Shehri Tv

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) Dr Sadia Bhutta of AKU’s Institute for Educational Development (IED), has received the Best University Teacher award from the Higher Education Commission (HEC) for the year 2015 at a ceremony in Islamabad. The annual award from HEC, Pakistan’s university accreditation and regulatory body, honours teachers in higher education who have made a contribution to society through innovative teaching practices, research and community service.  An IED alumna from the Class of 1999, Dr Bhutta went on to earn her doctorate in Education with a specific focus on Health Promotion through Schools from Oxford University’s Department of Education before returning to Pakistan to take up a position as the IED’s Head of Research and Policy Studies.  In this role, she ensures that research at IED is relevant to the country’s education challenges and that studies are designed to inform government policy. Alongside her res...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) The experts have warned that misuse and overuse of antibiotics in humans and animals has resulted in the widespread distribution of resistant organisms in several countries, including Pakistan which means that antibiotics which were previously able to cure will not work any more. They were addressing a national symposium on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) organized by the Aga Khan University (AKU), Karachi.  The symposium coincides with the launch of the National Strategic Framework for Antimicrobial Resistance by the Government of Pakistan the other week.  “Antibiotic resistance is as much a problem in Pakistan as in the Western hemisphere,” Dr Sadia Shakoor, Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at AKU, reckoned.  “We know that infections acquired in the community are becoming resistant because antibiotics are available freely to the population even without prescri...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) The work on Rs 7 billion project of dualization of railway track from Port Qasim to Bin Qasim Railway station will be completed by June 30, 2017.  The 11-km long track is being renewed with laying of a new track to facilitate the transportation of coal from Port Qasim to Bin Qasim Railway station for supply to upcountry destination.  Engr Nisar Memon, the Divisional Superintendent Railways Karachi Division, revealed during an interview that 80 percent work on the existing track has been completed, while plan was afoot for the construction of a new railway station between Port Qasim and Bin Qasim.  He said that the renewal work on 135-km track between Landhi and Kotri Railway Stations has been completed at a cost of Rs nine billion, adding that the work on strengthening of the track is going and upon completion, the train speed will increase from existing 110 km/hour to 120 Km/hour thus redu...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) Unusually high levels of lead and arsenic, heavy metals most commonly associated with human poisoning, have been found in common foods. These are the findings of a research study, conducted by the Aga Khan University in collaboration with Japan’s Jichi Medical University, that were presented at a seminar Heavy Metals, Food Safety and Child Development at AKU on December 5. Lead and arsenic are two chemicals deemed to be of major concern to public health, according to the World Health Organization’s International Programme on Chemical Safety, since both elements have toxic effects that can cause irreversible neurological damage and even trigger a wide range of chronic diseases.  To determine the cause of lead and arsenic exposure, the AKU researchers looked at common sources of lead and arsenic exposure including petrol, foods, drinking water, house-dust, respirable dust and soil across urban and rural ar...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi ( Pakistan News & Features Services) “We are running successful businesses, leading civil rights organizations and inspiring students in schools,” members of the public with disabilities spoke at a seminar on December 2 at the Aga Khan University (AKU), Karachi,  The strategies to prevent injuries that cause disabilities, initiatives to broaden access to rehabilitative services and steps to make educational services more inclusive were discussed at the event celebrating the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. In Pakistan, five million people suffer from some form of disability.  “Yet less than 1 in 5 of the country’s persons with disabilities (PWD) can access the social and educational support they need to thrive. Only 1 in 7 receive the help they need to participate fully in the workforce and just 1 in 10 have access to rehabilitative services that can help them recover.”  “If the true measure of any society can b...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) Besides some other sports, the Sir Syed University of Engineering & Technology (SSUET), Karachi, is now raising its boxing team. According to the SSUET Director Sports, Mubbashir Mukhtar, the work has started on preparing the university's boxing team of eight to 10 members.  So far, he said, 35 students got themselves registered for induction in the team.  Mubbashir Mukhtar said that the trials for selection of team members have been conducted and required number of team members selected.  He added that these selectees will undergo training for which a 10-day training camp, planned to be organized at some reputed martial art club in the city.  The trials were conducted under the supervision of boxing coach Nasir Khaleeq and witnessed by the SSUET Registrar, Syed Sarfraz Ali.  The university already has teams in cricket, hockey, football, volleyball, basketball,...