
Mr. Lu believes that education is critical in promoting a better Internet. In 2019, he established LARUS Foundation to promote education on the Internet. The Foundation has sponsored more than a thousand of students from Africa to participate in major Internet events in the same year. Mr. Lu is presently the Advisory Council member of Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC) to help guide the Council’s work and progress with his knowledge and industry experience.

 

CEO & Co-Founder SheDev

Zahra Nooreen

Zahra Nooreen is the CEO and co-founder of SheDev, the first women-led and owned tech company in Gilgit-Baltistan. SheDev is dedicated to empowering women digitally and helping them succeed in the tech industry. With her innovative approach and leadership, Zahra is inspiring a new generation of female entrepreneurs and professionals, driving positive change in her community and beyond.

Manager ORIC, GCWU, Sialkot

Sohaib Saleem

With over 18 years of experience in Technology Integration with Businesses and Operations Management in high-volume domestic and International businesses in Pakistan & abroad. Sohaib was the pioneer team responsible for launching Information Security initially in the twin cities of Pakistan while later covering almost all the metropolitan cities across country. Expert in designing high-tech trainings in Information & Cyber Security, he has been the part of the Task Force responsible for recommending first cyber policy of the country. Being the founding member of Internet Society Pakistan Islamabad Chapter and associated with pkSIG since 2015, Sohaib brings in-depth knowledge of Internet Governance and practices concerning more to the underdeveloped countries. Sohaib has been associated with Private, NGO and Education sector from the past 12 years and currently, from the past 6 years, is managing Office of Research, Innovation and Commercialization (ORIC) of a Public Sector University (GC Women University Sialkot).