About Us
CHAIRMAN AND FOUNDER O.M. Center For Policy Studies
Raja Ghulam Mujtaba is the chairman and founder of O.M. Center for Policy Studies, a virtual Think Tank. O.M. Center for Policy 
Studies (OMCPS) publishes Opinion Maker, an online publication. It is also intended to bring out its hard copy sometimes soon.
After graduating from the college, he joined Pakistan Army and was commissioned in a Tank Regiment. he is a veteran of Indo-Pakistan war. After leaving the Army, he joined IT as a profession. He was hired by Kuwait Air Force And Air Defence as an Adviser to computerise it's entire operation. Here he was the Chief Coordinator of the Project, Kuwait Automated Support System (KASS). It was a state of the art leading edge technology where we established over 500 online terminals network with dedicated voice and data communications. It had the Satellite linkups to connect with other systems and track the inventory movement for KAF & AD. On this project, he was coordinating with US Navy, IBM World, AT&T and Martin Marietta for development, deployment and operation of the KASS. Writing has always been a passion with me, been writing for 25 years for various newspapers and periodicals. In May 2007, he established a virtual Think Tank, Opinion Maker that has some renowned writers from Pakistan and abroad who contribute regularly that's helping the world opinion in some way. Raja Mujtaba is a keen golfer and a photographer.
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BOARD OF ADVISORS:
Dr Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema
Dr. Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema was born at Sialkot and was initially educated at Sialkot, later on he moved to Government College, 
Lahore where he completed his Master's in History. He also did Master's in Political Science from Punjab University, Certificate in Peace Research and International Relations from Oslo University (Norway), Diploma in International Relations from Vienna University (Austria), M. Litt. in Strategic Studies from Aberdeen University (U.K.) and Ph.D. from Quaid-i-Azam University (Pakistan).
Dr. Cheema has been a teacher for almost 28 years both inside the country (Pakistan) as well as abroad. Inside Pakistan he has taught at Government College (Lahore), Pakistan Administrative Staff College (Lahore) and Quaid-i-AzamUniversity, (Islamabad). Abroad he has worked in various capacities like Research Fellow, Senior Fulbright Scholar, Visiting Scholar etc. for AustralianNational University (Australia), Schoolof Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University (USA), Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, (Singapore), and ACDIS, University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign (USA).
As a Visiting Lecturer, he has also delivered and still continues to deliver lectures at many professional and training institutions including National Defence College (Now National Defence University (Islamabad), Command and Staff College (Quetta), Joint Staff College (Rawalpindi), Foreign Service Training Institute (Islamabad), Information Services Academy (Islamabad), Allama Iqbal Open University (Islamabad), Pakistan Administrative Staff College (Renamed as National School of Public Policy, Lahore), Intelligence Bureau Academy etc.
Till July 1995 Dr. Cheema was working as a Professor of International Relations, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan and in July 1995 he started working for the Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan in the capacity of a Director General, Academy of Educational Planning and Management. From November 1996 to September 2000 Dr.Cheema worked as a Professorial Iqbal Fellow at South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University, Germany. During his 19 years stay at Quaid-i-Azam University; Dr. Cheema served as the Chairman of International Relation's Department as well as Defence and Strategic Studies Department for more than 14 years. From Oct.2000, Dr. Cheema worked for Islamabad Policy Research Institute as its President. Since Feb. 2009 Dr. Cheema has been working in the National Defense University as a Dean, Faculty of Contemporary Studies, Islamabad.
Dr. Cheema is also a scholar of international repute. His articles have regularly appeared both in National as well as International Academic Journals, Popular Magazines and daily Newspapers. He has published more than 120 research articles and over 600 other general articles/columns etc. In addition, Dr. Cheema has authored many books and monographs including the following. He has to his credit over a dozen books that he has authored and over 600 articles published in national and international papers and magazines.
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Mr Tarik Jan
Tarik Jan is a Senior Fellow and Director Media and Culture at the Institute of Policy Studies.
He has authored and edited a number of books, including The Life and Times of Muhammad Rasul Allah – Universalizing the Abrahamic Tradition; The Secular Threat to Pakistan’s Security, Pakistan Between Secularism and Islam – Ideology, Issues, and Conflict; Islam and the Secular Mind.
His forthcoming books are Engaging Secularism; Muhammad Rasul Allah – Toward the Universal Islamic State;
Pakistani ma’sharay kay liyay la-din fikr kay mazamaraat (Urdu).
Besides writing for the Opinion Maker, he writes for English daily the Nation and Nawa-i waqt.
