Compiled by Ahmed S. Butt
Contributions by Farooq Soomro, Fizza Ijaz and ‘Significant Others’
The year 2008-09 has been a tough year for everyone. While unstable political and security conditions of our country continue to haunt us, recession has taken its toll globally and already we can see it aftereffects. There have been casualties and losses all around us. Some of us have been affected financially; some mentally; while some (like me) physically as well. But Alhamdulillah, we all stand up high on my feet determined to face the growing challenges with the same courage and spirit with which we all entered the corporate world.
This year also marked the sad demise of our beloved finance professor Dr. Naim Sipra. Words cannot do justice to this person’s sheer brilliance, knowledge and command over his subject. Not only was he a genius at mind, he was also a very kind-hearted, soft spoken, composed and down-to-earth gentleman who treated his students with respect and never left an opportunity to share his crude humor with them. With his death, LUMS has lost one of its best professors whose replacement can never be made. May his soul rest in peace!
Here is a one-to-one highlight of this year activities of our batch mates:
Abubakar Siddique has been gaining rich experience working as category specialist at Nestle looking after the products Nido, Everday tea whitener and Nestle Cream. His comprehension on the dairy category came in handy in his suitor pursuit, as a Kashmiri family has agreed to commit their girl with him.
Adeel Allawallah says that Life has been really hectic post LUMS. He sells cigarettes during the day at Phillip Morris International and cakes in the evening at Masooms. Everybody is invited to have a free cigarette with a cake slice at his franchise.
Adnan Nisar reports as being engaged and will soon be changing his status to happily married. He has been loyal with PTC and after his short stint in South Korea, has been appointed as Area Manager in Faisalabad. He has been planning and strategizing to increase cigarette sales for PTC brands but he himself has yet to taste one.
Ahsan Ahmad Maykan continues to work at Telenor doing segmentation for Talkshawk. He insists that his campaigns have nothing to do with TVCs that get aired on television. After his split-up with Ali Zafar, he now listens to Annie and Amanat Ali songs on long drives.
Ali Abbas Pujanis is based in Sharjah where he is working for Habib Bank AG Zurich and happily settled with his wife. Puji has become a proud father of baby girl and has already started strategizing investment plans for her.
Ali Maaz got married last December but did not give much relief to bachelors by getting back immediately with his ‘cooker’ stories. He is still with Electronics Retail and was a star performer last year. He significantly exceeded his Kitchen category budget, only to find out that his bonus was tied to corporate performance. He has not lost the need for a larger audience and his appetite for class participation, former being reluctantly offered by bachelor brotherhood.
Aly Abdul Rehman has got engaged. Now we have a ‘Bro’ and a ‘Sis’.
Aly Yousaf has also got engaged and plans to get married in December. He is still at Unilever in working in the Finance Department.
Amina Ijaz is presumed to be at Coke getting free passes to all Coke Studio sessions.
Ammar Butt is busy revolutionizing the Bicycle industry by implementing ISO-9001 and web-based systems in his company; creating a good excuse for current downward sales trend. He’s happy spending his last bachelorhood years playing online poker and Nintendo at home.
Anwar Kabir took a brief stint at LUMS as Head of Corporate Communication for SDSB in early 2009, however was pulled back by Lowe & Rauf (his third time employer in last 5 years) as Business Director for their largest client “Nestle” in Lahore. Anwar spends quite a bit of his time at Nestle, for which his company works as advertising and communication partner for leading brands like MilkPak, NesVita, Nescafe, Yogurts and others. Anwar went on a world tour last year and his pictures/travelogue is available at his 900+ Facebook friends site. He spends most of his free time getting his house constructed near LUMS and also dreaming and planning his next vacation trip later this year. Anwar recently became Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International and continues to have a very active social life with Rotary Club and otherwise. Our ‘Shahzada’ is still single and got the title of “most eligible bachelor” from his close friends, with not many bright chances of getting married anytime soon. Let’s all pray, he finds his “significant other” this year.
Arshad Moazzam has shifted to VAS department at Mobilink and is currently attending training course in Singapore. His daughter turns one this year.
Recently, Asad Mahmood got the opportunity to cut loose of Wateen's lair, but at the same time remained in Abu Dhabi Group's farm joining the healthcare sector. He is currently serving as Manager Marketing in Al-Razi Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. He got married in last October and insists on having granted by Allah sufficient powers to execute the relation ;).
His Sheikhness Asad Shafiq is working with Supply Chain at Alghanim Industries. He has long been disappointed with society’s failure to appreciate his ideas and act accordingly. Now he mourns every disappointment by eating more and his ever increasing waistline is a reflection of his anxiety. He has started playing football and plays very well even if football is not around.
Ashhad Saeed is enjoying his 07:00 am to 04:00 pm public lifestyle at Etisalat where he is working in the Strategy & Planning department. It is heard that his brand loyalty has led him to reject all incoming calls from a non-etisalat number. He is expected to tie the knot by the time the class notes become public.
Azamat Akbarov is serving the oil and gas sector as Financial Analyst at Eriell Corporation; an oil and gas drilling company based at Tashkent. He has become quite an active visitor of Facebook owing to his plans of changing his bachelorhood by the end of this year.
Babur Rais is still working for Investment Banking at BMA Capital. He recently won the award for second best M&A deal in Asia Pacific by the Banker Deals of the Year 2009. That’s what you get for putting in late hours in office. He plans to remain single for the moment.
Badri Nath Baral is working for a leading IPP company in Nepal named Butwal Power Company Ltd. as a Financial Analyst. He is happily married with a six month old daughter.
Bilal Javed Bhatti has moved to Electronics Retail after seeing out whole life cycle of his former division. He got married in September and recently visited the pyramids. The “jawaan” who used to dodge speeding cameras now spends time sleeping between them.
