Draft:Waqar Zaka

Waqar Zaka (born 17 June 1993 in Tehran, Iran) is a Pakistani crypto expert, entrepreneur and social influencer. A graduate of civil engineering, he was the Executive Producer and TV host of Living on the Edge, Over the Edge, and Champions before moving into cryptocurrency trading and training investors. In early 2024, Zaka reportedly earned over 48 thousand dollars in four hours of livestreaming analyzing crypto trading to his audience across his social media handles.

Background and education
Waqar Zaka was born in 1993 in Tehran, Iran. His father Zaka-ud-Din is a United Nations former staff and later owned the Pakistan’s Intercom and Telecom good’s manufacturing company “National Intercom Industries”. His mother is Samia Yaseem. Zaka received early education at B. V.S Parsi High School, Karachi before proceeding to Adamjee Government Science College, Karachi. He studied Civil Engineering and Technology at NED University, Karachi and later did a one-year master’s in business at Stanford University, California MSX Program.

Career
Zaka started his career in 2002 as a TV host of ARY Digital’s live call-in program. In 2004, he introduced a recorded game show - Living on the Edge aired on the ARY Musik which was well received but short-lived following allegations of copying the format of a similar program, MTV Roadies in India. But Zaka claimed that the show format was his own idea and gave copyright permission to MTV after it requested for the copyright in an email to him. Zaka launched another TV show, EXPOSED which purported to expose underground criminal and illegal activities in Pakistan in 2006. It was a short-lived show. His other TV shows included Cricket Challenge, Desi Kurriyan King of Street Magic which was banned for its sensitive contents in 2014.

In 2017, he founded Chalo, a ride-hailing service and in 2019, Tehreek-e-Tech, a digital media agency. He began his cryptocurrency career in 2018 with the launch of Tenup which he claimed was Pakistan’s first cryptocurrency. In 2019, Zaka filed a motion at the Sindh High Court seeking to legalize cryptocurrency trading in Pakistan. The court then set up a panel headed by deputy governor of State Bank of Pakistan with Zaka himself as a member. The committee in its report recommended a total ban on crypto currency in Pakistan.

In 2021, provincial Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government appointed Zaka a cryptocurrency trading and mining expert into a committee headed by the KPK Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra. In June 2021, Zaka was nominated for the Binance Influencer Award 2021. In early 2024, Zaka reportedly earned over 48 thousand dollars in four hours of livestreaming analyzing crypto trading to his audience across his social media handles during a market volatility caused by Iran-Israel conflict.