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Dr Tahir Amin, a distinguished scholar obtained his PhD (Political Science) from Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, USA in Politics of South Asia and Theories of International Relations. Prior to that he did his MA (International Relations) from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada and M. Sc. (International Relations) Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Presently he is Professor Department of International Relations, at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Here at Quaid-i-Azam University, he has supervised one PhD and twenty six M. Phil thesis.
Dr Tahir has authored several books and numerous articles on various subjects.
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Brig Asif Haroon Raja
Brig Asif Haroon Raja, a Member Board of Advisors O.M. Center For Policy Studies is Staff College and Armed Forces War
Coursequalified, holds MSc war studies degree; a second generation officer, he fought epic battle of Hilli in northwest East Bengal during 1971 war, in which Maj M. Akram received Nishan-e-Haider posthumously. He served as Directing Staff Command & Staff College, Defence Attaché Egypt and Sudan and Dean of Corps of Military Attaches in Cairo. He commanded the heaviest brigade in Kashmir. He is lingual and speaks English, Pashto and Punjabi fluently. He is author of books titled ‘Battle of Hilli’, ‘1948, 1965 & 1971 Kashmir Battles and Freedom Struggle’, ‘Muhammad bin Qasim to Gen Musharraf’, Roots of 1971 Tragedy’; has written number of motivational pamphlets. Draft of his next book ‘Tangled Knot of Kashmir’ is ready. He is a defence analyst and columnist and writes articles on security, defence and political matters for numerous international/national newspapers/websites. He is a regular contributor to Opinion Maker.
Maj Gen Parvez Akmal (Retd)
After graduating from college, he joined Pakistan Military Academy and was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers in April, 1970. Immediately he was posted to erstwhile East Pakistan where he participated in 1971 war from where he was taken prisoner of war (PoW 1972-1974).
General Akmal graduated from Military College of Engineering, Risalpur as a Civil Engineer. He also graduated from Command & Staff College (C& SC) Quetta, and NDU, Islamabad, both prestigious institutions of Pakistan that have international recognition.
General Akmal also served on the faculty of C & SC as Directing Staff and Senior Instructor (1988-1992) and served as Deputy Director Military Intelligence (1993-1994) followed by Commander Corps of Engineers (1994-1996).
Has also been Commandant, Military College of Engineering & National Institute of Transportation (1997-1999).
General Akmal was deputed as Managing Director, Oil & Gas Development Company OGDCL (2000-2003) where his performance had been outstanding with high standards of efficiency. He was also elected as Chairman of Human Resource Committee, Pakistan Petroleum Exploration
Companies Association (PPECA) (2000-2003) and Chairman of Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) (2001-2002).
After retiring from the Army in June, 2005 he edited two volumes of the History of Karakuram Highway; highway that links China with Pakistan. This highway is also known as the 8th wonder of the world.
After retirement, General has also been doing columns for News Papers on Petroleum Policies, Privatization, Corruption etc. Presently he is writing the History of Corps of Engineers and developing institutional model for Thar Coal.
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Dr S. M. Rahman
Dr S. M. Rahman is Secretary General FRIENDS founded by General Mirza Aslam Beg, the former Chief of Army Staff,
Pakistan. He is widely acclaimed for his intellectual and scholastic contributions through various mediums. He is widely travelled and has lectured in many renowned universities of the world and Think Tanks. He is also the Member Board of Advisors and represents FRIENDS at O.M. Center For Policy Studies.
He has authored several books in global and regional issues. Now he is a regular contributor to Opinion Maker.
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Engineer Mansoor Malik
Mansoor Malik, is Member Board of Advisors, O.M. Center For Policy Studies. In brief, he has been Director General with over 33 year
of experience in planning, establishing and managing national level, strategic, high-tech organizations. Director General, Marketing & Industrial Relations Organization (MIRO). Commandant, College of Aeronautical Engineering, Risalpur.
Senior Engineering Manager, PAF Project where he was responsible for the smooth induction of F-16 Aircraft Weapons System in the PAF and making them fully operational.
His experience is very versatile in different fields of technology and education. He is consultant to number of organizations and the Universities of Pakistan.
Colonel Bakhtiar Hakeem is Secretary General Thinkers Forum. He has vast teaching experience in various subjects be it of military or of modern sciences. For his professional excellence he was awarded Sitara-i-Imtiaz..
Col Bakhtiar firmly believes that one is only as good; as benevolent one may be to the rest the universe, systems, people and self; in that order.
