The World Federation of KSIMC’s Office Bearers 2017-2020 term of office ended and a new team has been elected.
The 2017-20 term was to end at the Triennial Conference 2020 which was scheduled to take place on 13-15 March 2020 in Mombasa, Kenya but could not be held due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, with a special dispensation from the Charity Commission, the 2017-20 term was extended to 1 June 2021. The Secretary General Al Hajj Shan E Abbas Hassam convened an Extraordinary Executive Council meeting (7th Exco) to fill the vacancies occurring on the Executive Council as a result of the resignations of the Office Bearers at the Sixth Executive Council meeting.
As the charity cannot be left without charity trustees and the Executive Council had not yet agreed to convene a meeting of the Conference, the Secretary General convened a virtual Extraordinary Executive Council meeting on Saturday 25 July 2020 to fill the vacancies by appointing people to fill those roles for the interim period from the close of the meeting until the end of the current term.
The ExCo 7 followed an agenda and a process along with an FAQ document. The Agenda and the Process was approved through a majority vote by the Executive Council at the start of the meeting. A new Chair for the Electoral Commission, Al Hajj Jaffer Dharamsi, was voted in who along with the rest of the Electoral Commission conducted the election of new Office Bearers to fill the vacancies which arose following the resignation of the (outgoing) Office Bearers. The resignation was dated 28th July 2020 (a few days after this scheduled Exco).
The following new Office Bearers were elected by the Executive Council, and will hold office till the next Ordinary Conference takes place (latest by 1st June 2021 as per Charity Commission):
- President, Al Haj Safder Jaffer
- Vice President, Dr Munir Datoo
- Treasurer, Zaffar Khakoo
- Assistant Treasurer, Sajjad Rajan
- Secretary General, Arifali Hirji
President, Al Haj Safder Jaffer
Al Haj Safder Jaffer was born in Mombasa, Kenya and is married, with 2 sons. He combines extensive professional, religious and community experience summarised below:
Professional Career
- Is a partner in one of the largest global actuarial firms and has been in this profession for more than 20 years.
- Advises leading public and private companies on high-stakes financial services and risk management.
- Trusted to advise financial and health regulators, giving him vital knowledge of risk management, governance and actuarial consultancy services.
Islamic Credentials
- He lectures on Islamic subjects and has travelled world-wide reciting majalis as a Muballigh in English, Urdu and Gujarati.
- He gained a postgraduate degree in Islamic Finances and also resided in the Holy City of Qom for several years, interacting with scholars and deepening his knowledge in Islamic Theology.
- Specialises in the field of Islamic Finances including Islamic Insurance (Takaful).
Community Service
- He was a key member of The World Federation’s first ever five-year Strategic Plan in 2002 as an actuarial consultant and Islamic Education advisor.
- Served as the Chairman for the Islamic Education Board from 2003-2005.
- Spearheaded the development of the Madrasah Centre of Excellence’s worldwide Tarbiyah curriculum and currently head of Tarbiyah.
- Supported crisis management and mediation, including playing a pivotal role in the Yemen evacuation team and served as an executive councillor of WF for 6 years (2014-2020).
- Acted as WF liaison to the Mara’ji in Najaf and Qom, particularly as key contact between our Marja, His Eminence Sayyid al-Sistani (DA) and The World Federation for over 17 years.
Vice President, Dr Munir Datoo
Dr. Munir Muhsin Datoo was born in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. His parents Marhum Muhsin Abdulrasul Datoo and Marhuma Khatija Muhsin (an internationally renowned Zakira) were both from Zanzibar. He is married and has three children, a girl and two boys. He combines extensive professional, and community experience summarised below:
Professional Career
- Dr Munir is a qualified doctor and has been a practicing general practitioner in UK, African and Pakistan for more than 30 years.
- He has a diploma in ENT from the Royal College of Surgeons and has special interest in Acupuncture.
- He is currently the Deputy Medical Director of London Central West Out of Hour Services and supervises GP trainees in the out of hour setting
Community Service
- His communal volunteering begun at Mehfil-e-Zainab in Karachi in 1973, and then at Mehfil-e-Murtaza (Karachi) in 1978, where he was active in the Student bodies at the Medical School, taking on the post of Vice President.
- Since 1998, he has been a volunteer at Stanmore and was the Chairman of the Medical Sub-committee for two years until 2004.
- He was the Sport Secretary of Ithna Asheri Union at Stanmore (now Stanmore Jafferys) in 2000.
- His involvement in The World Federation started in 1998, joining the The Medical Advisory Board and later, Assistant Secretary General – Health portfolio from 2007-2015. He has been the Health Coordinator at The World Federation from 2016 to date.
- He led a team to Karachi in 2004 to implement the Strategic planning of the World Federation.
- Dr Munir has been a volunteer and ‘Group Doctor’ with the European Hajj Mission for 17 years, until 2017 and has also represented The WF on the British Hajj Delegation.
- He has been an Executive Council member for CoEJ since 2017, and The WF since Sept 2018.
- He was in the Executive Committee of Hujjat Stanmore for 3 terms: 2007-09, 2009-11 and serving as its Vice President 2013-15.
- Dr Munir Datoo has been the President of Hujjat Stanmore from 2017, before resigning to take the post of Interim Vice President of The World Federation.
