Usman Shaukat, president of the Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce, hosted a charity dinner at his residence to rally the Rawalpindi and Islamabad business community behind the Green Crescent Trust and its work to build quality schools in underserved areas. The evening brought together chamber leaders, business representatives and noted entrepreneurs to strengthen support for the trust’s education mission.
The event’s guest of honour, Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan, adviser to the Prime Minister on tourism, urged the private sector to play an active role in social change. He called on businesses to dedicate at least one percent of their profits to charitable efforts that aim to enrol more than 26 million out-of-school children across Pakistan. He also highlighted how corporate collaboration can enable Green Crescent Trust to double its charity schools in Sindh and expand operations beyond the province from 2026 onward.
Addressing attendees, Usman Shaukat praised the Green Crescent Trust’s ongoing work in deprived communities and reiterated the Rawalpindi Chamber’s commitment to support the trust’s mission as part of its corporate social responsibility efforts. Chamber figures present included former president and group leader Sohail Altaf, station commander Brigadier Ali Anjum Syed, SVP Khalid Farooq Qazi, VP Fahad Burlas, executive committee members, the Frontier Chamber president Junaid Altaf, and other prominent business leaders.
Zahid Saeed, CEO of Green Crescent Trust, noted that federal and provincial governments together allocate a record 3.2 trillion rupees for education and health—surpassing the defence budget—and stressed that transparent use of these funds can transform the nation. He thanked Islamabad’s business community for stepping forward to support school enrolment efforts in Sindh.
Over the past 31 years the Green Crescent Trust has played a significant role in education, running 173 charity schools that educate 34,660 students, more than 40 percent of whom are girls. The network provides special educational and welfare support to 2,150 orphans and is staffed by a teaching force of over 2,000 qualified educators. Attendees at the dinner underscored the importance of sustained private sector investment to scale these results nationwide.
The gathering reinforced a shared resolve among Rawalpindi business leaders and Green Crescent Trust to expand access to quality education in disadvantaged areas, with corporate social responsibility framed as a critical pathway for long-term change.
