Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shahid Soroya (President)
Dean, Blackstone School of Law & Business, Pakistan
Email: Shahidsoroya@gmail.com
Dr. Muhammad Shahid Soroya is dean at Blackstone School of Law & Business, Lahore, Pakistan. Dr. Soroya has worked as Director General (DG), Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) and provided leadership to various divisions of HEC including Academics & Research, Special initiatives, and Accreditation & Quality Assurance.
Most recently Dr. Soroya has served as Vice Chancellor, Lahore Leads University and previously worked as Pro Vice-Chancellor of Minhaj University, Lahore (MUL). In his roles he was charged with providing research and academic oversight and direction to the universities while overseeing their substantial enrolment and diversification, as well as expanded experiential and community-based learning. He also led a number of significant university initiatives in the areas of research, academic planning, institutional change management, alignment of academic priorities and resources, strategic enrolment, drafting strategic mandate agreements and institutional integrated resources plan. He is also an internationally recognized and distinguished research scholar. His research primarily focuses on academic integrity, library anxiety and information needs & seeking behavior.
Dr. Muhammad Asif Munir
(Director, International Liaison Division)
Director, Punjab Higher Education Commission, Pakistan
Email: asif.munir@phec.edu.pk
Dr. Muhammad Asif Munir completed his Ph.D. in Media & Communication and had an M.Phil in South Asian Studies from University of the Punjab, Lahore. He has more than 20 years working experience with various national and international organizations. Dr. Asif is currently working as Director Training at Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC). He has recently been entrusted with the Director Quality Assurance and Academics. Previously, he held office of Director of Information Management & System Development at Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC), Lahore. He has served University of Health Sciences (UHS), Lahore, Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) as Deputy Manager – Reference & Research Services, King Fahad University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) Saudi Arabia as Information Literacy Specialist, University of Central Punjab as Director Libraries, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) as Manager – Library & Information Network, and Sukkur Institute of Business Administration.
He has conducted several trainings on variety of topics and many publications are on his credit. His research interests include social media and its impact on academics, citation management tools, data computer assisted data collection tools, information literacy, plagiarism, academic honesty, research ethics, and internet searching.
Dr. Saira Hanif Soroya (Director, Research Division)
Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky, USA
Email: sairasroya@gmail.com
Dr. Saira Soroya is serving as Assistant Professor at the College of Health Sciences, University of Kentucky, USA. Saira is internationally renowned researcher, and she has published more than 50 research papers in well reputed International Journals (Journal of Information Science, Library Hi Tech, Libri, ASLIB Journal of Information Management, Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services, The Electronic Library, The Journal of Academic Librarianship). Her two publications received best paper awards.
Dr. Saira is serving as co-chair SIG USE awards, ASIS&T and has worked as SIG-III officer & Infoshare Chair from 2017 to 2021 at Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T). Saira is the first female brand ambassador from Pakistan for “Emerald Publishing”. She is also a well-known professional trainer.
Zaheer Ahmad (Director, Training & Workshop Division)
Chief Library Officer, UMT, Pakistan
Email: zaheerahmad57@gmail.com
Zaheer Ahmad is a committed and active young professional currently working as Chief Library Officer/Head Learning Resource Center (LRC) in University of Management and Technology (UMT), Lahore. He is a PhD Scholar of Information Management at the University of the Punjab, Lahore.
Previously, He worked with Minhaj University Lahore as Director Libraries. He served Planning & Development Department (P&D), Govt. of the Punjab, Lahore Pakistan as E- Library Expert and Head Research Support Services Department. He also served Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency-PILDAT as Manager, Library and Information Resource Center. He also worked with Pakistan Engineering Congress (PEC), Lahore in the capacity of Manager Library.
He served in professional associations like Pakistan Library Association and Pakistan Librarians Welfare Organization PLWO-Federal Branch. He also served as deputy editor in “The Librarian: A Quarterly Newsletter” (Newsletter of Pakistan Librarians Welfare Organization PLWO). He is a certified trainer of citation management (Mendeley software) and other professional software like KOHA, DSpace etc. He has more than 10 research publications in national and international journals. He initiated the Robotic library project at Minaj University (The first kind of project in Pakistan).
