ARFA KARIM
The World's Youngest MCP Passes away in Lahore Hospital

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Arfa Karim, the world’s youngest Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP), lost the battle of life after remaining admitted at Combined Military Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan on Jan. 14. She was only 16.

Arfa Karim remained in intensive care at Combined Military Hospital after suffering an epileptic seizure and cardiac arrest a few weeks ago. After battling for life for 26 days, one of Pakistan’s brightest brains left this world for good.

Born in 1995, Arfa Karim got the honour of World’s Youngest Microsoft Certified Professional when she was only 9 years old in 2004. Bill Gates, the Chairman of Microsoft, invited Arfa to visit the Microsoft Headquarters in the USA in the age of 10 only.

Later, in August 2005, Arfa was also honoured by the Government of Pakistan for the Fatima Jinnah Gold Medal in the field of Science and Technology which she received from then Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. She was also honoured with Salaam Pakistan Youth Award in 2005 which has been set up by Pakistan’s only Nobel laureate Dr Abdul Salam. Moreover, Arfa has won the Presidential Award for Pride of Performance.

Arfa represented her country on a variety of international fora. She was also included as the honourable guest by IT Professionals of Dubai for two weeks stay in Dubai. During that trip, Arfa was awarded with a number of medals and awards from various tech societies and computer companies working in Dubai. Amazingly, she was certified for flying a plane at a flying club in Dubai at the age of 10.

Arfa also participated in Microsoft keynote session in the Tech-Ed Developers Conference held in Barcelona, in 2006. The theme of the conference was “Get ahead of the game” and Arfa was in fact a great example of being ahead of the game.

Her funeral prayer was offered at 10 AM in Cantt area on Jan. 15.