That was the case for Asim Fayaz. The Pakistani immigrant worked as a product manager at Bay Area companies Premise and Elementum, but, like many tech employees, he experienced layoffs and was forced more than once to scramble to find a new job to keep his visa. After getting laid off in December, however, he and his […]
Partners in a Toronto restaurant were forced to abandon their plans when the pandemic hit and now they’re struggling to stay afloat long enough to keep their dream alive. Before April, co-owners Asim Fayaz and Zubair Dar, were in the midst of purchasing and designing a restaurant in Kensington Market. As immigrants from Pakistan and Kashmir, Fayaz and Dar planned […]
This article is an abridged version of a longer historical case study produced by Innovations for Successful Societies, a research program at Princeton University. In early 2008, an irate government official walked into the office of Zubair Bhatti, the district coordination officer (DCO) of Jhang district, in Pakistan’s Punjab province. The official complained that, when he tried to […]
Asim Fayaz only wants to do things others haven’t done before. At the ripe old age of 22, Asim started consulting for the World Bank and played a key role to enable millions of Pakistani citizens to give feedback on the government’s service delivery on things like emergency medical services, property transfer and police related […]
Pakistan: “Diversity should not be an afterthought” The Bahawalpur Service Delivery project in Pakistan is interesting. Usually government accountability projects come from civil society: this has actually been led by a local government officer. The project, which is currently being trialled, aims to improve service delivery in under-resourced conflict areas. Essentially it is using mobile phones to […]
A government driven innovation in Pakistan has won the top prize at Making All Voices Count’s Global Innovation Competition. The Bahawalpur Service Delivery Unit (BSDU) emerged as the winner of competition, led by Imran Baloch, the District Coordination Officer (DCO) of Punjab’s Bahawalpur district, and Asim Fayaz. The project aims to improve service delivery in under-resourced, conflict areas […]
A government driven innovation in Pakistan, digital currency in South Africa and SMS reporting system for maternal health in Indonesia took the top three prizes at Making All Voices Count’s Global Innovation Competition. This competition, launched at the Open Government Partnership, scouted the world for fresh ideas to boost citizen engagement and government accountability. Government driven innovation Bahawalpur Service Delivery Unit (BSDU) emerged as the winner […]
Technology professor Khurram Siddiqi got fed up with getting lost in Lahore. So, as he tells Nicola Twilley, he and some friends started a signage project to fix things. “In Lahore, you don’t get lost: you start off lost,” says Khurram Siddiqi. “It’s a condition, not a situation.” Siddiqi, and his friends Asim Fayaz and Omer Sheikh, wrote a proposal to install and maintain […]
The police have identified 700 crime hot pockets in the provincial capital with the help of an ongoing crime mapping project and are considering putting spots under surveillance cameras. This was discussed at a meeting of divisional SPs at the Qilla Gujjar Singh Investigation Police Headquarters on Monday. The participants were given orientation about the […]
LIVE in a crowded South Asian city and a host of problems—smog, contagious disease, corruption—may plague you. Each winter, the air grows foul. The monsoon season brings mosquitoes, bloodsuckers capable of carrying nasties such as dengue and malaria. As cities expand and people are packed closer, they are more likely to pass on infections. Overwhelmed […]