Born on May 28, 1922, Nasra Wazir Ali was the youngest daughter of late Malik Maula Buksh, a landlord of Goorali Village in Gujrat District, Punjab. A self-educated man, he built a school for the village which Nasra herself attended during her early primary years, despite being the only female student in a class of thirty. She later attended Lady McLagan High School in Lahore as a full-time boarder from class 3 until matriculation.

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A bright student, Nasra graduated from Lahore College for Women with a Bachelors degree in English Literature, attaining Honors. Her marriage to Malik Wazir Ali, a prominent member of the Indian Civil Service, lent her the opportunity to travel extensively and reside in various countries around the world, inculcating in her a sense of worldly wisdom, broadening her horizons and honing her foresight. Thus, when the time came to contribute to the social development of a newly formed, desolate, post-partition Pakistan dependent upon the services of educated volunteers, Nasra Wazir Ali, in a display of true leadership, rose to the challenge, facing seemingly insurmountable adversity along the way with grace, courage and perseverance. Her humble offer to teach the neighborhood children, along with her own daughter Shahnaz, out of her family home in Karachi was met with such profound gratitude that Nasra magnanimously allocated a portion of her home to the cause.  Thus began Nasra School, a small yet rapidly growing class for preprimary school children, out of the living room of a government-owned bungalow on Bunder Road, in Feb. 1949.  The following year saw the official registration of the Education Trust Nasra School (ETNS), as not-for-profit organization established to provide high-quality, English-medium education to children belonging to lower income households- a sector often marginalized and dismissed by negligent society.