Suniya Qureshi

A career civil servant, and keen media professional having worked in Asian Publishing, Radio and Television; has now begun a creative journey in writing. Her first play 'Chai aur Rishtas' was a hit with the Asian community and had sold out performances at the Steiner House Theatre in the West Endin June 2010.

She was inspired by friends to embark on a theatrical production, having no prior experience, wrote, directed and produced her debut play. The material for 'Chai aur Rishtas' was taken from her novel 'Degrees of Madness' as yet unpublished and she then produced her second play, 'Project Runway', launched in September 2010. From her owns words...'writing is not an art form it is everyone we know and everything about who we are.

Suniya subsequently went on to write and produce 'Post Card from Jinnah' and 'Call me Kafir' (co written with Zachary Latif) Her current play 'Meri Neighbour', was produced in the Spring of 2012, with three more concept stories in the pipeline. Suniya has worked avidly for a range of UK based Pakistani charities inlcuding Learning for Life, SOS Children's Villages and DIL UK. This passion has inspired her to work for the Pakistani community alongside her day job for over a decade.

She was recruited by the British Pakistan Foundation in June 2011, to spearhead their platform and create an effective institution, building strategic partnerships, effective social development investment and branding Pakistan in a positive and vibrant manner. The end game for our success would be that BPF respresents all charitable concerns within the UK who wish to invest in philanthropy in Pakistan. Through collaboration Suniya aims to create a hub of development innovation for health, education and wealth creation.

"In this tough market we have a huge challenge ahead of us to ensure investment into Pakistan continues and we harness the social, intellectual and fiancial capital of our UK Pakistani Diaspora in a more powerful way....