The Founder

The moving spirit behind Karwan-i-Ilm Foundation and its Secretary-General, Dr Aijaz Hassan Qureshi,was born to a bourgeois yet devout Muslim family in the now Indian district of Karnal in 1928. The religious and scholastic ambience of his abode inculcated in him enormous love for knowledge and Islamic virtues.He did his F.Sc from Aligarh University and fervently participated in the 1946 elections as a young All India Muslim League enthusiast. He migrated along with his family to Pakistan in October 1947. After doing Ph.D in History from Germany, he was appointed Lecturer in University of the Punjab in March 1960.

The same year he launched Urdu Digest on the pattern of Readers Digest. After relinquishing his teaching job in 1966, he adopted journalism as full-fledged career. After Urdu Digest, he brought out weekly Zindagi and daily Jasarat.

Dr Qureshi has left huge positive impact on journalism, business and social service during his career spanning over 50 years. He has also dealt in promoting horticulture and introduced Pakistani varieties of vegetables and fruits, especially orange, in foreign markets. While touring Korea in 1979, he counseled his younger brother Altaf Hassan Qureshi to form Pakistan Institute of National Affairs (PINA) on the conception of a think tank.

Dr Aijaz Hassan Qureshi has informally been extending generous financial aid to talented students under the auspices of Urdu Digest since long. In 2002, he decided to materialize his idea of helping out destitute yet talented students in fastidious manner and it was on his initiative that notablesfrom differing walks of life came forward to form the Karwan-i-Ilm Foundation with an exclusive aim to facilitate deserving and brilliant students in pursuing their higher studies.

The 84-year-old has meticulously dedicated all his energies and endeavors to further and boost Karwan-i-Ilm Foundations contribution to the development of the country.