P@SHA appoints Hira Zainab as Secretary General

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Islamabad, September 30, 2021: Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) has appointed Ms. Hira Zainab as Secretary-General, effective from September 15, 2021. Earlier this year, Ms. Zainab joined P@SHA as Senior Director Industry Engagement and shortly afterward was given an additional charge of Acting Secretary-General.

The Secretary-General (SG) is regarded as equivalent to the CEO of an organisation.

Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT and ITES (P@SHA) is a trade body and a registered association. Founded in the year 1992, it’s primarily aimed to represent, promote and develop the software and IT services industry in Pakistan and to work with the Government, on behalf of its member companies. P@SHA has registered more than 1,000 companies to date and is a growing community of IT and ITeS companies. In her new role, Ms. Hira will be working with industry and public leaders to represent the IT and ITeS industry.

During the past few years, P@SHA has taken the lead in policy advocacy for the entire industry. With industry-driven initiatives to strong engagement with policy-makers, P@SHA has been creating a mark!

P@SHA Secretariat is now being strengthened with a new leadership team being built to work with the industry veterans. Ms. Hira’s hiring is a step towards the institutionalization of P@SHA. She has a decade of experience in business transformation, organization development, product and project management, outreach and sales, and managing high-performance teams. Throughout her career, she has been recognized for her supportive leadership, developing industry relations, stakeholder engagement, business expansion, and building brand credibility in the industry.

Before joining P@SHA, she worked as Executive Director – Outreach and Engagement at Knowledge Platform, a Singapore-based Pakistan’s leading Ed-tech startup that raised 2 million USD last year as part of Series A funding. During the last 3 years, she played an instrumental role in the growth of Knowledge Platform as part of the Senior Management and Board of Directors. Her role in the company’s Board of Directors was centered around improving operations, aligning strategy with client-focused outcomes, and driving initiatives for the sustainable commercial success of the business. She has also been part of the Visiting Faculty at NUST where she taught in the Masters’ program of ‘Innovative Technologies in Education’. She was invited as one of the world’s 300 Ed-tech experts at the United States Mobile Alliance Symposium 2016 to represent Pakistan. She also represented Pakistan as an innovation expert in MISK Global Forum 2018 at Riyadh among participants from over 100 countries. Her work in activism and social services, with a focus on youth development and empowerment, has been recognized by international certifications and awards.

At P@SHA, she has led strategic initiatives to empower and unleash the potential of the IT and ITeS industry in Pakistan. Since she joined, she has worked on different programs related to industry engagement, diversity and inclusion, skills and enablement, and policy. She closely works with different government departments on the behalf of IT and ITeS industry. During her stay, P@SHA has managed to get several wins for the industry and has launched different industry-driven initiatives and reports such as P@SHA Salary Survey 2021, Impact Analysis of Change in Tax Regime, and Diversity and Inclusion Framework.

The upcoming initiatives of P@SHA include ICT Awards 2021, Diversity and Inclusion Certification Plan, Industry Readiness Framework, to name a few.

P@SHA is on a journey of transformation, and this is the first step of many to lead towards that!

P@SHA Secretary General can be reached at sg@pasha.org.pk. For details about P@SHA and partnerships, you can email services@pasha.org.pk.