Dr. Riaz Ahmed and Dr. Ashraf Toor Elected PADF Officers
By Hazem Kira

Chicago, Illinois: The Pakistan American Democratic Forum (PADF) has elected a new board with known community leader Dr. Riaz Ahmed as Chair, noted cardiologist Dr. Muhammad Ashraf Toor as President, and highly acclaimed economist Prof. Syed Bashir Hussain as Secretary-General. Mr. Saleem Akhtar was appointed as the Acting Executive Director.
The incoming officers have been given a broad mandate to expand the board, organize several new committees and commission, implement PADF action plan, set up a new PADF office in Chicago, and coordinate various PADF projects.
PADF has also organized a new editorial board for its incipient online “International Journal of Pakistan Studies”. The editorial board includes Prof. Syed Bashir Hussain, Prof. Fawzia Afzal Khan, Prof. Farhat Haq, Prof. Mohsin Haq, Prof. S. M. Ghaznafar, Prof. Lisette Poole and Prof. Agha Saeed. Several other academics have been approached to join to the editorial board in the next few months.
PADF plans to launch its weekly TV program “Voice of Pakistani-Americans” by March of next year. This program will be aired on a number of channels in Pakistan and the United States including “ Ravi ” on the East coast and Comcast on the West coast.
The newly elected PADF Board has reaffirmed its commitment to help expand and strengthen Pakistani-American National Alliance (PANA), a US-wide alliance of several pro-democracy organizations.

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