Treasurer, Zaffar Khakoo
Zaffar Khakoo was born and brought up in Dubai and has been resident in the UK for the last 14 years. He is married with 3 children. His family is originally from Tanga, Tanzania.
Professional Career
- Zaffar is an accountant by profession and a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and Affiliate member of the the Institute of Chartered Accountants England and Wales, with an Executive MBA from the University of Edinburgh.
- He has over 23 years of audit experience and is a Partner in one of the ‘Big 4’ firms specialising in audits of financial services companies, including leading the audits of some of the largest banks in the world.
Community Service
- Zaffar is a member of London Hujjat Jamaat, UK. From a community perspective, he has been a teacher at the Stanmore Saturday Workshop for a number of years, teaching year 8 boys. Since the beginning of this year, he has doubled up by volunteering at the Shia Ithna Asheri Madressa, Stanmore as well.
- Zaffar was also an active community member when he was living in Dubai, where he used to be the auditor of Dubai Jamat.
Aspirations
He has a real passion for community service and feels he can make a difference to the World Federation. He has accepted to take on the role of Treasurer and Office Bearer. Zaffar believes that he can, InshaAllah, add value to The World Federation in the following areas:
- Leveraging his professional experience to improve and professionalise treasury processes and activities at The WF;
- Belonging to a profession that has been under a lot of scrutiny recently, he believes as a Treasurer – he can work on furthering transparency and trust in this esteemed organisation; and
- Wishing to be part of building the chapters of The World Federation, where he can serve and join in expanding the amazing work that benefits our communities world-wide.
Assistant Treasurer, Sajjad Rajan
Sajjad Rajan was born in London, UK but spent much of his early life in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. He returned back to the UK in 2003 to pursue his career. He is married and has two young children.
Professional Career
- He is a Chartered Tax Advisor and a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT), the leading professional body in the UK for advisers dealing with all aspects of taxation. He is also a Chartered Accountant as well as a Financial Auditor and qualified with both leading accountancy bodies, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).
- Sajjad has over 15 years’ experience in tax planning and accountancy and currently owns three separate firms, which carry out statutory audits. He established Smartax in 2014 from the ground up, now a modern-day accountancy practice based in North West London and a brand that is tax focused, delivering value to clients – particularly owner managed businesses.
- Sajjad has a range of clients stretching across various industries including travel, media, real estate and tech companies. However, of particular relevance is that he works with a portfolio of charities not only with their accounts but provides guidance on structure, efficiency and reporting. Thus, he is very well versed in the financial rules and regulations of the Charity’s Commission, which would be a great asset to the World Federation.
Community Service
- Sajjad enjoys helping start-up charities (both local and international) and social enterprises – especially with areas concerning compliance and due diligence.
- In his teens, he has volunteered with the Children’s Remand Centre, teaching various life skills to youth and helping them get back on track. Sajjad also assisted with weekly visits at the Nunge Leprosy Camp, providing medicine and helping the local villagers with their everyday needs.
Aspirations
Sajjad enjoys sports, including football and cricket and loves to travel. He is passionate about taking a leadership role in World Federation and using his network and expertise to support the needs of our global community.
Secretary General, Arifali Hirji
Arifali Hirji is the son of Marhum Aunali and Batul Hirji, originally of Mombasa and Zanzibar, respectively. He was born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden. He is married and has 3 young sons.
Professional Career
- Arifali has a long career in Energy Markets and Trading. Currently he heads the Global Trading Analytics & Digitalisation function for the trading arm of a major Energy and Services provider.
- He has experience in structuring and valuing complex internatonal deals with major commodity trading and retail corporations across the globe and classes (Gas, LNG, Electricity, Renewables, Coal, Oil and LPG) as well as Algorithmic & Automated trading.
- He has extensive experience in building teams from bottom up as well as leading multiple leaders and managers.
- Arifali is a trained Quantitative Analyst, with an MSc in Engineering Physics from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, specialised in Applied Mathematics and Financial Engineering. He also studied Business, Economics and Arabic.
- He did his thesis at London Business School, where he also has held the position of Foreign Scholar and has a long lasting relationship in lecturing at one of the top business schools in the world in numerous subjects for PhD, Master of Finance, MBA and Exec MBA Programmes.
Islamic Interests
- Arifali lived in Qum 2011-2013 where he attended Al Mustafa International University. In his spare time, he enjoys studying Islamic seminary subjects.
- Every so often he gives lectures to children on both traditional and contemporary religious topics.
Community Service
- Arifali was blessed to serve in multiple capacities in his native Märsta, Sweden. He served as a Madressa Teacher from his teen years; established a youth committee and was elected its Chair; held the post of Editor-in-Chief for the Zainabiya Magazine and was the Jamaat & Madressa webmaster. He also served as the Vice President in 2000-2001 as well as acting President for a short period.
- Within The World Federation he has volunteered for IEB and CETAB
- He was Head of Relief for CoEJ in 2008-2010
- After moving to the UK, he taught in the Shia Ithnasheri Madressa, Hujjat Stanmore, and was Head of its Tareekh Department.
- He is one of the organisers of Hujjat Academy, which, since 2016, has offered foundation level and Hawzavi modules to the community.
- Arifali loves sports, especially Table tennis, which he actively competes in the leagues and coaches community children.
- He has been a volunteer of The WF COVID-19 Task Force.