Mr. Syed Jafar Shah, former Member Provincial Assembly for two consecutive tenures, former Regional Program Manager of Abbottabad in Sarhad Rural Support Program and former Head of Community Development in Pak-Swiss Kalam Integrated Development Project, belongs to Shahgram Valkey in Upper Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan.

In 1977, Syed Jafar Shah took his B.Sc from Jahanzeb College/Peshawar University. In 1981-82, Syed Jafar Shah graduated in law from the Islamia College, affiliated with the University of Karachi.

After his graduation in law, Mr. Syed Jafar Shah joined Habib Bank Limited as Officer Grade-III and completed a one-year course at HBL Main Plaza Karachi in 1981-82. Leaving the job of HBL, Mr. Shah carried out apprenticeship in law in the District Courts if Swat in 1983 for one year.
From 1984 to 1996, Mr. Syed Jafar Shah worked with the Swiss donor, SDC-funded Kalam Integrated Development Project implemented by Intercooperation, an Swiss INGO and the Forest Department of Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan.
Working in KIDP, Mr. Shah received on-the-job training in agriculture and community development at Wageningen University in the Netherlands in 1985-86.
He also obtained training in participatory approaches in development from Khonkaen University Thailand and IIED London, UK. Mr. Shah visited the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, UK in 1992, where he presented a paper on the prospects of participatory development approaches in Pakistan and their impact on promoting participatory democracy.

In 2006, Mr. Syed Jafar Shah carried out a short-term consultant for three months for FAO in Gilgit and then for UNICEF on revitalizing the education sector in AJK after the 2005 earthquake.

Mr. Syed Jafar Shah is having enough foreign exposure. He visited various countries and institutions as part of study tours and training. When he was an MPA, he visited the parliaments of Scotland and California.
Mr. Syed Jafar Shah worked as Research Assistant for Heidelberg University, Germany. In this assignment, he studied the socio-economic and cultural situation of the people of Swat, Dir and Indus Kohistan.
In 1996, Mr. Syed Jafar Shah joined SRSP as Regional Program Manager for Abbottabad Region. He remained with with SRSP till 2004.
In 2008, Mr. Syed Jafar Shah was elected to the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
In 2013, he was elected as Member Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the second time.He was a member of Provincial Working Committee on forests, chairman of the standing commitee on health and labour and member of Public Accounts Committee of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.

Currently, Mr. Shah is a member of the Asia Forestry Network.Mr. Shah is an Ashoka Fellow with the Ashoka Award and a member of the International Network of Parliamentarians for Conflict Resolution, Belgium.
Mr. Syed Jafar Shah has authored or co-authored several publications, including training manuals on Social Mobilization and PRA, A Study of the NGO Sector in Sri Lanka and A Study on Microfinance Approaches in Indonesia among others.

Because of his vast experience in project planning and designing/proposal writing, fund raising, community mobilisation, social organisation, community outreach, project management, coordination, monitoring and evaluation and skills and experience in technical and progress reporting, Mr. Syed Jafar Shaha is a valueable addition to the pool of volunteers as well as the support group of QAFELA.