ISLAMABAD (Kashmir English): Pakistani actor Hania Aamir and filmmaker Saman Kamran are among seven Pakistanis included in the Forbes Magazine’s ‘30 Under 30 Asia 2026’ list. They have been named in the prestigious Forbes list in different categories.
Published annually, the list recognises young professionals under the age of 30 who have made notable contributions in their fields.
Hania Aamir
Hania, who recently became Pakistan’s most-followed woman on Instagram with more than 20 million followers, has built a prominent television career over the past decade.
She made her debut in 2016 and rose to fame a year later for her performance in the romantic drama “Phir Wohi Mohabbat,” which earned her the Best Television Sensation Female award at the Hum Awards.
She was nominated for Best Actress at the Hum Awards in 2024 for her performance in the TV series “Sang-e-Mah.” She won the Global Star Award at last year’s Hum Awards. She’s set to star in “Jo Bachay Hain Sang Samait Lo,” set to be released later this year, which will be Netflix’s first Pakistani original series.
The actor also serves as the United Nations Women’s National Goodwill Ambassador for Pakistan.
Saman Kamran
Filmmaker Saman Kamran was also listed in Forbes Magazine’s ‘30 Under 30 Asia 2026’ list. Her work often explores social and environmental issues.
Saman Kamran’s “Gandhara: Land of Fragrance” was officially selected for inclusion in the Cortomontagna-Premio Leggimontagna 2022.
In 2024, she collaborated with New York-based artist Wong Kit Yi on the experimental film “The Bed She Made,” exploring fertility and ecological collapse in Asia. It was the only Pakistani project selected for the Busan International Short Film Festival.
In the same year, her stop-motion music video for Pakistani grunge band Skehlaaj’s “See Through the Sin” was named best music video at the Film Tuition International Festival.
Kamran, a graduate of the National College of Arts in Lahore, had previously worked as an assistant director on “Umro Ayyar,” one of Pakistan’s highest-grossing films.
Fahad Shehbaz
Fahad Shabaz, a graduate of the Master of Laws degree from the University of Law in London, founded the Youth General Assembly in 2015 at age 18 to create a pathway for young Pakistanis into leadership and policymaking.
The initiative runs an annual 96-member assembly that’s based on the U.K. parliament and mirrors Pakistan’s National Assembly, where young participants debate public policy and produce recommendations.
He is a 2023 recipient of the Diana Award and a member of the Pakistan Chapter of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community.
Muhammad Furqan Karim Kidwai and Sarfraz Shahid Hussain
Muhammad Furqan Karim Kidwai and Sarfraz Shahid Hussain cofounded Antler Singapore-backed Plouton AI, an agentic automation platform that helps midmarket companies automate finance workflows.
They were featured in the Finance and venture capital category.
Kidwai, who previously founded a fintech company in Pakistan, saw how finance teams in many emerging markets still rely on spreadsheets and emails.
Plouton’s platform uses auditable browser-based agents to finance workflows, such as invoicing, payroll processing, and month-end reconciliation, within existing tools like Xero, QuickBooks, and Excel, so companies don’t have to buy costly enterprise software.
Maheer Ghani
Maheer Ghani graduated from Cambridge University in 2025 with a Ph.D. in materials science. She is now doing postdoctoral research at Cambridge on ultra-thin semiconductors. Last year, WinSci Pakistan education project, which Ghani leads, won the Nature Inspiring Women in Science award.
Sharing her excitement, Maheer said that she is “overwhelmed with gratitude to represent her country on such a prestigious platform.”
Syed Ismail
A Karachi-based co-founder of Saraaf has made it to the list in the category of consumer enterprise and technology. He cofounded Saraaf in 2021 to digitize commodity sourcing and bring more transparency to it.
According to Forbes, his company is “launching a mobile app for businesses sourcing materials such as onyx and cotton from Central and South Asia, with real-time pricing, shipment tracking, digitised contracts and live chats.
In 2024, Saraaf secured a $5.3 million investment commitment from Shark Tank Pakistan, a business pitch reality show. and it is preparing to go public this year”.
Last year, Olympic gold medallist Arshad Nadeem was included in this list for his outstanding performance in sports, whereas Pakistan did not have any representatives in the list’s entertainment category.
Previous Pakistani honourees also include filmmaker Bushra Sultan in 2024, Rastah founder Zain Ahmad in 2022, artist Misha Japanwala in 2021, and singer Momina Mustehsan in 2018.
