Hamza (Arabic: الهَمْزة‎, (al-)hamzah) (ء) is a letter in the Arabic alphabet, representing the glottal stop [ʔ]. Hamza is not one of the 28 "full" letters, and owes its existence to historical inconsistencies in the standard writing system. In the Phoenician and Aramaic alphabets, from which the Arabic alphabet is descended, the glottal stop was expressed by aleph (), continued by alif (  ) in the Arabic alphabet. However, alif was used to express both a glottal stop and a long vowel /aː/. To indicate that a glottal stop, and not a mere vowel, was intended, hamza was added diacritically to alif. In modern orthography, under certain circumstances, hamza may also appear on the line, as if it were a full letter, independent of an alif.

The hamza letter on its own always represents hamzat qaṭʿ (همزة قطع); that is, a phonemic glottal stop. Compared to this, hamzat waṣl or hamzatu l-waṣl (همزة الوصل) is a non-phonemic glottal stop produced automatically at the beginning of an utterance. Although it can be written as alif carrying a waṣlah sign ٱ, it is usually indicated by a regular alif without a hamza. It occurs, for example, in the definite article al-, ism, ibn, imperative verbs and the perfective aspect of verb forms VII to X, but is not pronounced following a vowel: (e.g. al-baytu l-kabīru for written البيت الكبير). It occurs only at the beginning of a word following a preposition or the definite article.

Hamza Yusuf Hanson is an American Islamic scholar, and (with Zaid Shakir and Hatem Bazian) is co-founder of Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, United States. He is a convert to Islam, and is one of the signatories of A Common Word Between Us and You, an open letter by Islamic scholars to Christian leaders, calling for peace and understanding. He has described the 9/11 attacks as "an act of 'mass murder, pure and simple'". Condemning the attacks, he has also stated "Islam was hijacked ... on that plane as an innocent victim".The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom reported that he "is arguably the west's most influential Islamic scholar" and added that "many Muslims find his views hard to stomach."

Hamza Yusuf was born to two academics in Washington State and raised in Northern California. In 1977, he became Muslim and subsequently traveled to the Muslim world and studied for ten years in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, as well as North and West Africa. Hamza Yusuf spent four years studying in the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere in the Middle East. Later he traveled to West Africa and studied in Mauritania, Medina, Algeria, and Morocco under such scholars as Murabit al Haaj; Baya bin Salik, head of the Islamic court in Al-'Ain, United Arab Emirates; Muhammad Shaybani, Mufti of Abu Dhabi; Hamad al-Wali; and Muhammad al-Fatrati of Al Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt.^{[citation needed]} After more than a decade abroad, he returned to the United States and earned degrees in nursing from Imperial Valley College and religious studies at San José State University.^{[citation needed]}

Sanam Baloch (Urdu: صنم بلوچ) (born July 14, 1986) is a Pakistani actress and television host. Sanam was born in Karachi and started her career as a talk show anchor in the Sindhi-language television channel KTN. Sanam hosted two shows Sanam Ji Pasand and Diyoo on KTN. Sanam made her debut on Urdu television in Fahad Mustafa's long play Kalaq which turned out to be a hit. She has also performed in many Urdu and Sindhi language music videos. She is a graduate from the Karachi University, and has two brothers, Farhan Baloch and Abbas Baloch. She is the younger sister of Sabreen Hisbani, also a popular television actress. Her last talk show was Morning With Hum on Hum TV which she left in order to further pursue her acting career.

9th Annual Lux Style Award (2010)

Pakistan Media Awards 2011

10th Annual Lux Style Awards

Ali Abbasi (Urdu: علی عبّاسی) (August 1961 – 30 July 2004) was a Pakistani-born Scottish television presenter, born in Karachi. He moved from Pakistan to Glasgow, in 1963, with his parents as a child and joined BBC Scotland as a travel presenter in the 1980s. He went on to publish numerous books and became a champion for the Gaelic language, appearing in the Gaelic children's series Dè a-nis? and the comedy series Air ais air an Ran Dan ("Back on the Ran Dan")

He joined BBC Scotland as a travel presenter in 1994 from Glasgow City Council, where he worked as an art gallery assistant. As well as presenting travel news at the BBC, Abbasi worked as an audio technician with outside broadcasts and radio cars.

Abbasi was appointed Gaelic reading champion by the Scottish Executive in 2003.

Abbasi died of lupus.

Sana Javed (born 27 March 1983 in Punjab) is a Pakistani cricketer. She appeared in 20 women's One Day Internationals (ODIs) between 2005 and 2008, making a top-score of 32.