1. Teaching & Related Experience. Started teaching at G C Lahore in 1969, while still a student of M.Sc. Zoology. And through instructor class C, B and A at various institutions of Army it continues till this day. I am now teaching at Hitech University Taxilla. He has been a guest speaker and a trainer at APGMI, Preston University, Hyderabad & Islamabad, FFIMCS/ Foundation University, National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad. (APCOMS) School of Armour, School of Artillery, College of Signals, NIBAF, COMSATS Askari Bank Training Academy and NIM Quetta.
2. Authorship. It includes a General Service Publication (Classified), an M.Sc. Thesis, an Urdu book Islam Quran aur Ham, (Islam Quran and Us) and co-authored The Challenge of Reality. I have contribution for Zamzama, a professional magazine of Pakistan Artillery, for Citadel, a yearly magazine of Pakistan Staff College.
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Air Commodore Khalid Iqbal
Air Cdre Khalid is Masters in Political Science along with War and Strategic Studies. He has also done Air WarCourse, Fellow of Air 
War College. Instructor’s Course. Senior Command & Staff course. Combat Commander’s Course. He has been a Directing Staff at various institutions of Pakistan Air Force. Presently he is a visiting faculty at:
- PAF air War College (Staff Wing &War Wing).
- School of Army Air Defence.
- Naval War College, Lahore.
- Quaid-i- Azam University (DSS Department).
- He is a regular contibutor to Opinion Maker and Member Board Of Advisors O.M. Center For Policy Studies.
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Mr. Ahmed Quraishi is a senior research fellow at the Islamabad-based Project For Pakistan In 21st Century. He has extensive experience as a journalist covering Middle hot spots during the 1990s. He has extensively covered American military deployments in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf after 1990. He was accredited by Kuwaiti and American militaries to enter southern Iraq in March 2003 where he spent six months reporting for several Arab and Pakistani news outlets. In May 2009, Mr. Quraishi was invited as a panelist and guest speaker at the Eurasia Media Forum in Kazakhstan. He has participated in closed-door security exchange sessions in 2001 hosted in the Gulf involving Gulf Arab and American experts on Iraq, and joined Pak-American and Sino-Pakistani expert exchanges at Pakistani and Chinese national defense universities in Islamabad and Beijing.
Mr. Quraishi reported for Aljazeera's Arabic-language channel during the Fall 2001 war in Afghanistan. He is the only Pakistani journalist so far to have done on-camera work in Arabic for Aljazeera. Has covered Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the Gulf, and Iraq. He has closely covered the U.S. military expansion in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in the 1990s, the post-Cold war subtle and tectonic shift of power in the region, and has interviewed all the principals in the Iraq story between 1991 and 2003. Recently, Mr. Quraishi has been commissioned for public policy outreach projects as a consultant, serving mostly government clients in the larger Middle East region, including Pakistan. In 2008, he wrote a chapter in the book, The India Doctrine: 1947-2007.
He frequently appears on international television news broadcasts and has been invited to lecture at Pakistani and foreign universities, academies and NGOs on topics focused on the West-South-Central Asian region.
Ahmed Quraishi has joined to be on the panel of Advisors O.M. Center For Policy Studies.
Mr. Quraishi was born, raised and educated in Kuwait City (1972). He is married to Aysha Mughal, an educationist, and they live in Islamabad with their son Alwaleed and daughter Natalia.
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Waheed Hamid
Waheed Hamid has done his masters in International Relations, his area of focus is on South Asia, Central Asia and the Muslim World in general. He is a keen follower of war on terror and has written extensively on this. Hamid did his post graduate diplomas from Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Lahore. Now he has been writing for past 10 years or so and is a regular contributor to Opinion Maker.
He has a vast experience of interaction with all the mediums of media and Think Tanks within Pakistan. he has attended seminars both within Pakistan and abroad. He has been writing and presenting his papers in different forums.
Legal Consultant:
Ghazala Awan
By Profession, Ghazala Awan is a practicing advocate of the High Court and Legal Consultant. She has over 13 years of legal practice. She is PGD in Human Right (UK), LL.B (Pakistan) and B.A (Pakistan). She is member of International Bar Association (London), Human Right Lawyers Association (London), Sindh Bar Association (Pakistan) and Karachi Bar Association (Pakistan).
She is also Legal Consultant to O.M. Center For Policy Studies.
Ghazala is also member of St. John’s Ambulance, Executive member (ex) International Human Right Watch and Volunteer to Safer London Foundation (London). She has also been appointed Ambassador for World Alliance For Peace for Pakistan.
Through her writings, she displays a level of intellect and writes on various issues and current affairs for Opinion Maker.
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