PSL #Hamarayheroes is an initiative launched by PCB to commemorate the unsung heroes of Pakistan.
From the tech industry, first-person was Shahmeer Aamir, an ethical hacker followed up by Arsalan Ash, an e-sport champion and the most recent award (in yesterday’s match between Peshawar Zalmi and Quetta Gladiators) went to a freelancing icon Hisham Sarwar.
Other featured heroes include Marvia Malik (Pakistan’s first transgender news anchor), Saad Ali (formula car racer who represented Pakistan at various international events), Naseem Hameed (the fastest woman in South Asia), Samar Khan (first woman in the world to ride a bike on the 4,500 meters Biafo Glacier in the Karakoram Mountains of Gilgit Baltistan) among others.
Hisham and His Work for Freelancing Community in Pakistan
Hisham started working freelance in the late ’90s after he was fired from his full-time job and struggling to find a new job.
After offering graphic design services but meeting mixed success on various platforms like Elance, he finally struck gold with Guru.com, which was known as ITMoonLigher.com back then.
Not only did he become a successful freelancer in a short time but also made it to Guru’s home page’s testimonial space, the only Pakistani to ever make it there. He was also ranked as the number one freelancer for graphic design for 2 months, a feat that is still unmatched in Pakistan.
In early 2000 in Pakistan, freelancing was in its infant stages and Hisham Sarwar was an early adopter. From that time onwards, Hisham Sarwar has been self-employed for more than 2 decades.
He was able to successfully transform his freelancing career and establish an organization to offer different services.
As an attempt to pay back to the community, Hisham started teaching freelancing on YouTube and Facebook. He started delivering GoLive sessions on both platforms to educate youth about the importance of working online, going for self-empowerment and making good money.
Being a vocal advocate for the freelancing industry, he was selected as a Freelance trainer on Government’s program ‘DigiSkills‘. It is a free program for the youth that aims to train one million freelancers in the country and has already trained over 700k people in the span of just over two years.
Talking to ProPakistani, Hisham said, “if young people can not find a job, they should learning new, emerging and trending skills and start working as a freelancer. I believe if a freelancer’s work plate grows, they have to expand and this provides a lot of opportunities for new job creation in the country.”
Pakistan currently ranks 4th in the global freelance index. According to a separate report by Payoneer, Pakistan has left behind India, Russian and Bangladesh to become of the top freelancing countries in the world.
