Revolutionizing Agriculture in Pakistan: Meet the Dedicated Team

Arif Nadeem
Chief Executive Officer

Arif Nadeem
Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Arif Nadeem has over 35 years experience in the public sector and is an expert in public policy and administration. Prior to joining PAC he served as Secretary to the Government of Punjab in the departments of Agriculture, Irrigation and Health. He is known to be an authority on the procedural functioning of federal, provincial and local governments and holds extensive knowledge of Pakistani laws, rules and regulations. He has worked closely with various UN Agencies and international aid organisations (the World Bank, ADB, DFID, USAID, CIDA) and managed several large projects (both local and foreign-funded) . He holds a Masters Degree in Political Science from the University of Punjab. He also has to his credit various courses and trainings at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, National School of Public Policy , NIPA and CSA.

Kazim Saeed
Strategy Advisor

Kazim Saeed
Strategy Advisor
Kazim Saeed is an expert on economic development, public policy and business strategy. Mr. Saeed co-founded Pakistan Agricultural Coalition in 2013 with Pakistan’s leading business groups. He has built new business models for growth in agriculture with Pakistan’s largest business groups as well as the Asian Development Bank, USAID, and United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Kazim Saeed serves on the boards of pioneering companies Naymat Collateral and Khushhaal Kissan as well as Pakistan’s leading school education NGO Idara-i-Taleem-o-Aagahi.
Over the past twenty-four years, he has provided energy policy advice to the governments of China, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Pakistan with the World Bank. Mr. Saeed’s award-winning book Dou Pakistan: Har Pakistani Gharanay Tak Khushhaali (Karachi; Maktaba-e-Daniyal, 2020) presents a comprehensive strategy for delivering prosperity to every Pakistani household by Pakistan’s 100th birthday in 2047. After completing his school education in Karachi, he received Bachelor’s degrees in engineering and the history and philosophy of science from Cornell University, USA, and received a Master’s degree in public policy from Princeton University, USA.

Chaudhary Mohammad Ashraff
Project Development Specialist

Chaudhary Mohammad Ashraff
Project Development Specialist
Chaudhary Mohammad Ashraff is the Project Development Specialist at PAC. He has more than 37 years of experience in planning, designing, strategizing, coordinating and implementing on farm water management (OFWM) projects. He retired as Director General of Punjab OFWM program and has played significant role in planning and implementation of over two dozen donor assisted and locally financed projects. He has also worked with various international institutions/ organizations like the World Bank, FAO, ADB, USAID, IFAD, OECF, JICA etc. in the capacity of consultant and client/partner including providing technical assistance for planning and designing of Afghanistan On Farm Water Management Project. He is among the pioneers of introducing drip irrigation in Pakistan and working on its design, installation, and operation & management as well as capacity building for last 10 years. He has also served as Project Director of the World Bank funded Punjab Irrigated‑Agriculture Productivity Improvement Project (PIPIP). Mr Ashraff holds a Bachelors in Science in Agricultural Engineering from University of Agriculture, Faisalabad and a Masters in Soil and Water Engineering from Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok.

Saffa Imran
Strategy Associate

Saffa Imran
Strategy Associate
Saffa Imran joined Pakistan Agricultural Coalition in June, 2021 after graduating from Lahore School of Economics with an Economics & Political Science undergraduate degree. She has previous experience working as a Research Associate in the Innovation and Technology Center of the Lahore School for three years, which involved data collection and analysis for three issues of the Lahore School Business Confidence Survey, and has also assisted the Dean of Economics in co-authoring a report on “The Impact of Coronavirus on Exports 2020.”

Raashid Anwer
Convenor

Raashid Anwer
Convenor
Mr. Raashid Anwer is an Advocate (Supreme Court of Pakistan) and the Managing Partner at Khalid Anwer & Co., Legal Consultants and Advocates, one of the leading law firms of the country. Mr. Raashid Anwer brought together the major industrial groups and investors in Pakistan in a bid to form the Pakistan Agricultural Coalition to make Pakistan’s agriculture more business-oriented and private-sector led.

Shan E Ahmed
Senior Strategy Associate

Shan E Ahmed
Senior Strategy Associate
Shan is a development consultant with almost 8 years of experience in designing, strategizing, management, and evaluation of multifaceted agriculture projects. He has been working on PAC’s initiatives for revival of cotton cultivation and improving financial inclusion of farmers. He has also co-authored a report for IFC on identifying hurdles for scale-up of the electronic warehouse receipts regime with a deep dive into four major agricultural value chains. Previously, he has worked with CropLife Pakistan as a Research Manager where he led a market assessment of Pakistan’s crop protection industry and has also been a consultant for a study by Oxford Policy Management on climate resilient agriculture. He holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration (MPA) from Cornell University with a concentration in International Development and a specific focus on private sector-led agricultural development.

Rabia Zulfiqar
Senior Strategy Associate

Rabia Zulfiqar
Senior Strategy Associate
Rabia has worked as a development professional with experience in public-private partnerships, service delivery and stakeholder engagement across public-private sectors. At Pakistan Agricultural Coalition, she has been supporting Mehrgarh Kasht Private Limited’s traceability and sustainability initiative, and is also facilitating Pakistan Agricultural Coalition expand its strategic reach through new public-private partnerships. Previously, Rabia has worked at one of the leading international crop insurance tech companies, Pula Advisors, in 2022, and has experience in project management, service delivery and stakeholder management from her work at the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives (IDEAS) Pakistan, where she worked as a Project Manager for the Human Development Cluster. She holds an MPA (Master of Public Administration) from Cornell University.