Bilal Malik is currently in Melbourne to study how females of the human species have evolved differently on the two continents viz., Asia and Australia. It is an intensively research oriented project interspersed with occasional guess-work and recourse to divine inspiration. To legitimize his stay in Australia, he has enrolled for public policy studies, which he is least interested in. By the end of 2010, he intends to share the findings of his ground-breaking research with the most important stakeholder group i.e., Perennial Bachelors of Pakistan, having illustrious members like Mr. Anwar Kabir and Mr. Jasim Waheed. Instead of the benefits, Mr. Malik remains more interested in the fringe-benefits of the project.
Dilafruz is looking for MOP notes, anybody wants to share? She has to learn how to play "blind, deaf & dumb" game without playing it. She is proud of making 60% more sales than year for a small category. Only percentages are making her days!
This year has been very kind to Fasahat Feroze who got first promoted to Assistant Manager Product and Platform at Telenor, then got engaged and later hair started growing back on his head. The last miracle was courtesy of the laser hair treatment he got from his bonus. His nick has now changed from ‘Goldie’ to ‘Goldilocks’.
Fizza Ijaz has once again been on-the-go. After having worked in Global Markets at Deutsche Bank London for a year and a half, she decided to move to the more glitzy world of marketing. She is presently working as Assistant Marketing Manager for Home and Personal Care at Unilever Dubai. She is enjoying being with family and the new work-life balance as opposed to the hectic hours and cold of London. Being the kind-hearted that she is, she is making her share of foreign remittance and investing heavily in Dubai economy by buying herself a new car and renting a new apartment.
Haleema Muniba spends her working hours as Assistant Demand Generation Manager; managing a team of 60 non-luminites at ICI Paints. She insists that she has forgotten everything learnt at LUMS; while we still question on the ‘learnt part’.
Hamza Ahmad is found flirting with Syed Noor on the set of hit show ‘Hero Banney Ke Tarang’. Engro Foods is helping him fulfill his dream of becoming a super star. We won’t be surprised if Hamza gets casted in Pakistani film ‘Dostana’ along with John Rambo and Resham.
Husnain Alam recently joined IBM and went to see Egypt in his very first month on his job. Husnain insists that ‘wohi aik chaal be-dhangee si, jo pehley thee so ab bhee hey’; we however doubt it. On public gatherings, he never hesitates to enlighten the audience with his views on life, politics, religion and everything else.
Ever since Imran Hafeez has got married, his mobile is always found on ‘not responding’ status after 05:00 p.m. He is employed at Ufone and insists that he has nothing to do with either Ufone pricing or its ads.
Jasim Ahmad is still at Adamjee Insurance working as Senior Manager heading a branch in Lahore. He recently has passed his CFA level 1 exam with flying colors; another milestone added on his ‘bachelor’ profile.
Kamilia Iftikhar has completed the most air miles among the Kuwaiti community. She has already finished the Pakistani quota for UK visas and has been the reason for rejections for rest of the people. Despite major restructuring she is holding her position firm in Business Development at Alghanim.
Kanza Fida is getting married. Electronic copy of the wedding invitation will be e-mailed one week prior the big day. Those wanting to congratulate her can catch up with her at Wateen.
Engro brought Kashan Yaqoob back to his hometown place Karachi after spending nearly a year at village-cum-city Sahiwal. He got promoted to fatherhood with an adorable son named ‘Shafay’. Consequent of his craving for the opposite sex, he is recovering from a minor slip disk. We all wish him speedy recovery!
Kashif Munir insists that there is nothing better to do than to get married during recession. So, he has got himself engaged quietly and plans to complete his conquest in December. Consultancy continues to be his line of business at Xavor.
Khurram Mir entrepreneurial venture Kualitatem previously known as Kraysis continues to make headlines every now and then. From being declared as Best Start-up for Pakistan and Asia Pacific separately to contracting with big clients like Wateen Telecom and Netsol Tech., Kualitatem has become already a success story that we should all be proud of. Khurram has got engaged and is looking forward to get married later this year.
Khurram Saleem is still working for Xavor where he is currently consulting with Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, helping them with their supply chain. He is currently based in Burbank California which is home to most major studios (both Film and TV); and enjoys the Southern California summers where the maximum temperature is 28-30 degrees Celsius. His son Ibrahim turned two this June.
Khwaja Faisal is still a proud bachelor and is always found in middle of chicks, chicken and gossip. He has been a prime target of sermons by Usman luring him to get married. He is working in FMCG division and has lately been responsible for importing chicken from Brazil. Naturally he did not want to stop the importing there! He is the owner of infamous “kotha” which has been a meeting place for the Kuwaiti gang.
Luqman Awan became a proud father of baby boy he named Suleman and not ‘Suleman Dawood’ (because of strict adherence to copyrights). His ongoing commitment with MBA-07 Endowment Fund has resulted in generating Rs. 1 Million which has been invested in Islamic mode of Finance. Kudos to Luqman! Presently, he is heading one of the business categories of 3M in Lahore at National level.
Mehdi Raza is busy making ‘tons of money’ working as Financial Analyst for Uch Power. He is celebrating nation’s newly discovered judiciary freedom with full zeal and vigor.
Mehtab Lasharie returned from her sales training (others insist paid vacation) in Amsterdam since last July. Having spent a year with individuals from 41 different nationalities, she opened up other exciting career opportunities as linguistics expert, Europe tour guide, biryani chef to name a few. She settled for continuing to work for Cisco, as a Service Account Manager covering global accounts for Middle East and Africa.
After spending a couple of years in scorching heat of Sindh and enjoying metropolitan life of Karachi, Muhammad Anis Sajid is back in Lahore. Persisting with Shell and still selling lubricants, he is always looking forward to bump into any old Classmate.
Muhammad Farhan Tayyab left P&G early this year and came back to Lahore to attend to some family matters. During this time, he made a brief stint at Wateen Telecom in their Solutions division. He is now back at P&G as Assistant Brand Manager ‘Arial’ and is looking forward to continue his streak from where he left.
Mian Murad is working for Kimmco, insulation material manufacturer and has become SAP guru over past two years.
Following the legacy of Mard-e-Mujahid Mr. You-Know-Who; Muhammad Ali Imam is looking after six sigma and leadership development interventions at Engro Chemicals as Organizational Development and Quality Manager. His children are growing fast as Ali turns 05 and Zainab 01 this year.
After spending almost a year to-ing and fro-ing between Dubai and Aberdeen (Scotland), Muhammad Ali Jawed has returned to Sharjah for good. He is currently engaged with Petrofac's ERP implementation project and enjoying a happy married life.
Muhammad Ayaz Karim; being the peaceful, disciplined and self still sticking individual that he is. (NOT!!), he still works for Habib Bank AG Zurich Dubai in Corporate Banking. He is found active in the Dubai social circle and is seen on one too many occasions attending premiere of bollywood flicks. His weekend usually includes a trip to Sharjah to visit his relatives and is a frequent flyer to Karachi as well.
Muhammad Bin Shahbaz spends his leisure time cursing his competitor Gourmet for giving Nestle water a hard time in Lahore. He prefers to drink Sufi Water for himself.
Muhammad Faisal Amin has taken charge of planning at Engineering division. He is a regular member of the football team and has transformed into a no nonsense defender.
Muhammad Farooq Soomro, the not so holy disciple of His Sheikhness spends most of his time connecting over smoking pot. He still dreams of load shedding in the scorching heat of Karachi while sitting in his chilled room in Kuwait. He has become an expert in writing macros and has been planning to use them to find answers to God, Universe and everything else.
Previously, Muhammad Hamid Khan worked as a Business Development Manager and headed the Graphics and Animation division in a multinational software company. This year, he rejoined his family business and is now working on consolidating the different work sites in to one factory. He is still single and looking... and giving serious thoughts on relocating himself to UK.
Muhammad Niazi Malik is still at SAMBA working as RM corporate.
Muhammad Shahid Bashir continues to make his mark as an entrepreneur. He resides in Lahore and is working on three business projects; a transformer manufacturing unit that he runs as a CEO, expanding the ethanol unit to include a steel mill to utilize excess electric energy generated from in-house sources and lastly setting up a dairy farm in Kasur of a head count of 500 and establishing sale points for milk and beef in different neighborhoods in Lahore. His son is fast learning to become a footballer.
Muhammad Usman became a proud father of a baby boy named Omar. Working at P&G sales, he is currently posted at Lahore.
Muhammad Usman Ahmed is working for Home furnishing division at Alghanim. He got married in December and since then has disappeared from everyone’s sight. It is rumored that he is planning something fishy. However he is still conscious of his social responsibility and constantly sends emails, marked yellow at times to highlight misconduct and to nip evil in the bud.
Muhammad Usman Khan is looking after Key Accounts Business Development with Nestle. No wonder the chances of finding Nestle products at Utility Stores are higher these days than plain flour. He will be getting married this autumn.
Muhammad Umar Tanwir after making his way up the ladder towards becoming a manager at Zong realized that he needs to start all over again as an executive at Mobily. UT has got married and will be moving to Saudia Arabia by September. He is busy collecting home entertainment content for his Saudia stint.
Natalya Nicklaevna is with Petrofac in Sharjah and prefers the burning heat of Dubai over the freezing cold of Moscow.
Nizam Ahmed has gotten fed up of making finance CP’s and has moved into ICT development sector where he enjoys making Dabba’s for a change.
After spending his honeymoon period at Kuala Lumpur, PTCL has placed Omar Ahmad at a remote location called ‘Akora Khattak’ in Pakistan, which according to Omar is in the middle of nowhere and he is facing tough competition from local cocaine producers.
Omair Yunus is rising up the corporate ladder and very soon it will be difficult to find him a suitable boss. He has been instrumental in developing the toys and several other categories within Alghanim Electronics. He is mostly found on planes to different destinations across the globe.
Rabia Raza Tirmezey has successfully completed over a whole adventurous year in Dubai. She has proudly cleared CFA Level 1 and is working For Mashreq Bank Treasury as a Derivative Structurer for Commodities and Rates. (Who says finance was only the guys thing at LUMS?!!). Visitors to Dubai can catch her up on either premiere of a bollywood movie or on inbound flights between Dubai and Karachi.
Rafael Ali moved to UAE last year and is working with Descon. He is enjoying life with his wife and two sons in Ajman. He was last seen on Yasir Memon’s wedding dancing on the song ‘menu yaar daai waiya uthaay naachan veei daai’.
Rai Usman has gotten engaged according to our sources. He is still at Barclays Bank posted at Dubai, UAE.
Raza-ul-Haque got promoted at Chevron and is now working there as Senior Zone Manager. His guest appearance in the TV show ‘Happy Hour with Rukhsana’ resulted in a massive flow of marriage proposals; subsequent to his saucy exercise-cum-dance performance.
Raza Rehman is working as Assistant Brand Manager at Nestle and is managing complete NIDO Portfolio for the past 8 months. Raza was blessed with a son last year. He continues to live his passion for site seeing and trekking in northern areas and went to Nanga Parbat Base camp (South Side) and Hunza this year.
Saima Ansari is sticking to her guns working as ABM Surf at Unilever. She regularly adds her photography work on her Facebook profile.
Sajjad Ali Khan has gone back to what he does best that is music. He recently launched his demo song on the website http://www.sajjadkhan.net/ and is expected to release his own Rock music album soon. In the meanwhile, Wateen Telecom continues to be his professional home ground.
Salman Ahmed Khan is working for an organization where employer turnover is higher than employee turnover. He is designated as RM corporate for RBS which was previously known as ABN AMRO, and will soon be called as MCB.
Saud Mukhtar keeps his mind and heart occupied to extra-curricular activities thanks to his 09:00 AM to 02:00 PM job timings at SECP and his non-marital lifestyle. He has become a fatherly figure of LUMS Alumni Islamabad chapter and was last seen collecting funds from LUMS Alumni for Islamabad chapter reunion function; at gunpoint.
Saqib Mubarak’s division acquired an ailing business and now struggles to meet its own budget every month. He spends day and night devising strategies and models which, to his credit, at least “forecast” the past accurately. His legendary bat carry in which he did not score a single boundary helped Alghanim Industries clinch a corporate cricket trophy. He was rewarded with a toaster for his efforts. He is still as colorful as ever and has the widest collection of dazzling shoes.
Shafiq Sobhan has moved to Melbourne Australia and lives there with his wife.
Shahrukh and Maryam moved to UAE last year and have been hopping around Abu Dhabi and Dubai since then. They spent their last year going through their ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ life stage. Shahrukh now works for Bank of Oman.
Shahzad Ahmed was last seen hiking around endangered species and wildlife resort at Makhspuri trek in Nathia Gali. Faisal Bank continues to be his employer of choice.
Shehreyar Mehmood can be found at Oracle working as marketing manager for Sage West. His colorful language vocabulary is a treat to listen in all of ‘Isloo’ gatherings.
After commoditizing sky diving experience in Dubai, the next agenda on Shelina Ramzan Ali Khoja’s list is bungee jumping in Seattle. First batch of her pictures has been uploaded on Facebook as I am writing these lines. She has been moving from department to department in the Industrial division of Alghanim during past one year.
Calm and composed Siddique Ahmad was last seen screaming and cheerleading at Maykan’s apartment for team Barcelona in UEFA Cup 2009 final match. He now prices prepaid Jazz at Mobilink.
Sohaib Hashmi turned out to be a true Lahori acting as a great host to yours truly and Umair Butt during our trip to Dubai. Not a huge fan of clean-up, we discovered 73 empty water bottles lying unattended below his bed. He is still at Habib bank A.G. Zurich.
Suresh Shrestra is working for the Department of Transport Management under the Ministry of Labor and Transport Management Nepal. Both of his daughters have started their schooling; one studying in Grade-1 at St. Mary's High School and the other enrolled in Nursery at Eurokids International.
Syed Aamir Asif continues to work as part of the Investment Portfolio team at Mashreq Bank, overseeing the Hedge Funds Portfolio of the Bank, where he is still popularly known as “Mr. Touch-me”.
Syed Ali Haider made a successful job hopping in the recession stricken Dubai city where he moved from Habib Bank AG Zurich to Barclays. He is enjoying his stay in Dubai with his wife and his little daughter who is soon turning two.
Syed Ammar Yasin switched from Telenor to enter the cheesy world of water, milk and juices at Nestle. Having declared himself as an ‘IDP’, he came back to Telenor where he now works in Financial Services Division and spends his time researching names for his upcoming products. Doctor joined the parents club earlier this year with the birth of his daughter.
Tahir Masood has been promoted to the position of Chilled Dairy Manager for Central Zone. He controls the Yogurt supply-line for Punjab which makes him second most influential person after Shahbaz Sharif.
Taimur Karim now does budgeting for KESC while controlling the electricity supply to North Karachi. He rarely makes public appearance these days due to inherent controversial nature of his job.
Thanks to Umair Mukhtar’s wife, they are enjoying the luxuries of a ‘Sarkari’ apartment in G7 Islamabad. He continues to inspire PTCL with his profound strategies.
Umair Shabbir Butt is still single and insists on maintaining the status quo during recession. He hasn’t left Wateen nor has Wateen left him. Juggling between corporate and consumer segments of Fiber and Fixed Network, he spends his free time gaming on his Play station.
Unilever’s two ABMs Umer Farrukh and Umer Mehmood reside together in Karachi, one looking after Energile and the other looking after Walls. Consequently, they have unlimited supply of energy drink and ice-cream at their apartment.
After a year at Citibank, Wasif Sikander Butt decided to head back to Lahore. He is now working with Standard Chartered Bank - Global Corporate and enjoys the long hours pretty much! Still single but plans to rectify this status shortly.
Yashrah Masood is still working with SOUL Collections (sister concern Service Sales Corporation) since graduation and is letting no stone unturned to win CEO Excellence Award for 2009. Despite her efforts to behave like a typical corporate sugar coated pill, she is recognized as the one having the loudest vocal cords.
Yasir Suleman Memon life has become quite calm and composed since his marriage last year. His busy schedule starts in the morning working at Unilever in the Modern Trade division, and continues at night which involves cleaning dishes, dusting and laundry.
Zenubia Qureshi has moved to Bahrain with her husband Arsalan and is currently waiting for her CPR; it’s a resident visa status - not to be confused with Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation.
Inspite our tiring efforts we could not get update on Ahmad Raj, Abdul Jawwad, Hassan Ismail, Sarmad Balouch, Shuhrat and Zeeshan Saleem Bhutta. We wish them good luck for their future and fine and hope to hear from them next year.
And lastly, your class note coordinator Ahmed Shiraz Butt vowed a New Year resolution of having ‘a new job, a new babe and new weight’ by year end. After experiencing a four-month non-stop mental torture of job insecurity, he managed to dump Wateen just-in-time and joined Telenor Pakistan as Sales Planning Executive in Postpaid department. Consequent to his move to land of opportunity ‘Isloo’ and his flirtatious nature, his family decided to hook him up for good. And as further consequent to his engagement, he has been forced to shed some pounds and has left fast food industry for good. In short, his New Year resolution of having ‘a new job, a new babe and new weight’ has been achieved successfully.
I would like to end this article with a quote...
Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always brings your own sunshine. (Anthony J. D’ Angelo)
Contributions by Farooq Soomro, Fizza Ijaz and ‘Significant Others’
The year 2008-09 has been a tough year for everyone. While unstable political and security conditions of our country continue to haunt us, recession has taken its toll globally and already we can see it aftereffects. There have been casualties and losses all around us. Some of us have been affected financially; some mentally; while some (like me) physically as well. But Alhamdulillah, we all stand up high on my feet determined to face the growing challenges with the same courage and spirit with which we all entered the corporate world.
This year also marked the sad demise of our beloved finance professor Dr. Naim Sipra. Words cannot do justice to this person’s sheer brilliance, knowledge and command over his subject. Not only was he a genius at mind, he was also a very kind-hearted, soft spoken, composed and down-to-earth gentleman who treated his students with respect and never left an opportunity to share his crude humor with them. With his death, LUMS has lost one of its best professors whose replacement can never be made. May his soul rest in peace!
Here is a one-to-one highlight of this year activities of our batch mates:
Abubakar Siddique has been gaining rich experience working as category specialist at Nestle looking after the products Nido, Everday tea whitener and Nestle Cream. His comprehension on the dairy category came in handy in his suitor pursuit, as a Kashmiri family has agreed to commit their girl with him.
Adeel Allawallah says that Life has been really hectic post LUMS. He sells cigarettes during the day at Phillip Morris International and cakes in the evening at Masooms. Everybody is invited to have a free cigarette with a cake slice at his franchise.
Adnan Nisar reports as being engaged and will soon be changing his status to happily married. He has been loyal with PTC and after his short stint in South Korea, has been appointed as Area Manager in Faisalabad. He has been planning and strategizing to increase cigarette sales for PTC brands but he himself has yet to taste one.
Ahsan Ahmad Maykan continues to work at Telenor doing segmentation for Talkshawk. He insists that his campaigns have nothing to do with TVCs that get aired on television. After his split-up with Ali Zafar, he now listens to Annie and Amanat Ali songs on long drives.
Ali Abbas Pujanis is based in Sharjah where he is working for Habib Bank AG Zurich and happily settled with his wife. Puji has become a proud father of baby girl and has already started strategizing investment plans for her.
Ali Maaz got married last December but did not give much relief to bachelors by getting back immediately with his ‘cooker’ stories. He is still with Electronics Retail and was a star performer last year. He significantly exceeded his Kitchen category budget, only to find out that his bonus was tied to corporate performance. He has not lost the need for a larger audience and his appetite for class participation, former being reluctantly offered by bachelor brotherhood.
Aly Abdul Rehman has got engaged. Now we have a ‘Bro’ and a ‘Sis’.
Aly Yousaf has also got engaged and plans to get married in December. He is still at Unilever in working in the Finance Department.
Amina Ijaz is presumed to be at Coke getting free passes to all Coke Studio sessions.
Ammar Butt is busy revolutionizing the Bicycle industry by implementing ISO-9001 and web-based systems in his company; creating a good excuse for current downward sales trend. He’s happy spending his last bachelorhood years playing online poker and Nintendo at home.
Anwar Kabir took a brief stint at LUMS as Head of Corporate Communication for SDSB in early 2009, however was pulled back by Lowe & Rauf (his third time employer in last 5 years) as Business Director for their largest client “Nestle” in Lahore. Anwar spends quite a bit of his time at Nestle, for which his company works as advertising and communication partner for leading brands like MilkPak, NesVita, Nescafe, Yogurts and others. Anwar went on a world tour last year and his pictures/travelogue is available at his 900+ Facebook friends site. He spends most of his free time getting his house constructed near LUMS and also dreaming and planning his next vacation trip later this year. Anwar recently became Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International and continues to have a very active social life with Rotary Club and otherwise. Our ‘Shahzada’ is still single and got the title of “most eligible bachelor” from his close friends, with not many bright chances of getting married anytime soon. Let’s all pray, he finds his “significant other” this year.
Arshad Moazzam has shifted to VAS department at Mobilink and is currently attending training course in Singapore. His daughter turns one this year.
Recently, Asad Mahmood got the opportunity to cut loose of Wateen's lair, but at the same time remained in Abu Dhabi Group's farm joining the healthcare sector. He is currently serving as Manager Marketing in Al-Razi Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. He got married in last October and insists on having granted by Allah sufficient powers to execute the relation ;).
His Sheikhness Asad Shafiq is working with Supply Chain at Alghanim Industries. He has long been disappointed with society’s failure to appreciate his ideas and act accordingly. Now he mourns every disappointment by eating more and his ever increasing waistline is a reflection of his anxiety. He has started playing football and plays very well even if football is not around.
Ashhad Saeed is enjoying his 07:00 am to 04:00 pm public lifestyle at Etisalat where he is working in the Strategy & Planning department. It is heard that his brand loyalty has led him to reject all incoming calls from a non-etisalat number. He is expected to tie the knot by the time the class notes become public.
Azamat Akbarov is serving the oil and gas sector as Financial Analyst at Eriell Corporation; an oil and gas drilling company based at Tashkent. He has become quite an active visitor of Facebook owing to his plans of changing his bachelorhood by the end of this year.
Babur Rais is still working for Investment Banking at BMA Capital. He recently won the award for second best M&A deal in Asia Pacific by the Banker Deals of the Year 2009. That’s what you get for putting in late hours in office. He plans to remain single for the moment.
Badri Nath Baral is working for a leading IPP company in Nepal named Butwal Power Company Ltd. as a Financial Analyst. He is happily married with a six month old daughter.
Bilal Javed Bhatti has moved to Electronics Retail after seeing out whole life cycle of his former division. He got married in September and recently visited the pyramids. The “jawaan” who used to dodge speeding cameras now spends time sleeping between them.
Bilal Malik is currently in Melbourne to study how females of the human species have evolved differently on the two continents viz., Asia and Australia. It is an intensively research oriented project interspersed with occasional guess-work and recourse to divine inspiration. To legitimize his stay in Australia, he has enrolled for public policy studies, which he is least interested in. By the end of 2010, he intends to share the findings of his ground-breaking research with the most important stakeholder group i.e., Perennial Bachelors of Pakistan, having illustrious members like Mr. Anwar Kabir and Mr. Jasim Waheed. Instead of the benefits, Mr. Malik remains more interested in the fringe-benefits of the project.
Dilafruz is looking for MOP notes, anybody wants to share? She has to learn how to play "blind, deaf & dumb" game without playing it. She is proud of making 60% more sales than year for a small category. Only percentages are making her days!
This year has been very kind to Fasahat Feroze who got first promoted to Assistant Manager Product and Platform at Telenor, then got engaged and later hair started growing back on his head. The last miracle was courtesy of the laser hair treatment he got from his bonus. His nick has now changed from ‘Goldie’ to ‘Goldilocks’.
Fizza Ijaz has once again been on-the-go. After having worked in Global Markets at Deutsche Bank London for a year and a half, she decided to move to the more glitzy world of marketing. She is presently working as Assistant Marketing Manager for Home and Personal Care at Unilever Dubai. She is enjoying being with family and the new work-life balance as opposed to the hectic hours and cold of London. Being the kind-hearted that she is, she is making her share of foreign remittance and investing heavily in Dubai economy by buying herself a new car and renting a new apartment.
Haleema Muniba spends her working hours as Assistant Demand Generation Manager; managing a team of 60 non-luminites at ICI Paints. She insists that she has forgotten everything learnt at LUMS; while we still question on the ‘learnt part’.
Hamza Ahmad is found flirting with Syed Noor on the set of hit show ‘Hero Banney Ke Tarang’. Engro Foods is helping him fulfill his dream of becoming a super star. We won’t be surprised if Hamza gets casted in Pakistani film ‘Dostana’ along with John Rambo and Resham.
Husnain Alam recently joined IBM and went to see Egypt in his very first month on his job. Husnain insists that ‘wohi aik chaal be-dhangee si, jo pehley thee so ab bhee hey’; we however doubt it. On public gatherings, he never hesitates to enlighten the audience with his views on life, politics, religion and everything else.
Ever since Imran Hafeez has got married, his mobile is always found on ‘not responding’ status after 05:00 p.m. He is employed at Ufone and insists that he has nothing to do with either Ufone pricing or its ads.
Jasim Ahmad is still at Adamjee Insurance working as Senior Manager heading a branch in Lahore. He recently has passed his CFA level 1 exam with flying colors; another milestone added on his ‘bachelor’ profile.
Kamilia Iftikhar has completed the most air miles among the Kuwaiti community. She has already finished the Pakistani quota for UK visas and has been the reason for rejections for rest of the people. Despite major restructuring she is holding her position firm in Business Development at Alghanim.
Kanza Fida is getting married. Electronic copy of the wedding invitation will be e-mailed one week prior the big day. Those wanting to congratulate her can catch up with her at Wateen.
Engro brought Kashan Yaqoob back to his hometown place Karachi after spending nearly a year at village-cum-city Sahiwal. He got promoted to fatherhood with an adorable son named ‘Shafay’. Consequent of his craving for the opposite sex, he is recovering from a minor slip disk. We all wish him speedy recovery!
Kashif Munir insists that there is nothing better to do than to get married during recession. So, he has got himself engaged quietly and plans to complete his conquest in December. Consultancy continues to be his line of business at Xavor.
Khurram Mir entrepreneurial venture Kualitatem previously known as Kraysis continues to make headlines every now and then. From being declared as Best Start-up for Pakistan and Asia Pacific separately to contracting with big clients like Wateen Telecom and Netsol Tech., Kualitatem has become already a success story that we should all be proud of. Khurram has got engaged and is looking forward to get married later this year.
Khurram Saleem is still working for Xavor where he is currently consulting with Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, helping them with their supply chain. He is currently based in Burbank California which is home to most major studios (both Film and TV); and enjoys the Southern California summers where the maximum temperature is 28-30 degrees Celsius. His son Ibrahim turned two this June.
Khwaja Faisal is still a proud bachelor and is always found in middle of chicks, chicken and gossip. He has been a prime target of sermons by Usman luring him to get married. He is working in FMCG division and has lately been responsible for importing chicken from Brazil. Naturally he did not want to stop the importing there! He is the owner of infamous “kotha” which has been a meeting place for the Kuwaiti gang.
Luqman Awan became a proud father of baby boy he named Suleman and not ‘Suleman Dawood’ (because of strict adherence to copyrights). His ongoing commitment with MBA-07 Endowment Fund has resulted in generating Rs. 1 Million which has been invested in Islamic mode of Finance. Kudos to Luqman! Presently, he is heading one of the business categories of 3M in Lahore at National level.
Mehdi Raza is busy making ‘tons of money’ working as Financial Analyst for Uch Power. He is celebrating nation’s newly discovered judiciary freedom with full zeal and vigor.
Mehtab Lasharie returned from her sales training (others insist paid vacation) in Amsterdam since last July. Having spent a year with individuals from 41 different nationalities, she opened up other exciting career opportunities as linguistics expert, Europe tour guide, biryani chef to name a few. She settled for continuing to work for Cisco, as a Service Account Manager covering global accounts for Middle East and Africa.
After spending a couple of years in scorching heat of Sindh and enjoying metropolitan life of Karachi, Muhammad Anis Sajid is back in Lahore. Persisting with Shell and still selling lubricants, he is always looking forward to bump into any old Classmate.
Muhammad Farhan Tayyab left P&G early this year and came back to Lahore to attend to some family matters. During this time, he made a brief stint at Wateen Telecom in their Solutions division. He is now back at P&G as Assistant Brand Manager ‘Arial’ and is looking forward to continue his streak from where he left.
