Umar Cheema is a co-founder of Center for Investigative Reporting in Pakistan and affiliated with The News as special investigative correspondent. He writes about tax evasion, transparency and corruption.His series exposing tax evasion by MPs triggered policy change: the government has made public the tax record of lawmakers and other citizens. Pakistan has become fourth country in the world to do so after Norway, Sweden and Finland. Global Investigative Journalism Network ranked his tax series among top ten 'high-impact' investigations from around the world. His campaign for transparency helped expedite the introduction of a right to information law by a provincial government. He has received numerous awards for courageous and quality reporting, including the Knight International Journalism Award, Global Shining Light Award’s Certificate of Excellence, the International Press Freedom Award, the Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Services in Journalism, the Tully Free Speech Award and the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism. In 2008, he won a Daniel Pearl Fellowship becoming the first Pearl fellow to work at The New York Times. He holds a Master’s Degree in Mass Communication from Punjab University in Lahore, Pakistan. He also attended the London School of Economics where he received a Master of Sciences Degree in Comparative Politics (Conflict Studies).