Zouhair A Khaliq

Zouhair A. Khaliq is currently working as President and CEO of Pakistan Mobile Communications (Pvt.) Ltd. since June 2003. He qualified as a chartered accountant from the UK in 1984. He has 22 years of top management experience. He pioneered the invention of Mobilink as Motorola's first employee in the company which was founded by them. It is known that the company's name, and first logo, were a result of brainstorming done, by him, the then President and CEO of the company. In 1997, Motorola requested that he be posted to London, as a member of the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia operations team. He rose in the ranks quickly. In 2001 he left Motorola when the entire industry was in decline due to the problems caused by 3G, however, befor leaving, he oversaw the sell outs of Motorola's network operations in Pakistan, Jordan, Egypt and many other countries, to Orascom Telecom. He joined a software development company called WCities as their Chief Operations Officer, but left in 2002 when he was offered the position of CFO at the Egyptian giant, Orascom Telecom. After joining Orascom Telecom, circumstances manouvred so that ironically, he was to return to Pakistan as the President and CEO of the company from which he had found his opportunities in Motorola. Mobilink is a joint venture between Orascom Telecom, and Saif Group of Companies. Since his return, Mobilink has seen massive growth and has established it's position as a market leader in Pakistan. It has been compared to the likes of China Telecom, and Airtel, in the speed of its growth and value. It is a company that has contributed hugely to the success story of Pakistan.

One little known fact is that the line, 'hum bolein mohabbat ki zuban'(we speak the language of love) the hugely popular song and advertisement by Mobilink within Pakistan and on many international channels as a tourism advertisement, was originally thought up by him, and provided to the singer of the song as a guideline for the rest of the lyrics. He also contributed largely to the invention of the new logo (as of 2004), and mottos for Mobilink, along with the post-paid brand, Indigo, which is the most widely liked and used corporate brand in Pakistan.

References

*Money Magazine
* [http://www.bluechipmag.com/pi/1004/pf03.html Blue Chip Mag]
* [http://mobilinkgsm.com Mobilink]