Mian Murad is working for Kimmco, insulation material manufacturer and has become SAP guru over past two years.
Following the legacy of Mard-e-Mujahid Mr. You-Know-Who; Muhammad Ali Imam is looking after six sigma and leadership development interventions at Engro Chemicals as Organizational Development and Quality Manager. His children are growing fast as Ali turns 05 and Zainab 01 this year.
After spending almost a year to-ing and fro-ing between Dubai and Aberdeen (Scotland), Muhammad Ali Jawed has returned to Sharjah for good. He is currently engaged with Petrofac's ERP implementation project and enjoying a happy married life.
Muhammad Ayaz Karim; being the peaceful, disciplined and self still sticking individual that he is. (NOT!!), he still works for Habib Bank AG Zurich Dubai in Corporate Banking. He is found active in the Dubai social circle and is seen on one too many occasions attending premiere of bollywood flicks. His weekend usually includes a trip to Sharjah to visit his relatives and is a frequent flyer to Karachi as well.
Muhammad Bin Shahbaz spends his leisure time cursing his competitor Gourmet for giving Nestle water a hard time in Lahore. He prefers to drink Sufi Water for himself.
Muhammad Faisal Amin has taken charge of planning at Engineering division. He is a regular member of the football team and has transformed into a no nonsense defender.
Muhammad Farooq Soomro, the not so holy disciple of His Sheikhness spends most of his time connecting over smoking pot. He still dreams of load shedding in the scorching heat of Karachi while sitting in his chilled room in Kuwait. He has become an expert in writing macros and has been planning to use them to find answers to God, Universe and everything else.
Previously, Muhammad Hamid Khan worked as a Business Development Manager and headed the Graphics and Animation division in a multinational software company. This year, he rejoined his family business and is now working on consolidating the different work sites in to one factory. He is still single and looking... and giving serious thoughts on relocating himself to UK.
Muhammad Niazi Malik is still at SAMBA working as RM corporate.
Muhammad Shahid Bashir continues to make his mark as an entrepreneur. He resides in Lahore and is working on three business projects; a transformer manufacturing unit that he runs as a CEO, expanding the ethanol unit to include a steel mill to utilize excess electric energy generated from in-house sources and lastly setting up a dairy farm in Kasur of a head count of 500 and establishing sale points for milk and beef in different neighborhoods in Lahore. His son is fast learning to become a footballer.
Muhammad Usman became a proud father of a baby boy named Omar. Working at P&G sales, he is currently posted at Lahore.
Muhammad Usman Ahmed is working for Home furnishing division at Alghanim. He got married in December and since then has disappeared from everyone’s sight. It is rumored that he is planning something fishy. However he is still conscious of his social responsibility and constantly sends emails, marked yellow at times to highlight misconduct and to nip evil in the bud.
Muhammad Usman Khan is looking after Key Accounts Business Development with Nestle. No wonder the chances of finding Nestle products at Utility Stores are higher these days than plain flour. He will be getting married this autumn.
Muhammad Umar Tanwir after making his way up the ladder towards becoming a manager at Zong realized that he needs to start all over again as an executive at Mobily. UT has got married and will be moving to Saudia Arabia by September. He is busy collecting home entertainment content for his Saudia stint.
Natalya Nicklaevna is with Petrofac in Sharjah and prefers the burning heat of Dubai over the freezing cold of Moscow.
Nizam Ahmed has gotten fed up of making finance CP’s and has moved into ICT development sector where he enjoys making Dabba’s for a change.
After spending his honeymoon period at Kuala Lumpur, PTCL has placed Omar Ahmad at a remote location called ‘Akora Khattak’ in Pakistan, which according to Omar is in the middle of nowhere and he is facing tough competition from local cocaine producers.
Omair Yunus is rising up the corporate ladder and very soon it will be difficult to find him a suitable boss. He has been instrumental in developing the toys and several other categories within Alghanim Electronics. He is mostly found on planes to different destinations across the globe.
Rabia Raza Tirmezey has successfully completed over a whole adventurous year in Dubai. She has proudly cleared CFA Level 1 and is working For Mashreq Bank Treasury as a Derivative Structurer for Commodities and Rates. (Who says finance was only the guys thing at LUMS?!!). Visitors to Dubai can catch her up on either premiere of a bollywood movie or on inbound flights between Dubai and Karachi.
Rafael Ali moved to UAE last year and is working with Descon. He is enjoying life with his wife and two sons in Ajman. He was last seen on Yasir Memon’s wedding dancing on the song ‘menu yaar daai waiya uthaay naachan veei daai’.
Rai Usman has gotten engaged according to our sources. He is still at Barclays Bank posted at Dubai, UAE.
Raza-ul-Haque got promoted at Chevron and is now working there as Senior Zone Manager. His guest appearance in the TV show ‘Happy Hour with Rukhsana’ resulted in a massive flow of marriage proposals; subsequent to his saucy exercise-cum-dance performance.
Raza Rehman is working as Assistant Brand Manager at Nestle and is managing complete NIDO Portfolio for the past 8 months. Raza was blessed with a son last year. He continues to live his passion for site seeing and trekking in northern areas and went to Nanga Parbat Base camp (South Side) and Hunza this year.
Saima Ansari is sticking to her guns working as ABM Surf at Unilever. She regularly adds her photography work on her Facebook profile.
Sajjad Ali Khan has gone back to what he does best that is music. He recently launched his demo song on the website http://www.sajjadkhan.net/ and is expected to release his own Rock music album soon. In the meanwhile, Wateen Telecom continues to be his professional home ground.
Salman Ahmed Khan is working for an organization where employer turnover is higher than employee turnover. He is designated as RM corporate for RBS which was previously known as ABN AMRO, and will soon be called as MCB.
