Who is Dr Zahir Ali Syed? The University director killed in Karachi
Karachi: The killing of a University director in Karachi has sparked outrage in Pakistan, with people demanding authorities take action against criminals in the port city.
According to police, 70-year-old Dr Zahir Ali Syed, the director of the Usman Institute of Technology (UIT) was shot dead by gunmen near Stadium Road on Friday.
The police said that Syed lost his life in what appeared to be a robbery attempt.
Sajid Amir Sadozai, East Zone SSP, said that professor Dr Zahir Ali Syed dropped his driver near Kahtoon-i-Pakistan Girls College and started driving his car.
The director of the UIT accelerated his car after he was intercepted by armed motorcyclist to loot him.
The gunmen opened fire at him before escaping, leaving the professor seriously wounded.
Dr Zahir was shifted to Agha Khan hospital where he died.
Killers arrested
SP Gulshan,Maroof Usman, on Saturday said the culprits involved in the killing of the professor have been arrested.
He said the suspects identified as Rustam, Ibraheem Bangali and Zakir were arrested with the help of CCTV cameras.
He said the suspects have confessed to killing Dr Zahid. The police officer said the robbers were drunk when they opened fire at his car. Zakir was identified as the man who rented his guns to Rustam and Ibraheem.
The police said that the suspect also committed a robbery after killing the professor.
Who is Dr Zahir Ali Syed?
He got a PhD degree from the University of Southern California/Stanford University and a MS degree from MIT, both in Electrical Engineering. Published a number of papers, obtained a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electronics from Karachi University. Was the top student of Karachi University for 1974 and was awarded the Dawood Gold medal and the Quaid-e-Azam Scholarship to do PhD. in USA.
He had over 30 years of professional experience in senior management positions in a number of sectors that included Education, IT, Social, Entrepreneurship and Innovation. He had experience of running and teaching in a Degree Awarding Institute, Development of Strategy, Plans and Policies; Drafting Legal Contracts; in Designing and Conducting Business Plan Competitions, Designing and Implementing IT Solutions, Process Improvement, Project Management, Quality Assurance and Software Development.
He was serving as Director Usman Institute of Technology (UIT), a premier higher education institute imparting Electrical Engineering and Computer Science education and Co-Chair of MIT Enterprise Forum Pakistan that is working to promote entrepreneurship in Pakistan
Previously, he was the CEO of Cambridge Advisors Network (CAN), an Entrepreneurship and Business Advisory firm, and Executive Director of The i-Care Foundation which is Pakistan’s first, donor advised philanthropic fund. He was Director of the Karachi Institute of Information Technology (KIIT) which was a degree awarding institute, he was also involved in various capacities at a number of leading Universities of Pakistan. Was Director of National ICT R&D Fund, established Avanza Solutions Pakistan and also helped establish the ABM Group of companies. Dr Zahir was a consultant at LSI Logic Corporation USA.