Aquila Ismail

Aquila Ismail is the Chairperson of the Orangi Pilot Project (OPP). The OPP is a charity based in the Orangi Town slum of Karachi, which provides water and sanitation services to hundreds of thousands of citizens of Orangi Town, and the neighbouring communities. Aquila has a background in Electrical Engineering, and worked as an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at NED University of Engineering and Technology in Karachi. She is also an author, and has written extensively on gender and development issues for leading Pakistani newspapers and magazines.

Aquila is the sister of Perween Rahman, an acclaimed social worker who was murdered in 2014. Perween was the previous CEO of the OPP, and it is thought that she was murdered because of the work she did in exposing corruption in Karachi. Aquila and Perween are the subjects of the film INTO DUST.