Saud Mukhtar keeps his mind and heart occupied to extra-curricular activities thanks to his 09:00 AM to 02:00 PM job timings at SECP and his non-marital lifestyle. He has become a fatherly figure of LUMS Alumni Islamabad chapter and was last seen collecting funds from LUMS Alumni for Islamabad chapter reunion function; at gunpoint.
Saqib Mubarak’s division acquired an ailing business and now struggles to meet its own budget every month. He spends day and night devising strategies and models which, to his credit, at least “forecast” the past accurately. His legendary bat carry in which he did not score a single boundary helped Alghanim Industries clinch a corporate cricket trophy. He was rewarded with a toaster for his efforts. He is still as colorful as ever and has the widest collection of dazzling shoes.
Shafiq Sobhan has moved to Melbourne Australia and lives there with his wife.
Shahrukh and Maryam moved to UAE last year and have been hopping around Abu Dhabi and Dubai since then. They spent their last year going through their ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ life stage. Shahrukh now works for Bank of Oman.
Shahzad Ahmed was last seen hiking around endangered species and wildlife resort at Makhspuri trek in Nathia Gali. Faisal Bank continues to be his employer of choice.
Shehreyar Mehmood can be found at Oracle working as marketing manager for Sage West. His colorful language vocabulary is a treat to listen in all of ‘Isloo’ gatherings.
After commoditizing sky diving experience in Dubai, the next agenda on Shelina Ramzan Ali Khoja’s list is bungee jumping in Seattle. First batch of her pictures has been uploaded on Facebook as I am writing these lines. She has been moving from department to department in the Industrial division of Alghanim during past one year.
Calm and composed Siddique Ahmad was last seen screaming and cheerleading at Maykan’s apartment for team Barcelona in UEFA Cup 2009 final match. He now prices prepaid Jazz at Mobilink.
Sohaib Hashmi turned out to be a true Lahori acting as a great host to yours truly and Umair Butt during our trip to Dubai. Not a huge fan of clean-up, we discovered 73 empty water bottles lying unattended below his bed. He is still at Habib bank A.G. Zurich.
Suresh Shrestra is working for the Department of Transport Management under the Ministry of Labor and Transport Management Nepal. Both of his daughters have started their schooling; one studying in Grade-1 at St. Mary's High School and the other enrolled in Nursery at Eurokids International.
Syed Aamir Asif continues to work as part of the Investment Portfolio team at Mashreq Bank, overseeing the Hedge Funds Portfolio of the Bank, where he is still popularly known as “Mr. Touch-me”.
Syed Ali Haider made a successful job hopping in the recession stricken Dubai city where he moved from Habib Bank AG Zurich to Barclays. He is enjoying his stay in Dubai with his wife and his little daughter who is soon turning two.
Syed Ammar Yasin switched from Telenor to enter the cheesy world of water, milk and juices at Nestle. Having declared himself as an ‘IDP’, he came back to Telenor where he now works in Financial Services Division and spends his time researching names for his upcoming products. Doctor joined the parents club earlier this year with the birth of his daughter.
Tahir Masood has been promoted to the position of Chilled Dairy Manager for Central Zone. He controls the Yogurt supply-line for Punjab which makes him second most influential person after Shahbaz Sharif.
Taimur Karim now does budgeting for KESC while controlling the electricity supply to North Karachi. He rarely makes public appearance these days due to inherent controversial nature of his job.
Thanks to Umair Mukhtar’s wife, they are enjoying the luxuries of a ‘Sarkari’ apartment in G7 Islamabad. He continues to inspire PTCL with his profound strategies.
Umair Shabbir Butt is still single and insists on maintaining the status quo during recession. He hasn’t left Wateen nor has Wateen left him. Juggling between corporate and consumer segments of Fiber and Fixed Network, he spends his free time gaming on his Play station.
Unilever’s two ABMs Umer Farrukh and Umer Mehmood reside together in Karachi, one looking after Energile and the other looking after Walls. Consequently, they have unlimited supply of energy drink and ice-cream at their apartment.
After a year at Citibank, Wasif Sikander Butt decided to head back to Lahore. He is now working with Standard Chartered Bank - Global Corporate and enjoys the long hours pretty much! Still single but plans to rectify this status shortly.
Yashrah Masood is still working with SOUL Collections (sister concern Service Sales Corporation) since graduation and is letting no stone unturned to win CEO Excellence Award for 2009. Despite her efforts to behave like a typical corporate sugar coated pill, she is recognized as the one having the loudest vocal cords.
Yasir Suleman Memon life has become quite calm and composed since his marriage last year. His busy schedule starts in the morning working at Unilever in the Modern Trade division, and continues at night which involves cleaning dishes, dusting and laundry.
Zenubia Qureshi has moved to Bahrain with her husband Arsalan and is currently waiting for her CPR; it’s a resident visa status - not to be confused with Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation.
Inspite our tiring efforts we could not get update on Ahmad Raj, Abdul Jawwad, Hassan Ismail, Sarmad Balouch, Shuhrat and Zeeshan Saleem Bhutta. We wish them good luck for their future and fine and hope to hear from them next year.
And lastly, your class note coordinator Ahmed Shiraz Butt vowed a New Year resolution of having ‘a new job, a new babe and new weight’ by year end. After experiencing a four-month non-stop mental torture of job insecurity, he managed to dump Wateen just-in-time and joined Telenor Pakistan as Sales Planning Executive in Postpaid department. Consequent to his move to land of opportunity ‘Isloo’ and his flirtatious nature, his family decided to hook him up for good. And as further consequent to his engagement, he has been forced to shed some pounds and has left fast food industry for good. In short, his New Year resolution of having ‘a new job, a new babe and new weight’ has been achieved successfully.
I would like to end this article with a quote...
Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always brings your own sunshine. (Anthony J. D’ Angelo)
