RESULT DECLARATION OF International “Poster/Drawing/Photography Contest, 2011

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals India (“PETA”) is a non-profit animal protection organization, located in Andheri (West), Mumbai and Foundation for a Drug- Free World is an International Organization based in Los Angeles, California, functioning in Pakistan under the support of Pakistan Coordinator, Munir Moosa Sewani.

Both organizations signed an agreement to launch a joint venture in May 2011 to raise awareness about animal rights and to demote animal cruelty. In this regard, Foundation for a Drug-Free World and PETA (India) recently launched International “Poster/Drawing/Photography Contest, 2011. More than 400 institutions participated and 6000 entries were received from all over Pakistan. It was a competitive event where extremely talented children and youth participated to share their level of knowledge. The results were declared recently in a local hotel by Poorva Joshipura, Chief Functionary PETA, India and Munir Moosa, Coordinator, Foundation for a Drug-Free World.

The first positions were bagged by Khalid Bhatti of Lahore, Meher Nawaz of Lahore Grammar School, Salma Neelofer of Chitral and Jamila Khan from Peshawar. The second positions were bagged by Arooj Majid of Laurelbank School System, Lahore, Aleema Minallah of Khaldunia High School, Islamabad, Salima Kasim of Karachi, Sundus Nasim of The Mama Parsi Girls’ Secondary School, Karachi & Rifaut Rasul of Qamar-e-Bani Hashim School while the third position was bagged by Sajjad Ahmed Qureshi of Karachi Cadet School.

All the winners received cash prizes, medal, gift hamper and International certificate while the top 28 participants received medal, International certificate and a gift hamper. The gifts and cash prizes were sponsored by Foundation for a Drug-Free World, while the t-shirts and certificates of the selected posters were sponsored by PETA, India.

On this occasion, Munir Moosa Sewani said that the main motive behind organizing such activities was to raise the awareness level of the students about animals. Each participation means educating the whole family and the whole institution. He further added that children in Pakistan showed their willingness to promote animal rights through their art and it shows that animals are creature not slave. He strongly believes that such activities can help to explore creativity of students at the same time preparing them to take wise decisions in life about animals. He further added that The Holy Qur'an strongly enjoins Muslims to treat animals with compassion and human have a special responsibility to be fair, just and kind to all other living things. He lately thanked all the institutions for putting up all the efforts in promoting animal rights and congratulates the team members for a successful venture with an Indian organization.

On this occasion, Poorva Joshipura through her telephonic conversation said that PETA India is proud to work with Foundation for a Drug Free World in using art as a medium to teach young people to have respect and compassionate towards animals. She appreciated the efforts of Munir Moosa and is looking forward to work on the further joint projects.

Addressing the gathering, Munir Moosa Sewani said, Bollywood star like Shahid Kapoor, Imran Khan, Sonu Sood, John Abraham, Lara Dutta, Priyanka and so many others joined PETA in order to raise awareness among the masses about animal rights. We are delighted that such role models are playing their social responsibilities with zeal. Munir Moosa hopes that the lollywood actors would soon come ahead and would join the mission to promote animal rights in Pakistan.

The pipeline projects of PETA (India) in Pakistan are to arrange workshops, seminars and awareness walk.

Pakistan Pharma Summit beings in Karachi

Two-day Pakistan’s 1st Pharma Summit kicked off under the aegis of Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufactures’ Association (PPMA) at a local hotel on Tuesday.

It titled “Reshaping Pakistan Pharma Industry: Trends, Challenges & Opportunities” aimed at pressing government to enhance the export of drugs to promote the industry.

Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Dr Farooq Sattar while addressing inaugural session assured PPMA to resolve their genuine demands by taking issues up. He also urged PPMA to stand for the promotion of industry, saying India organized its 1st Pharma Summit in 1950s, however, it was being held in 2011 in the country.

He said Pakistan is required an action with a vision for reshaping pharma industry. The industry has to be risen for enabling Pakistan to meet millennium development goals.

The federal minister also emphasized on the role of middleclass, saying the change is not possible without their due involvement to root out feudalism.

He underlined the need to promote public private partnership model in the country to improve the pharma industry as well.

He accepted the increase in health and education budget but emphasized on planning rather than just rising budget as it could not bring fruitful results unless proper planning is there.

Earlier, M. Haroon Qasim, Chairman, PPMA said one of the biggest challenges that the pharmaceutical industry is currently facing is the health ministry's proposed transfer to provinces which will also cause the devolution of the pharmaceutical industry. There is a danger in this because standards of every province will be different, he added.

Professor. Dr. Atta ur Rahman, UNESCO Science Laureate / President, Pakistan Academy of Sciences / Fellow, Royal Society – UK / Coordinator General, COMSTECH, said Science and technology may facilitate the achievement of Millennium Development Goals through sustained and enhanced economic growth; provide employment opportunities; enhance market efficiency; tackle population growth issues; climate change and environmental degradation.

Dr Atta-ur-Rahman said, “Effective science and technology policies are crucial and central to the development prospects of Pakistan in 2 distinct yet interconnected ways. First, science and technology can provide tools that help alleviate the specific problems that afflict our nation and impede their development prospects, such as disease, lack of infrastructure (energy, information, transport, etc.), and degradation of the environment. Second, science and technology are central to the dynamics of economic development itself.”

Khalid Mahmood, Managing Director, Getz Pharma (Pvt.) Limited, shared his thoughts on Pharma Vision 2020 – The Road Ahead. He said Pakistan has inadequate infrastructure, adding, there has been no price increase in any pharmaceutical providers in the country since 2001 which input costs have gone up by 40 to 60 per cent.

He said Pakistan does not have any single FDA/MHRA approval plant / product approval so far.

He urged to create a pharma policy research and advocacy council with a team of market oriented economists and technocrats to recommend to the government.

Dr. Ali Montaseri, Managing Director, Jaber-Ebne-Hayyan Company, Iran, Salman Burney, Chairman, Glaxo Smith Kline Pakistan Limited Badar Khushnood, Country Consultant, Google Inc. S. Khalid Tawab, Vice President, FPCCI, Khadeeja Balkhi, Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility Consultant, Dr. Kaiser Waheed, Managing Director, Medisure Pharma and Nadeem Naqvi Managing Director, Karachi Stock Exchange were speakers at the summit.

Asif Misbah, Managing Director, Macter International, Kashif Sheikh, Managing Director, CCL (Pvt.) Limited, Mian Asif Shuja, Managing Director, Schazoo Laboratories (Pvt.) Limited, Muzaffar Jafri, Director Commercial, Hilton Pharma (Pvt.) Limited, Dr. Sarmad Maqbool, Director Marketing, Abbott Laboratories, Syed Jamshed Ahmed, Director Marketing & Sales, PharmEvo (Pvt.) Ltd, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Director Marketing, Macter International and Asif Sattar, Deputy Managing Director, Atco Laboratories participated in a panel discussion.