Amjad Saqib


Muhammad Amjad Saqib, is a Pakistani social entrepreneur, development practitioner, author and a former civil servant. He founded Akhuwat Foundation which runs a microfinance credit program at zero interest rate. It is also working on providing financial support to poor families for starting their own earnings.
He is known for his work for social mobilization, poverty alleviation, microfinance, and education management. He is the author of many books including Akhuwat ka Safar and Molu Musali, and has been writing columns in several Pakistan newspapers like Daily Jinnah, Daily Jang and Nawa-i-Waqt. He is recipient of several national and international honors including Sitara-e-Imtiaz, third highest civil award in Pakistan.

Life and career

Amjad Saqib was born in 1957 in Faisalabad, industrial city of Pakistan. He graduated from King Edward Medical College, Lahore in 1982 and completed his master's degree in Public Administration from University of the Punjab. He also received a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship in 1995 from American University, Washington D.C.
After graduation, he started his career in medicine for some short period of time. Later on in 1985, he joined civil service in DMG and has been serving on different positions. He started working in Punjab Rural Support Program as GM in 1998 and served there for next seven years. After being posted at different positions for several years, in 2003, he resigned from civil service and kept on working for public welfare and social development with Akhuwat.
He has also been engaged in providing consultancy services to different organisations including International Labour Organization, Asian Development Bank, UNICEF, World Bank, and Canadian International Development Agency. He has been appearing as guest speaker at different institutions including Civil Services Academy, Lahore University of Management Sciences, National Institute of Public Administration and some other professional forums.

Akhuwat Foundation

Established in 2001, Akhuwat foundation was the first organisation to start interest-free microfinance credit program which is said to be the first in the world as well. Amjad Saqib set up Akhuwat with the mission of poverty alleviation, zero-interest microfinance and free education for all. This program has disbursed over to around 3.6 million poor families in Pakistan and has launched Pakistan's first fee-free University. Akhuwat College University is open to students from poor families.
He also shared a project for the welfare of the transgender community. In this project, they will be provided with jobs and benefits. Akhuwat working to provide rights for shemales from the society and many of the shemales are already getting benefits.. In this project, second-hand clothes are given away to the poor people for free. This project is appreciated by the Punjab Government and Federal Government as well. He made a recent visit to Sweden and Denmark to encourage overseas Pakistanis to come forward and do the necessary effort at their end.

Awards and recognition

Due to his works, Amjad Saqib has received wide recognition, including most recent the Islamic Economy Award by Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Thomson Reuters in 2018.
In recognition of his works for uplifting poor communities of society, the Prime Minister of Pakistan Yousaf Raza Gilani conferred the Nazriya-i-Pakistan Gold Medal award in 2010.
Saqib is also a recipient of Social Entrepreneur of the year award for 2018 by World Economic Forum and Schwab Foundation
He has been recognized as 31st Commonwealth Points of Light by Queen Elizabeth II in honor of his voluntary service by founding Pakistan’s largest micro-finance organisation which is providing benefits to thousands of poor and disadvantaged people in a developing country. The award was presented on by the United Kingdom High Commissioner in Pakistan Thomas Drew on 15 March 2018.

Honours

Literary works of Saqib are: