Forbes, a global media company focusing on business, investment, technology, entrepreneurship, leadership, and lifestyle, has recently released its annual list of ‘30 Under 30’ in Asia, which is focused on game changers under 30 years of age. But what’s special about the list is that it includes the names of nine Pakistanis who have outshone with their work and capabilities and made it to one of the most coveted nods of the year. In the third installment of Forbes’ list, more than 300 young disrupters and innovators from 24 countries have been acknowledged in 10 categories. The 2018 edition’s finalists were selected among thousands of online nominations. Meet the nine talented, young Pakistanis who have made the nation proud with their impressive achievements.

Momina Mustehsan

According to Forbes, the singer is championing women’s rights in Pakistan and has used her fame and social media influence to speak openly about issues like depression and cyber bullying. The singer shot to overnight fame through music platform Coke Studio for singing the rendition of Afreen Afreen alongside celebrated vocalist Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. The 25-year-old is indeed an opinionated celebrity in terms of addressing social issues. The songster has also been featured on BBC’s list of 100 inspirational women of 2017.

Adnan and Adeel Shaffi

Two brothers, Adeel Shaffi and Adnan Shaffi, founded their website, PriceOye – a price comparison platform for electronics in second and third-tier cities in Pakistan – in 2015. The platform utilises data analytics to offer marketing information to retailers and also find the best deals for consumers. Most e-commerce websites in Pakistan focus their attention towards first-tier cities like Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore, a lot of them have forgotten the importance of low-tiered cities, which leads to a 20 per cent increase in the prices for areas. This innovative technological website by the two brothers has had at least 805,000 visits in the past two months.

Muhammad Asad Raza and Abrahim Ali Shah

One hardly ever sees the efforts of those in healthcare to be given enough limelight in the media. But that certainly does not mean that Pakistan lacks genius minds in the field. Abrahim Shah and Muhammad Asad Raza, came together to launch Neurostic – a healthcare startup that aims to provide low cost and high quality wearable and implantable medical devices for the developing world. Keeping in mind that Pakistan is listed as one of the 57 countries with a critical health workforce deficiency (as per the report published by WHO in 2006), Neurostic addresses healthcare issues such as clinical decision support, fitness and healthcare monitoring, and data analytics for healthcare applications.

Syed Faizan Hussain

Tackling one of the most challenging issues in Pakistan, Syed Faizan Hussain is the founder of Perihelion Systems. This 23-year-old social entrepreneur launched his start-up to endorse products that utilise technology to improve the lives of people. Some of the company’s products comprise of One Health – a disease surveillance and tracking system used to predict outbreaks and alert health institutions to expedite intervention; Glove Gauge – wearable technology to facilitate professional production processes such as measurements, and Edu-Aid – a sign language translating software.

Sadia Bashir

Women’s education in our country is still, unfortunately, not a priority. To tackle the situation, the co-founder of Pixel Art Games Academy, Sadia Bashir, 29, decided to help Pakistani women break into the male-dominated industry of video games production, and has proudly secured a spot on this coveted list following her endeavours. Her company’s aim is to bridge the gap between industry demand and education, by providing training in game design and production, game programming, digital art and animation. Through this programme she tries to address the large gender gap in the game industry, ensures a minimum 33 per cent ratio of women in the gaming world and hopes to inspire and dream bigger.

Muhammad Shaheer Niazi

At only 17 years of age, this young genius Muhammad Shaheer Niazi is a full-fledged scientist whose work has appeared in one of the most prestigious science journals in the world, Royal Society Open Science. This gifted scientist was the first-ever person to photograph the movement of ions, capturing the charged ions that create the honeycomb. And while that might sound mysterious, it actually has implications for research in fields like biomedicine.

Hamza Farrukh

Can you imagine walking long hours, simply to fetch usable water? For those living in village areas, this is a daily chore and an exhausting one, indeed. To help supply clean water to deprived villagers in Pakistan, Hamza Farrukh, a 24-year-old graduate of Williams College and the University of Oxford, founded Bondh E Shams and invented a solar water project to deal with the issue of water scarcity in the most remote areas of the country. Through his efforts, Bondh E Shams has set up two solar-powered wells – the first ever of its kind – to supply clean water to 1,500 residents of a small village in Pakistan. A single pump can supply clean water to at least 5,000 people daily. Farrukh has also worked as portfolio solutions strategist with Goldman Sachs in London.