A proud moment for our country as seven Pakistanis have made it to the prestigious Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2026 list.
Here is the list of this year’s honorees:
Hania Aamir
Hania has ranked third in the entertainment and sports category among other influential Asian stars.
“Actress Hania Aamir is the most followed Pakistani woman on Instagram with around 20 million followers. She made her debut in 2016 and rose to fame a year later for her performance in the romantic drama “Phir Wohi Mohabbat,” which earned her the Best Television Sensation Female award at the Hum Awards–Pakistan’s most-watched TV awards”, wrote Forbes.
In her introduction, her upcoming project “Jo Bachay Hain Sang Samait Lo” is also mentioned.
“She’s set to star in Jo Bachay Hain Sang Samait Lo, set to be released later this year, which will be Netflix’s first Pakistani original series”, Forbes added.
Syed Ismail
A Karachi-based co-founder of Saraaf has made it to the list in the category of consumer enterprise and technology.
According to Forbes, his company is “launching a mobile app for businesses sourcing materials such as onyx and cotton from Central and South Asia, with real-time pricing, shipment tracking, digitised contracts and live chats. In 2024, Saraaf secured a $5.3 million investment commitment from Shark Tank Pakistan, a business pitch reality show. and it is preparing to go public this year”.
Maheer Ghani
Maheer Ghani graduated from Cambridge University in 2025 with a Ph.D. in materials science. She is now doing postdoctoral research at Cambridge on ultra-thin semiconductors. Last year, WinSci Pakistan education project, which Ghani leads, won the Nature Inspiring Women in Science award.
Sharing her excitement, Maheer said that she is “overwhelmed with gratitude to represent her country on such a prestigious platform.”
Fahad Shahbaz
Founder and President of the Youth General Assembly, Fahad Shahbaz, was featured in Forbes for his work in empowering young people.
He founded the Youth General Assembly in 2015 at the age of 18.
“The initiative runs an annual 96-member assembly that’s based on the U.K. parliament and mirrors Pakistan’s National Assembly, where young participants debate public policy and produce recommendations”, says Forbes.
Fahad is a recipient of the 2023 Diana Award and a member of the Pakistan chapter of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community. He holds a Master of Laws degree from the University of Law in London.
Saman Kamran
Saman has gained global recognition for her movies: Gandhara: Land of Fragrance, The Bed She Made and Umro Ayyar.
“Saman Kamran is a Pakistani filmmaker whose “Gandhara: Land of Fragrance” was officially selected for inclusion in the Cortomontagna-Premio Leggimontagna 2022. In 2024, she collaborated with New York-based artist Wong Kit Yi on the experimental film “The Bed She Made,” exploring fertility and ecological collapse in Asia”, wrote Forbes in her introduction.
Muhammad Furqan Karim Kidwai and Sarfraz Shahid Hussain
These two Habib University alumni from Karachi were featured in the category of Finance and venture capital. They co-founded Antler Singapore-backed Plouton AI.
Kidwai, who previously founded a fintech company in Pakistan, saw how finance teams in many emerging markets still rely on spreadsheets and emails. Plouton’s platform uses auditable browser-based agents to run finance workflows, such as invoicing, payroll processing and month-end reconciliation, within existing tools like Xero, QuickBooks and Excel, so companies don’t have to buy costly enterprise software.
