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I want poverty to end in tomorrow's Pakistan. I want every girl in Pakistan to go to school.

My aim is to change the social norms of Pakistan; women here look up to me. I started very early, worked on myself, and the effect is for all to see.

Growing up in Pakistan in the 1980s, I lived in the shadow of a tyrannical state.

I wanted to start a proper academy and recruit juniors from all over Pakistan following my retirement after the World Open in 1993 but there was no support.

I sat down in 1989 and I made up my mind at that point that I was going to spend the rest of my life assisting women and youth to gain social and political empowerment through business and education. I convinced myself economic empowerment of women was going to be key, especially in a country like this where most women didn't go to school.

I come from the small town of Sialkot in Pakistan. During pre-Partition, this town had the highest literacy rate among women.

I wanted to become a writer. I enjoyed reading as a child.

My dad was in the Indian Army. He died in a terrorist attack in Kashmir in 1994. After that, my mum and I settled in Noida. I went to Delhi Public School in Noida and then to Shri Ram College of Commerce in Delhi University. It was in college that I realised I wanted to be on the stage and in front of the camera.