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) Shaheer Khan, the US-based Muslim scientist and a senior Aligarhian, currently on a short visit to Pakistan, was the chief guest at a luncheon hosted by Prof Dr Jawaid H Rizvi, Vice-Chancellor Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET). A senior staff scientist at Applied Biosystems (Thermo Fisher Scientific), San Francisco Bay Area Biotechnology, Shaheer Khan is an accomplished multidisciplinary scientist with 20 plus years of research and product development experience in Biotech Company.  He has demonstrated strong synthetic and analytical chemistry background for discovery and development of new products in a multidisciplinary team environment and has an extensive background in organic chemistry with an emphasis on nucleosides/nucleotides and oligonucleotide.  During an interaction with the luncheon participants Shaheer Khan praised the Aligarh Muslim University Old Boys Associati...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) A six-member group of students of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) visited the headquarters of the Pakistan Railways in Lahore to acquaint themselves with the infrastructure, operation and working of the railway system. The group consisting of four girls and two boys, called on the Chief Personnel Officer, Shoaib Adil, at his office and had an in depth interaction with him about the railway affairs.  The CPO briefed the visitors about the railway working in greater details and specially the efforts being made by the Railways Minister, Khawaja Saad Rafique, for the railway's turn around to make it Pakistan's prestigious organization.  He explained to the students the railway's soaring revenue income, the addition of new locomotives and carriages and the working of different cadres of the railway staff besides other things.  The LUMS students pitched a volley of seari...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) The Pakistan Railways has made great strides in its revenue earnings with Karachi railway division alone having achieved amazing targets with total revenue earnings rising from Rs 4172.468 million in 2011-12 to Rs 15,615.820 million in 2015-16. The statistics showed that railways’ revenue earnings stood at Rs 2326.312 million in 1988-89 and soared to Rs 4726.668 million in 2012-13 but shot up to Rs 15,615.820 million in just 2 years 2014-16.  "The earnings of the division stood at Rs 12,158 million in 2014-15 as against the target of Rs 9304.276 million and went up to Rs 15,615.820 million as against the target of Rs 12,732 million in 2015-16,”Engr Nisar Memon, the Divisional Superintendent Railways Karachi Division, informed in an interview.  Giving head wise earning position, he revealed that from July 2016 to October 2016, the railway's passenger earnings touched a record Rs 2126.150 million as a...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) The Chief Minister of Sindh, Syed Murad Ali Shah, in his address to Aga Khan University’s 29th convocation, highlighted the importance of a broad-based, multidisciplinary education in tackling the country’s problems. “We need natural scientists and social scientists, writers and artists, entrepreneurs and public policy experts who can work across boundaries of all kind in order to start and lead progress in wide range of fields,” he observed while speaking to the university’s 383 graduands.  While praising the AKU’s plans to invest in a new Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) in Karachi, he spoke of the social contribution that a liberal arts education can make.  “The FAS will fill a deep need within Pakistan for universities that create leaders who possess the critical thinking, creativity and problem solving skills, an inquiring mind, breadth of knowledge and respect for all people needed to ...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) The Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), Karachi, has launched an advanced refractive surgery suite equipped with the latest laser technology for vision-correcting surgeries. The suite will enable eye specialists at the Hospital to customise treatment to each patient’s needs with improved performance in terms of precision, safety, comfort and recovery. “A refractive surgery is a procedure that corrects common vision problems to reduce or stop a person’s dependence on eyeglasses or contact lenses,” Dr Irfan Jeeva, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Service Line Chief of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology, AKUH, observed at the inauguration of the facility.  He described the most common vision problems as nearsightedness or myopia where distant images seem blurry, farsightedness or hyperopia where near images seem blurry, and astigmatism where close-up as well as distant images seem blurry.  ...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) Professor Zulfiqar A Bhutta has been honoured with The World Academy of Sciences 2016 TWAS Prize in medical sciences, in recognition of his “incisive work on academic paediatrics and public health in Pakistan, which has contributed to shape global child health and policy”. TWAS Prizes are in nine fields and this year 10 winners were announced at the Academy's 27th General Meeting in Kigali, Rwanda.  So far only three prizes have been given to Pakistani scientists, one each in agriculture and biological sciences previously, since its inception in 1983.  Each year, TWAS awards prizes worth US$15,000 each to individual scientists from developing countries in recognition of their outstanding contributions to scientific knowledge, and to the application of science and technology to sustainable development.  The award is given to those who have been working and living in a developing countr...