World Youngest Microsoft Professional Arfa Karim Randhawa Passed away
in Lahore. She got Microsoft Certificate at the age of 9 years.
Arfa Karim Randhawa
(born 1995), in Jatt Randhawa family is a student from Faisalabad in
Pakistan, who in 2004 at the age of 9 years, became the youngest
Microsoft Certified Professionals (MCPs) in the world, a title she kept
until 2008. She was invited by Bill Gates to visit the Microsoft
Headquarters in USA. The vice president of the Software Development
Division Mr. S. Somasegar wrote about it in his blog.
On returning to Pakistan, Arfa had numerous interviews on almost
all of the country’s known television channels and newspapers. In
August 2005, Arfa Karim received the Fatimah Jinnah Gold Medal in the
field of Science and Technology, presented by the Prime Minister of
Pakistan at that time. She also received the Salaam Pakistan Youth
Award again in August 2005 by the President of Pakistan. Arfa Karim is
also the recipient of the President’s Award for Pride of Performance.
This is a very high level civil award granted to people who have shown
excellence in their respective fields over a long period of time. Arfa
is till now the youngest recipient of that award ever.
Arfa Karim has also represented Pakistan on various international
forums, she was invited by the IT Professionals of Dubai for a stay of
two weeks in Dubai. A dinner reception was hosted for her there, which
was attended by the diagnostics of Dubai including the Ambassador of
Pakistan. During that trip, Arfa was presented with various medals and
awards. She also flew a plane in a flying club in Dubai at the age of
10, and received the first flight certificate.
In November 2006, Arfa was invited by Microsoft to be a part of the
keynote session in the Tech-Ed Developers conference held in
Barcelona. The theme of the conference was “Get ahead of the game” and
Arfa was presented as a true specimen of being ahead of the game. She
was the only Pakistani among over 5000 developers in that conference.
As of 2011, at the age of 16, Arfa Karim is studying at Lahore
Grammar School Paragon Campus in her second year of A Levels. She
suffered from a heart attack after an epileptic seizure on December 22,
2011 and was admitted to a hospital in critical condition. Rumours were
being spread of her death on December 31, 2011.
