Arfa Karim

FAISALABAD:
World’s Youngest Microsoft Certified Professional Arfa Karim Randhawa is no longer with us. Pakistan has lost its one more gem.

IT genius Arfa was laid to rest in her ancestral village Ramdewali amid tears and cries.

Qari Ashraf, who led her funeral prayer, said that “Arfa was not only extra ordinarily brilliant in Information Technology (IT) but was also very fond of Hamd, Naat and Allama Iqbal’s poetry”

Talking to the media, Arfa’s father Colonel (Retd) Amjad Karim Randhawa said that “Arfa was a gift of God to me and now He has taken it back.”

“I am proud of being the only person in the world whose daughter was recognised as the youngest Microsoft professional certificate holder at an age of just 9 years,” he said. “We provided every possible opportunity and encouragement to promote her acumen,” Randhawa added.

Saying that his daughter was far wiser than her age, Randhawa said that Arfa could not enjoy her life for long. “We could not see her genius flourish,” he said with grief.

Recalling Arfa’s meeting with Bill Gates, Randhawa said that the Microsoft Chairman was stunned to see Arfa promptly answering to all his technical questions.

Gates acknowledged Arfa’s qualities and his company contacted her family when she was admitted in the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Lahore for treatment.

“Microsoft’s doctors were in touch with the CMH doctors and provided assistance in diagnosis, prescriptions and treatment of Arfa,” Randhawa said.

Randhawa fondly highlighted his daughter qualities, saying that she always had positive approach towards everything.

“She had a creative mind and always wanted to do something extraordinary far beyond her age,” he said.

“Arfa always surprised her teachers and class fellows with her intelligence and thought provoking questions,” Randhawa added.

A local resident of the village, Noor Din, said that although Arfa had not spent much time in the area, yet she lived as if she had been here for a very long time.

“My daughter had always desired and insisted upon meeting Arfa, but sadly I failed to do so and now I can never do it,” he said.

Another villager, Ghulam Qadir, admitted that he had never seen such a huge funeral procession as of Arfa’s.”

Muhammad Akram, a close relative of Arfa said that she always wanted the area’s IT lab to be upgraded so it can provide maximum educational facilities to the young people, especially females.

Asking government to honour the IT genius’ desires, Akram said that Arfa believed that other girls of her village should get opportunities of good education as there was so much talent in them.