Imran Anwar

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Imran Anwar
Born	May 23, 1962 (1962-05-23) (age 46) Montgomery (Sahiwal), Punjab, Pakistan
Residence	Heron Pointe, New York; Miami, Florida; Lahore, Pakistan[1]
Nationality	American
Education	BS Electrical; MBA Columbia
Occupation	Technology, Consulting, Journalism
Known for	Internet, entrepreneur, journalist, Television, Radio, Magazines, Newspapers
Political party	Independent[2]
Board member of	Brookhaven Memorial Hospital NY; NARGIS Memorial Pakistan
Religious beliefs	Islam
Website http://imran.tv http://www.imran.com/media/blog/

Imran Anwar (born May 23, 1962 in Montgomery (now Sahiwal), Pakistan) is a Pakistani technology and business entrepreneur, journalist, TV personality and speaker.^[3]

Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Early political experience 3 Professional life 4 Media life 5 References

[edit] Early life and education

Imran grew up in Karachi and attended Christ The King School and St. Paul's English High School, where he completed Cambridge University School Certificate (O' Levels) studies in 1976.^[4] He completed the Cambridge University Higher School Certificate (HSC/"A' Levels") studies in 1978 at Aitchison College, Lahore, where he was a College Prefect and awarded the 'Best Leaving Boy' Cup 1978.

He holds a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan and has an MBA from Columbia University (Columbia Business School^[5] and Columbia Journalism School).

[edit] Early political experience

Imran was exposed to national political figures at an early age. He had the opportunity to meet international figures like late former Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi, late Pakistani dictator General Zia-ul-Haq, late former Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Khan Junejo, late former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, former Japanese Prime Minister Kaifu, former German Chancellor Willy Brandt, Pakistani dictator General Parvez Musharraf and many others.^[6]

At the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) he became involved in student politics. Eventually becoming Chief Organizer of the largest independent students' organization, the Quaid-e-Azam Students Federation (QSF), Imran was among the student leaders resisting and opposed to the martial law rule of General Zia. He and the indepdendent students also opposed the rising militant political power of fundamentalist violent political parties like Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba in Pakistan soon after the Soviet war in Afghanistan started in 1979.

In 1982, during a wave of student protests taking place at UET, Imran was attacked and arrested by six members of a para-military group of the martial law government. He and several other students were severely beaten by the Police, before being taken to a Military Tribunal. Titled 'Summary Military Court 37', and comprising of General Zia's military officers with no constitutional judicial standing or background, they charged the student protesters with the crime of opposing military rule, promoting unrest and protest in the civilian population and more. Imran, along with other several others, was sentenced and imprisoned in the infamous Kot Lakhpat Prison, outside Lahore, until their release in the coming days.

Imran continues to oppose military dictatorships and speaks out against elected heads of state usurping power. On radio and television he is an outspoken critic of General Pervez Musharraf as well as attempts by Bush administration officials to curtail personal freedoms and civil rights in the United States. In a 1999 profile interview on CNN with Riz Khan,^[7] Anwar had questioned General Musharaff's claim that he would hold elections in 90 days, and alluded to his using the same tacks as General Zia.

In his various recent radio interviews on New York's WWRL 1600AM and recent writings Anwar has urged the Pakistani public to rise against the new martial law and asked the United States government to block financial support of the military dictatorship in Pakistan.^[8]

[edit] Professional life

Prior to migrating to the United States in January 1989, Imran established a small technology and consulting business in Pakistan under the trademark acronym IMRAN (Information & Media Resources, Affiliations, Networks). He also heads ITC (Incorporated Technologies Corporation) based in Lahore, Pakistan, and New York, USA, which develops Web 2.0 technology-based solutions in social networking, online content monetization, and mobile eBusiness.

Imran established imran.pk (aka IMRAN-NET) as the first ISP^[9] in Pakistan.^[10] He and a colleague had obtained control of Pakistan's top level .PK domain (ccTLD or country code top-level domain) in 1990, despite living in the USA at the time.

He has been credited as being the "father of the Internet mail system" in Pakistan, and is also said to have introduced global credit cards to Pakistani banks and customers.^[11] (In 1996 the government owned telecom monopoly in Pakistan failed to wrest control of the domain from private hands, and in the late 1990s the ccTLD moved to "collective national management" by the many Internet related stakeholders in Pakistan.^[12]). At the request of former partners and various Internet industry stakeholders in Pakistan, as of June 2008, Anwar is said to be active again in the running of Pakistan's top level domain .PK through PKNIC with his .PK co-founder and co-owner Ashar Nisar.^{[citation needed]}

He was Business Manager of the ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation) Certified largest media organization, the Jang Group of Newspapers in Karachi and Lahore, Pakistan and Correspondent and General Manager of MAG Weekly, Pakistan's largest circulation weekly English publication.

In the United States Imran worked with Viant (formerly Silicon Valley Internet Partners) and with Computer Associates for several years. Later he was appointed CEO of EverTrac^[13] helping technology companies to develop GPS, wireless and RFID based solutions^[14] used in law enforcement, logistics and government^[15].

In Long Island, he is a member of the Advisory Board of Brookhaven Memorial Hospital and is a past member of the Editorial Advisory Board for VARbusiness Magazine of CMP Media. He also served in the non-profit child welfare industry in Florida as CIO of a well-known organization, and continues to be a consultant to the industry.^[16]

[edit] Media life

Anwar has been a guest on radio shows in New York, California, Iowa,^[17] on stations including WWRL, KMNY as well as online on shows like "You Are The Guest". He has been a contributor on shows on CNN, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Channel, GEO TV, WWOR NY and others. Additionally, he writes a blog on his website which is also syndicated in various newspapers. Anwar's business includes syndication of the world's leading media syndication companies, including United Media, Editors Press Service, and others, in several South and Central Asian countries.

Articles he has written have been published in multiple newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, the Far Eastern Economic Review, Mag Weekly, News International, The Pakistan Times, The Post and Daily Jang.^{[citation needed]}

He has been interviewed by several publications, such as Newsday^[18], Beijing Review^[19], The Pakistan Times, Dosheeza Digest, Daily Jang^[20], The Post, and The Nation^{[citation needed]}.

His comments also appear in ComputerWorld^[21], and other technology and business publications.

Anwar is also a charter member of the Forbes CEO Network, where his contributions are part of the relaunch of the high powered executive media portal.^{[citation needed]}

He has also worked for the promotion of intellectual property rights and concepts in South Asia since 1989.^{[citation needed]} At that time, working with well known industry figures like the late Sidney Goldberg and the late John Klem, Sr., he first acquired the rights to exclusively represent the world's leading media syndication companies.^{[citation needed]}

Represented under the IMRAN media business, these syndicates include United Media, Scripps Howard Newspapers, Universal Press Syndicate, Tribune Media Services and others through Editors Press Service (now Atlantic Syndication Partners) and represent the rights to world-class properties like Dilbert, Snoopy, Garfield, and countless other features for Pakistan.^{[citation needed]}

The business later grew to include clients in Sri Lanka and Bangla Desh.^{[citation needed]} This business now also operates in a several other countries, including Iran, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and also Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.^[22]

[edit] References