Staff Report

LAHAORE: Computer programming prodigy Arfa Karim Randhawa’s funeral prayer has been offered in Lahore today, SAMAA reported on Sunday.

Many prominent leaders including the CM Punjab Shahbaz Sharif and Corps Commander of Lahore along with a large number of other people attended Arfa’s funeral prayer at Al-Khalid Mosque in Cavalry Ground in Lahore.

After funeral prayer her body has been sent to her native village Ram Divali in Faisalabad for burial. Arfa’s parents, relatives and many others have gone with her body to attend the burial ritual.

The youngest computer programming genius of the world, Arfa Karim Randhawa, died at a hospital in Lahore on Saturday night.

The 16-year-old girl, who seven years ago became the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in the world, was on life support after suffering an epileptic attack. She remained hospitalized for 26 days.

MicroSoft founder Bill Gates had also offered special assistance for Arfa's treatment. But she could not be shifted to the US due to her critical condition.

The great Arfa was only nine years, nine months and 11 days old when she became the world's youngest Microsoft Certified Professional -- a qualification usually gained by IT professional and software developers -- after demonstrating her proficiency with the company's software.

She was invited by Bill Gates to visit the Microsoft Headquarters in USA. She also wrote a poem about Bill Gates.

On returning to Pakistan, Arfa had numerous interviews on almost all of the country's known television channels and newspapers.

In August 2005, Arfa Karim received the Fatimah Jinnah Gold Medal in the field of Science and Technology, presented by the Prime Minister of Pakistan at that time.

She also received the Salaam Pakistan Youth Award again in August 2005 by the President of Pakistan.

She was also the recipient of the President's Award for Pride of Performance. She was the youngest recipient of that award ever.

Arfa represented Pakistan on various international forums, invited by the IT Professionals of Dubai for a stay of two weeks in Dubai.

A dinner reception was hosted for her there, which was attended by the diagnostics of Dubai including the Ambassador of Pakistan. During that trip, Arfa was presented with various medals and awards.

She also flew a plane in a flying club in Dubai at the age of 10, and received the first flight certificate.

In November 2006, Arfa was invited by Microsoft to be a part of the keynote session in the Tech-Ed Developers conference held in Barcelona.

The theme of the conference was "Get ahead of the game" and Arfa was presented as a true specimen of being ahead of the game. She was the only Pakistani among over 5000 developers in that conference. SAMAA