the Rural Support Programmes have helped form 297,000 community organisations in 110 districts including two Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan.

His grandfather, Sultan Ahmad Beg, had won a coveted position in the state civil service of United Provinces, in the days of the British Raj.

Eventually rising through the posts of Deputy Director of Civil Service Academy, Deputy Commissioner Kohat and Peshawar, Commissioner of Karachi Division, Secretary Department of Health, Education and Social Welfare in the Government of North West Frontier Province and Director for the Pakistan Academy of Rural Development.

[37] In December 1982, the Aga Khan Foundation asked him to head the newly founded Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP), a citizen sector organisation that targets poverty-stricken villages primarily in northern Pakistan (Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral) and engages their inhabitants in development programmes.

[55] By the mid 1980s Shoaib had been successful in convincing Sartaj Aziz to lobby to set up the National Rural Support Programme.

In 1987 Chief Minister of N.W.F.P Arbab Jehangir invited Shoaib Sultan to start the Sarhad Rural Support Programme.

In 1993 Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif impressed with Shoaib Sultans international recognition donated 500 million rupees to the National Rural Support Programme.

Similarly in Andhra Pradesh, the programme was started by the World Bank funding and it reached 50 million people and transformed their lives.

[60] The Federal Government of India has now made it part of their central policy under the National Rural Livelihood Mission and 13 other states are following the Andhra Pradesh model.

[62] Shoaib has served on the board of numerous organisations including: He is also a Member of the Advisory Group of the World Bank sponsored Community Development Carbon Fund, Member of the Government of Pakistan Advisory Committee on Millennium Development Goals and Chairman of the Pakistan Government's Vision 2030 Group on Just Society.

[88] The list of nominees for the annual Nobel Peace Prize has always been a closely guarded secret over the last 50 years, with just a few names leaked to the public.

The New York Times called the decision a "stunning surprise", while less generous spectators accused the Nobel Committee of having political motivations.