Arnaz Marker is the daughter of Cyrus Minwalla and Mehra Minwalla, and comes from a leading business family of Karachi, Pakistan.

Educated in Mama Parsi Girls School, Karachi, Arnaz later went on to study at Charters’ Towers in England and Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, Switzerland. Her business career began in 1959 and continued for over thirty years. Arnaz was the Director of Hotel Metropole, Karachi and Grand Hotel, Sindh. She extended her business activities to New York in 1971, and maintained her interests in both Karachi and New York during this period.

In 1980 she married Jamsheed Marker, Ambassador of Pakistan, and served with him on his successive postings to Geneva, Bonn, Paris, Washington DC and New York at the United Nations. Arnaz carried out a wide ranging series of diplomatic activities in each of these important capitals, both in association with her husband and independently with international organisations, non-governmental organisations and private sector groups. She has been actively involved in women’s development activities in Pakistan and abroad, especially the education of girl children, for which she has been a major fund raiser.

Arnaz also has a special interest in the treatment, rehabilitation and welfare of handicapped children, particularly as the leading fund raiser, for Al Umied, currently the only residential facility for handicapped children in Pakistan. In this connection, has also organised visits by the Pakistan team to the Special Olympics in the US.

Current activities include being President of All Pakistan Women’s Association (APWA), North America; Former President of the United Nations Ambassadors Wives Association; Reiki Master with Reiki Touch Institute of Holistic Medicine; Board of directors and designated speaker at UNICEF, US committee.

Presently living in Florida where her husband is based, Arnaz frequently visits New York in connection with her multifarious activities. From 1997 to 2000 she spent considerable time in Indonesia and East Timor with her husband, who was the Personal Representative of the UN Secretary General for East Timor, negotiating a solution to the problem which led to the independence of the territory.