Claim to fame: The first Pakistani female to receive the Order of the British Empire
Ameena Saiyid is definitely a trailblazer. When she became the Managing Director of Oxford University Press, she was the first woman in the country to become the head of a multinational and under her command it has become a leading name in publishing in the country. And now Ameena has become the first Pakistani woman to be awarded the Order of the British Empire, for 2005, for her services to Anglo-Pakistan relations, women’s rights, education and intellectual property rights in Pakistan.
The British High Commissioner to Pakistan, Mark Lyall Grant, conferred upon her the OBE at a ceremony held at his residence on April 29. Other Pakistanis awarded the OBE are Syed Babur Ali, Munawwar Hamid and F.S. Aijazuddin, all in 1997.
The OBE was created during the First World War in 1917 by George V, in recognition of the large number of people in the British Isles and other parts of the Empire who helped in the war effort, both as combatants and as civilians. From 1918 onwards, the Order was used to reward services to the Sate to acknowledge distinguished service to the arts and sciences, public services, and work with charitable and welfare organizations of all kinds. Valuable service is the only criterion for the award, and citizens from other countries also receive an honorary award.
Notable foreign members of the Order include Pele, Bob Geldof, Bill Gates, Rudy Giuliani, Alan Greenspan, Steven Spielberg and Wesley Clark (all Knights Commander).
Ms Saiyid’s links with OUP date back to 1979, and till 1986 she worked there in various capacities, based in Lahore with responsibilities for the Punjab and NWFP regions and later on in Karachi. Ameena then left the organization to set up her own publishing house under the name of Saiyid Books and turned it into a successful business. In 1988 she was offered a chance to head OUP Pakistan and, as it was too tempting an offer to turn down, she became the first female in Pakistan to head a multinational. However, at the time, OUP was a small, little known organization with operations limited to only Karachi and Lahore, with a very limited publishing programme.
Ameena set about scouting for Pakistani and Western academics and scholars of Pakistan Studies and commissioned them to write books on all aspects of Pakistan. She then turned her attention towards developing Pakistan-originated high-quality but low-priced textbooks based on the Pakistani context and reflecting the local environment, yet benchmarked against the high quality of writing, design and illustration of books produced in the developed world. She rapidly built OUP Pakistan’s publishing programme and expanded its operations from Karachi and Lahore to the rest of the country by opening offices in Islamabad, Peshawar, Multan and Faisalabad. She also established a network of nine bookshops in Pakistan, which are now running successfully as profit centres.
In addition to her dynamic leadership qualities, Ameena’s success story is also the result of her own strong and international academic exposure. She received her early education in the US where her father was based as a diplomat, followed by the Karachi Grammar School and the Karachi University. She received training in Advanced Management from Templeton College, Oxford University and taught at the Lahore American School before joining OUP, Pakistan.
The OBE is a well-deserved honour for Ameena and she has the best wishes of a proud nation with her. — Ambreen Arshad
Name: Ameena Saiyid
