Zulfiqar Ali Shaikh

Education

Masters in Mass Communication from the University of Jamshoro, Sindh, Pakistan.

Specialization

Entrepreneurship

Biography

Shaikh grew up with an agricultural background in Pakistan’s Sindh province, which is among the world’s great civilizations and known as Indus Valley. He started his career as a Journalist/District Correspondent with Pakistan’s leading English daily publication Dawn.

He later began working for the Pakistani Government as an Information Officer/Public Relations Officer after passing a competitive exam from the public service commission. He served with Provincial Ministers and high officials in the ministries of Education & Literacy, Health, Law, Parliamentary Affairs & Human Rights, Agriculture, Information, Culture & Tourism, Electric Power, Excise & Taxation, etc. from 1996-2011. In 2011, Shaihk was promoted to Director of Information (Administration & Accounts) for the Sindh Provincial Government.

In 2012, Shaikh immigrated to Canada with his family where he continues to write weekly columns in his mother language for the newspaper Daily Awami Awaz, published in Karachi. Topics include social upliftment, technological advancement, education, health, public transport, civil infrastructure and other achievements within Canadian society. As the founder secretary of the Sindhi Canadian Literary Association, Shaikh continues to be an active member of the Sindhi community living in North America.

Why Digital Media?

Shaikh has been working with traditional media in Pakistan for almost twenty years but feels that traditional media is losing its ground and is being replaced by digital media. Shaikh feels he is from a society that is far behind Western societies in terms of technological advancement. Concerned that Pakistan is burning in the fire of extremism, Shaikh has a passion to use social media/digital media to counter fundamentalism and work for social change.

“To serve humanity and fight against extremism and intolerance”.

Final Project

Shaikh plans to develop a mobile application for users to be educated on social extremism and its effects on cultures. He has placed a special target focus on female middle school students. This is to encourage them to stand up against extremism and all other kinds of injustice. The name of the project is “Get connected to Freedom & Peace”.