Oxford Pakistan Programme secures scholarship pledges, £100,000 endowment

OXFORD: The Oxford Pakistan Programme (OPP) celebrated a milestone at its Annual Fundraising Dinner at Lady Margaret Hall, securing transformative pledges for three new scholarships and a £100,000 endowment to empower Pakistan’s brightest students.

Pakistan’s leading exporter Interloop Ltd, represented by businessman and philanthropist Musadaq Zulqarnain TI, committed funding for a scholarship for the next three years.

British Pakistani philanthropists Munir Hussain, who runs one of the biggest food chains in the UK and Aneel Musarrat each pledged support for a full OPP graduate scholarship for the next five years. This additional funding will enable Pakistan’s most deserving and talented scholars to pursue higher education on Oxford University’s competitive courses, including advanced computer science, theoretical physics, mathematics, genome medicine and many other cutting-edge fields. 

Adding momentum, Professor Sarwar Khawaja announced a generous £100,000 gift to the OPP’s endowment fund, contributing to the OPP’s long-term sustainability and institutionalisation.

Sponsored by Oxford alumni Dr Omer Suleman and Shamyl Malik (co-founders of financial technology firm Haruko), the dinner brought together donors, academics and OPP supporters to celebrate the programme’s impact. 

Since its inception, the OPP has awarded nearly £1 million in student support to 52 scholars, many from underserved regions in Pakistan such as Sindh, Balochistan and South Punjab, to study at Oxford. 

The OPP’s co-founders underscored Pakistan’s demographic urgency, noting that two-thirds of its population is under 30, fuelling unprecedented demand for educational opportunities. Among this generation are brilliant minds who could be Pakistan’s future thought leaders and change-makers, to whom the OPP is providing opportunities as well as hope. 

Throughout the evening, focus was also given to the need to develop educational aspiration and achievement amongst the British Pakistani community, to allow them to make a positive contribution to British society and public life.

Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai, a longstanding OPP advocate, delivered a keynote speech affirming: "When you support the OPP, you invest in Pakistan’s greatest resource: its youth. These scholars will return to lead industries, shape policies, and transform communities—creating ripples of progress for generations."

Attendees included Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the UK, Dr Mohammad Faisal, Ms Naz Shah MP, the Principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Professor Stephen Blyth, Professor Sir Aziz Sheikh, as well as prominent business leaders, professionals and academics from the UK. 

The event featured testimonials from OPP scholars and gratitude to cornerstone donors, including Malala Yousafzai, Ali Tareen, the government of Balochistan, the COSARAF Foundation, the Dunya Foundation, and a growing community of philanthropists supporting partial scholarships. 

These include: Suleman Raza, Hamid Ismail, Professor Stephen Blyth, Areeb Azam, Ammad Ahmad, Syed Babar Ali, Syed Sheharyar Ali, Pir Muhammad Sadiq, Farouq Sheikh OBE and Haroon Sheikh through the COSARAF Foundation, Amir Hashmi, Mian Amer Mahmood through the Dunya Foundation, Abdul Ghani Dadabhoy, Mohammad Khaishgi, Professor Sarwar Khawaja, Dr Tariq and Abida Zaman, Ahmed Owais Pirzada, Sheraz Mehmood, Areeb Azam, Omar Ghauri and Asad Ghauri.

Dr Adeel Malik commented: “With these new pledges, the OPP moves closer to its founding mission: to ensure that no Pakistani or British Pakistani student offered a place at Oxford is ever turned away due to financial barriers. The OPP is a pioneering access initiative creating pathways for talented Pakistani and British Pakistani students to pursue Oxford degrees, fostering future leaders committed to national progress. The OPP is led by myself, Dr Talha J Pirzada, Lecturer in Materials Science, Haroon Zaman, a corporate lawyer in London and business leader Minahil Saqib.”