engaging & empowering citizens for a sustainable future
Imtiaz Gul:
Besides reporting for the Urdu, English and Hindi language services of Deutsche Welle, the Voice of Germany, and heading the Pakistan Bureau of the German Press Agency – dpa until (!989- September 2006) -Imtiaz Gul has also been broadcasting with the CNN between 1998 - 2000, and with the Hong Kong-based Star World TV, and the National Public Radio in the United States.
Gul regularly appears as an analyst/expert on the Doha-based Al-Jazeera English/Arabic satellite tv channel for his expertise on the areas such as Afghanistan/Tribal Areas/ and the Kashmir militancy, which has been extensively covering since 1988.
Gul's Afghanistan travels brought him in contact with a number of Pakistani and Afghan officials and people at large. This helped him trace and analyze Pakistan's involvement with different Afghan factions, and eventually the Taliban and Kashmiri separatists in the Indian-controlled Kashmir.
Gul went on to produce scores of inside stories on the radical militia for the Lahore-based English language weekly The Friday Times as well as the German Press Agency and the Deutsche Welle.
Gul's book " The Unholy Nexus; Pak-Afghan relations under the Taliban, published in July 2002, was also the result of these frequent contacts with officials and warring factions. He also edited a book on " Islam and Liberalism", soon after the U.S-led coalition unleashed the so-called War Against Terrorism.
Penguin India published Gul’s second book “The Al-Qaeda Connection – Terror in Tribal Areas” in August 2009.
Penguin UK/US is publishing the second revised edition of the same book under the title “The Most Dangerous Place: Pakistan’s Lawless Frontier” on June 2010.
Besides, the author has been regularly contributing to mass-circulation national dailies, "THE NEWS", DAWN, and Pakistan's most prestigious weekly The Friday Times since 1995.
Training and Lectures
Gul has also been lecturing at Quaide Azam University, Islamabad, Peshawar University, Institute of Management Sciences, Institute of Strategic Studies, the Islamabad Institute of Policy Research on issues such as Afghanistan, militancy, tribal areas and power dynamics in the Indo-Pak-Afghanistan region.
Dr. Mazhar Iqbal:
is currently working as Associate Professor in the department of Community Medicine, Khyber Medical College , Peshawar , Pakistan . He is also a visiting lecturer in Masters in Public Health ( MPH ) course at Institute of Computer and Management Sciences (ICMS), Peshawar . Dr. Mazhar has been teaching and supervising student research projects of MBBS students. He has been doctor in charge of the Dialysis unit of Gharyan Central Teaching hospital, Libya from 14/07/2005 to 13/07/2007 . Besides his work, he has actively participated in social sector development and has organised several awareness raising seminars, has held first aid training programmes and has been part of medical aid camps in the far flung areas of Pakistan.
Mr. Fazal-ur-Rahman:
is on the advisory board of PEAD. He is currently working as Director, China Study Centre and East Asia, at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISS), Pakistan. Mr. Rahman, holds a Masters degree in Defence and Strategic Studies from the Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad (1984), a diploma in “Conflict Resolution” from Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, Sweden (1989), a certificate in “National Security” from Institute of Political Science Christian-Albrechts University, Kiel, Germany (1994) and is a graduate of the ‘Executive Course’ from Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, Honolulu, USA, (2000). Mr. Rahman, has to his credit more than 25 research articles and 45 monthly issues of ‘Afghanistan Report’ of the ISS Conflict and Crisis Analysis Team in co-authorship. Also he has co-edited a book entitled, ‘Afghanistan: Looking to the Future’ published in 1991 by the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad. He has participated in several international conferences/seminars and bilateral dialogues within the country and outside.
Sameena Imtiaz:
is the Executive Director, Peace Education And Development (PEAD) Foundation. She holds a Masters Degree from the University of Peshawar. She has done a certificate course on “Transforming Civil Conflicts” from The Network University, Amsterdam and The Centre for Conflict Resolution, Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford. Ms. Sameena has also done a certificate course on “Human Rights and Citizenship Education “from Institute of Educational Development (IED), Agha Khan University, Karachi in collaboration with the Canadian International Institute of Applied Negotiation (CIIAN). She is a trainer on values education, peace and conflict management, gender and other human rights issues. She has trained several thousand government and civil-society representatives and thousands of students across Pakistan. Ms. Sameena has prepared and published a teacher’s resource unit titled First Step Towards Peace. The manual is also available in Dari and is being used in Afghanistan. She has also written a three part teachers training manual on “Values Education”. Also to her credit are several booklets on various aspects of environmental challenges
Mr. Muhammad Iqbal Durrani:
is currently working as Pro voice chancellor in Abasyn University, Peshawar, Pakistan . He offered his services as Registrar in Sarhad University, Peshawar in 2005-2007 and Voice Chancellor at Qurtuba University in 2001-2005.