The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is the regional intergovernmental organization and geopolitical union of states in South Asia. Its member states are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. SAARC comprises 3% of the world's land area, 21% of the world's population and 5.21% of the global economy, as of 2021.
The Kargil War, also known as the Kargil conflict, was fought between India and Pakistan from May to July 1999 in the Kargil district of Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere along the Line of Control (LoC). In India, the conflict is also referred to as Operation Vijay, which was the codename of the Indian military operation in the region. The Indian Air Force acted jointly with the Indian Army to flush out the Pakistan Army and paramilitary troops from vacated Indian positions along the LoC, in what was designated as Operation Safed Sagar.
Hadiqa KianiTI(c) is a Pakistani singer, songwriter, guitarist, composer, actress, and philanthropist. She has received numerous local and international awards and has also performed at the Royal Albert Hall and The Kennedy Center. Besides Urdu and Punjabi, she has also sung several songs in the Pashto language.
The situation of Human Rights in Pakistan is complex as a result of the country's diversity, large population, its status as a developing country and a sovereign Islamic democracy with a mixture of both Islamic and secular law.
The insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, also known as the War in North-West Pakistan or Pakistan's war on terror, is an ongoing armed conflict involving Pakistan and Islamist militant groups such as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Jundallah, Lashkar-e-Islam (LeI), TNSM, al-Qaeda, and their Central Asian allies such as the ISIL–Khorasan (ISIL), Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, East Turkistan Movement, Emirate of Caucasus, and elements of organized crime. Formerly a war, it is now a low-level insurgency as of 2017.
Jameela Alia Jamil is a British actress, activist, podcaster, and television host and judge. She began her career on Channel 4, where she hosted a pop culture series in the T4 strand from 2009 until 2012. She then became the radio host of The Official Chart, and co-hosted The Official Chart Update alongside Scott Mills on BBC Radio 1. She was the first regular solo female presenter of the BBC Radio 1 chart show.
Shoaib Sultan Khan NI is one of the pioneers of rural development programmes in Pakistan. As a CSP Officer, he worked with the Government of Pakistan for 25 years, later on he served Geneva based Aga Khan Foundation for 12 years, then UNICEF and UNDP for 14 years. Since his retirement, he has been involved with the Rural Support Programmes (RSPs) of Pakistan full-time, on voluntary basis. Today, the Rural Support Programmes have helped form 297,000 community organisations in 110 districts including two Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan.
Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani female education activist and the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate at the age of 17. She is the youngest Nobel Prize laureate in history, the second Pakistani and the only Pashtun to receive a Nobel Prize. Yousafzai is a human rights advocate for the education of women and children in her native homeland, Swat, where the Pakistani Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school. Her advocacy has grown into an international movement, and according to former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, she has become Pakistan's "most prominent citizen."
Beena Sarwar is a Pakistani journalist, artist and filmmaker focusing on human rights, media and peace.
Maulana Tariq Jamil is a Pakistani Islamic television preacher, religious writer, scholar, and a member of the Tablighi Jamaat. The recipient of the Pride of Performance award, Maulana Tariq Jamil has been named in The 500 Most Influential Muslims every year since 2012. In the 2023 edition of the publication, he was ranked as the 32nd most influential Muslim in the world.
Samina Khayal Baig is a Pakistani mountaineer who climbed Mount Everest in 2013, all Seven Summits by 2014, and K2 in 2022. She is the first Pakistani woman to climb Everest, K2 and the Seven Summits. She climbed Mt. Everest at the age of 21.
Gulalai Ismail is a Pakistani human rights activist from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. She is the chairperson of Aware Girls, a global ambassador for Humanists International, and a leading member of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM). She speaks on the subject of promoting peace and women's empowerment at conferences internationally, and is the recipient of the International Humanist of the Year Award, the Chirac Prize for Conflict Prevention, and the Anna Politkovskaya Award.
Meenakshi Gopinath is an Indian educationist, political scientist, writer and a former principal of Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi. She is the founder and incumbent director of the Women in Security Conflict Management and Peace (WISCOMP), a non governmental organization promoting peace and socio-political leadership among the women of South Asia and a former member of the National Security Advisory Board, the first woman to serve the Government of India agency. She has served as a member of the selection panel of the Lokpal, a legal body which has jurisdiction over the legislators and government officials of India. The Government of India awarded her the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2007, for her contributions to Indian educational sector. She is a co-editor of the International Feminist Journal of Politics, the leading journal of feminist international relations and global politics.
Teresita "Ging" Quintos Deles is a Filipina feminist, peace advocate, and government official best known for having been the Philippine government's Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) from 2003–2005 and 2010–2016.
Quhramaana Kakar is an important Afghan female peacemaker. In 2012 she won the N-Peace Award.
Rohaniza Usman is a Filipina peacemaker. In 2013 she won the N-Peace Award.
Rotua Valentina Sagala is an Indonesian women's rights activist and activist for law and human rights. In 2013 she won the N-Peace Award.
Hasina Jalal is an advocate for women's human rights and democracy in Afghanistan. In 2014, Jalal was elected by public vote to receive the "N-Peace Award" from the UNDP Asia Pacific Regional Office and the UN Secretary General's Special Advisor on the University for Peace. She is the Co-founder and Executive Director of the National Association of Afghanistan Civil Society and the first alliance of South Asian women on women's economic, social, and cultural rights in Sri Lanka. Jalal has served in the government of Afghanistan as a Research Team Lead and Policy Expert at the Presidential Palace and as a Policy Advisor to Minister and Director of Program Design and Donor Coordination Directorate at the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum of the Government of Afghanistan.
Rubina Feroze Bhatti is a Pakistani human rights activist, peace activist and leadership consultant. She is a former member on the country's National Commission on the Rights of Child where she represented Punjab province. She is currently serving as an assistant professor at Pakistan Global Institute and a visiting fellow at Stanford University.
Thavachsri Charles Vijayaratnam is a Sri Lankan social activist and women's rights activist. She is the co-founder of the Kilinochchi District Women's Development Federation, an NGO providing psychosocial support and social integration programmes for service users. She is well known for rendering community service for over three decades. In October 2013, she won the Role Models for Peace Award.
