Masuma Hasan

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Masuma Hasan is a scholar, former diplomat and top-level civil servant, on the international stage and in Pakistan. Her family goes back to the Muslim aristocracy in India in the 13th century but like many members of leading Muslim families, they went to Pakistan at Partition. She was the first Pakistani woman to obtain a PhD at Cambridge in Economics and Politics. Masuma Hasan’ s husband, Fatehyab Ali Khan, played a leading role in the politics of Pakistan and as a woman in a patriarchal society, she rose to top positions in governance and international diplomacy. At the peak of her career, she became Pakistan’ s Permanent Representative at the United Nations in Vienna, representing her country at all international agencies, including the International Atomic Energy Agency. She was elected Chair of the Group of 77 and China at the UN in Vienna, was Ambassador to Austria, Slovenia and Slovakia, and ultimately the Cabinet Secretary of Pakistan. She is Chairperson of The Pakistan Institute of International Affairs, her country’ s oldest think tank, and President of Aurat Foundation, a leading women’ s empowerment organization.