Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi, also known as Allama Mashriqi, (25 August 1888 – 27 August 1963) was a South Asian mathematician, logician, political theorist, Islamic scholar and the founder of the Khaksar movement.

Mashriqi was a noted mathematical intellectual who became a college Principal at the age of 25, and then became an Under Secretary, at the age of 29, in the Education Department of the Government of India. He wrote an exegesis of the Qur'an which was nominated for the 1925 Nobel Prize. He was offered an ambassadorship to Afghanistan at age 32 and knighthood at the age of 33 years, but he declined all honours.

He subsequently resigned government service and in 1930 founded the Khaksar Movement, aiming to advance the condition of the masses irrespective of any faith, sect, or religion. As its leader, he was imprisoned several times. Through his philosophical writings, he asserted that the science of religions was essentially the science of collective evolution of mankind.

Mashriqi was born into an eminent Muslim Rajput family in Amritsar on 25 August 1888. His father, Khan Ata Mohammad Khan, had inherited a large property from his father. His ancestors had held prominent positions during the Mughal Empire. Khan Ata was also well-connected with the Muslim luminaries of the time such as Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Jamal Ud Din Afgahani, Shibli Nomani, and Mirza Ghalib.

Akhtar Hameed Khan (Urdu: اختر حمید خان, pronounced [ˈəxt̪ər ɦəˈmiːd̪ ˈxaːn]; 15 July 1914 – 9 October 1999) was a Pakistani development activist and social scientist credited for pioneering microcredit and microfinance initiatives, farmers' cooperatives, and rural training programmes in the developing world. He promoted participatory rural development in Pakistan and other developing countries, and widely advocated community participation in development. His particular contribution was the establishment of a comprehensive project for rural development, the Comilla Model (1959). It earned him the Ramon Magsaysay Award from the Philippines and an honorary Doctorate of Law from Michigan State University. Ralph Smuckler wrote in his book, "His Scandinavian colleagues and other advisors had nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize"

In the 1980s he started a bottom up community development initiative of Orangi Pilot Project, based in the outskirts of Karachi, which became a model of participatory development initiatives. He also directed many programmes, from microcredit to self-finance and from housing provision to family planning, for rural communities and urban slums. It earned him international recognition and high honours in Pakistan. Khan was fluent in at least seven languages and dialects. Apart from many scholarly books and articles, he also published a collection of poems and travelogues in Urdu.

Syed Zaiduzzaman Hamid, better known as Zaid Hamid, is a Pakistani security consultant and political commentator. His byline in newspaper articles has been Zaid Zaman.

Zaid was born in Karachi, in 1964. His father, Col. Zaman Hamid (Retd), served in the Pakistan Army. Zaid spent his early life in Karachi. He received a Bachelor of Engineering (BE) degree in Computer Systems Engineering from NED University, Karachi in 1980's.

Through his TV programmes, Hamid has claimed that a nexus between India's RAW, the CIA and is responsible for the destabilization of Pakistan. He also claims that the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, were part of a plan hatched by "Hindu Zionists"", and that it was an attempt by the Indians to stage an attack just like the Americans executed the September 11 attacks.

A number of noted Pakistani journalists, writers and Islamic scholars have criticized Hamid and have described his views on politics and security as conspiracy theories.