ARFA Karim

In order to inculcate a spirit of competition in various activities, the students of Shaheen Public School & College were divided into 3 Houses, namely Jinnah, Iqbal and Sir Syed. This year a fourth House was added and was named after the World’s youngest Microsoft professional, Arfa Karim. Following is a short introduction to this brilliant Pakistani girl, who earned world fame at the young age of nine years.

Arfa Abdul Karim Randhawa‎‎, (2 February 1995 – 14 January 2012), who in 2004 at the age of nine became Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP), the youngest in the world, was invited by Bill Gates to visit the Microsoft Headquarters in the USA.

Arfa was born into a family from the village of Faisalabad. After having been recognised as the World’s Youngest Microsoft Professional, Arfa Abdul Karim was presented the Fatimah Jinnah Gold Medal in the field of Science and Technology on 2 August 2005. She also received the Salaam Pakistan Youth Award again in August 2005 from the President of Pakistan.  Arfa Abdul Karim is also the recipient of the President's Award for Pride of Performance, a civil award usually granted to people who have shown excellence in their respective fields over a long period of time. She is the youngest recipient of this award. Arfa was made brand ambassador for Pakistan Telecommunication Company's 3G Wireless Broadband service named EVO in January 2010. A science park in Lahore was named after her, the Arfa Software Technology Park.

In 2011, at the age of 16, Arfa Abdul Karim was studying at the Lahore Grammar School  in her second year of A-levels. On 22 December 2011 she suffered a cardiac arrest after an epileptic seizure that damaged her brain, was admitted to Lahore's Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in critical condition. She passed away on 14^th January, 2012.

As a humble tribute to this outstanding and brilliant daughter of Pakistan, we named our fourth house as ARFA KARIM HOUSE. May she rest in peace.