Beggar turned entrepreneur Kareema Juma and Saliha Bibi, an educator from Kalash, were both honored with Ladies Fund Idol award at the 10th Ladies Fund Women Awards ceremony held at Sindh Governor House on Tuesday.
“It is very important for us at LadiesFund to spotlight and recognise such inspiring and transformative women, alongside the gifted athletes, leaders, trailblazers and of course great female economic contributors of our nation,” saidLadiesFund president Tara Uzra Dawood. “We are honoured to be able to celebrate and gather so many remarkable Pakistani women,” she added.
The Governor of Sindh, Imran Ismail Sahib, was the chief guest of the event. He stated, “I appreciate the decade-long efforts of LadiesFund to encourage and support female entrepreneurs. These efforts are playing a significant role in the upliftment and empowerment of women by providing them financial securities.”
LadiesFundLifetime Achievement Award winners Nasreen Mahmud Kasuri and Tina Sani were guests of honour. Nasreen Mahmud Kasuri is the founder of one of the largest privately-owned education systems in the world with branches in 8 countries, student body nearing 300,000 and a staff comprising of 17,000 people. She flew from Lahore for the occasion. Tina Sani is a Pakistani Ghazal singer who also received the ‘Pride of Performance’ award from the Government of Pakistan.
Other winners included People’s Choice winners Sidra Nadeem, Naila Naqvi and Women of the Year Kamila Shamsie. This year’s judges who finalized the slate of nominees included past LadiesFundwinners AmeenaSaiyid (2012), Angie Marshall (2014), Nilofer Saeed (2010) and Yasmeen Lari (2016). Voting was viral via online, radio and television.
Other pre-announced awards included Pakistani Karate champion NargisHameedullah (Pioneer), Pakistan’s first crane operators Faryal Anwar andUmamaSaleem (Pioneer), Special Kids educationist Fauzia Hussain (Angel), The Garage School’s Shabina Mustafa (Angel) and human rights lawyer and social activist Asma Jahangir.
Commendations were also presented to Natasha Ali Lakhani (Beauty), Emaan Mahmud (art), Sophia Balagamwala (art), SamyaArif (art), Dr. AftabMunir (medicine), Dr. Azra Ahsan (medicine) and Dr. PushpaSrichand (medicine). First ever LadiesFundMen of Inspiration awards were given to Humayun Saeed, Amin Gulgee and Omer Shahzad.
An International Fellowship was awarded to SyedaHumairaAnwaar to travel to Germany for World Business Dialogue. She was joined on stage by past international fellows RabiaRafiq (2013), SindhyaKirshan (2014), KomalGopi (2015), Naina Rani (2016) and Sonia Kamnani(2017).
Bachelors Scholarships to Iqra University were renewed for Maica Mary (who is the daughter of one of the Governor’s staff), and for Marium Hashmi.
Spotted at the event were Turkish Consul General TolgaUcak, German Consul and Deputy Head Birgit Kuhlmann, British Deputy Head of Mission Mark Rakestraw, PSX MD Richard Morrin, ByramAvari, Politician KhwajaIzharulhassan, SpentaKandawalla, FriehaAltaf and others.
The décor was LadiesFund’s signature pink and white with theatre seating and magenta pink carpet. Hotel and Catering partner was Avari group, while Shamain and Zerritta Flowers returned for the 10th year as Beauty and Floral partners.
There was a scrumptious Sam’s Cake Factory Cake which was cut by the Governor’s wife, as well as a decadent Pinkalicious Dessert Bar coordinated by Firefly featuring over 3000 mini desserts by A Baker’s Tale, A Sugar Affair, After-desserts by Faiza, Al Bakery, Bakelicious by Sania, Bakerinn, Cakery Mart, Cioccolato, Crumbs, Delicacy, FIORI, Heaven Cup cakes, HOBNOB, Homemade Wholesome, Isholicious, Kreami cakes, Lush Crush Ice Pops, Mau’s Kitchen, Picklenary, R&Rs Cakes and Desserts, Sinful Bites, Sugar Affair, Sugar Drizzle, Sugar Shack, Sweeductions, Sweet Poison, Sweet temptations by Hinnah, Taha’sChocomania, The sugar Shack, Zo’s Sweetopia.
Other event partners included EY Ford Rhodes (audit), Nestle (beverage), Dhinchaks (Décor), Adnan Pardesy (Dress), Tea Rack (Tea) and gift partners Amir Adnan, Taneez, Cosmo Group, Aneesa Unus, I.F. Designs, Edenrobe, Bells n Bells, Deepak Perwani&Auntyjee’sChaat.
Published in Daily Times, October 17th 2018.