Yusuf H. Shirazi

Shirazi was born in Sahiwal, Punjab, Pakistan. He received his early education from the Government College Sahiwal. For further studies, he moved to Lahore and attended Forman Christian College, where he earned a bachelor's degree. He later obtained postgraduate degrees in Persian and mathematics from the University of the Punjab.

Education philanthropy

Shirazi was among the founding members of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology (GIK Institute). Through the Atlas Group, he contributed to the National Management Foundation, the sponsoring body of LUMS, and to scholarships for financially disadvantaged students.He also founded the Harvard Club of Pakistan and funded a program that sent two Pakistanis each year for training at Harvard University.

An academic facility at the university, the Yusuf H. Shirazi Complex, was named after Shirazi. Construction of the multi-disciplinary complex began with a groundbreaking ceremony in 2023.

Shirazi began his career in journalism, working for publications such as the Pakistan Times and Nawa-i-waqt while studying law at Punjab University. In 1953, he cleared the CSS exam and became an income tax officer, initially posted in Shikarpur before transferred to Karachi.

In 1962, Shirazi was assigned to compile a report on the leading business groups of Pakistan. He conducted interviews and, in the process, built relationships with the leading business families of Pakistan. Later, he was asked to serve as an executive director at Mian Muhammad Yahya's Nishat Group and was a board member of Ghandhara Industries Limited, positions he held into the 1980s.