Shehri Tv

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...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) A total of 162 top students from all over the country were recognized for their outstanding performance in the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) examinations, held by the Aga Khan University Examination Board, at their high achievers award ceremony in Karachi on November 15. A large number of parents, school principals and teachers were present at the ceremony to appreciate and encourage the high achievers.  "We are proud of our AKU-EB graduates, many of whom have successfully obtained admissions to renowned national and international universities. It is heartening to see the impact that the Examination Board is having on our society by being a model of excellence and innovation in education for Pakistan,” Firoz Rasul, President AKU, remarked.  Girls topped the SSC examinations with the overall first position awarded to Alina Fatima from Al-Murta...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) The Hub School, a not-for-profit boys’ boarding school of excellence, has started its operations with 50 students thus making a cherished dream of the Ahmed E H Jaffer Foundation a reality. Its inaugural batch of 50 students from all over the country has set the ball rolling as The Hub School, situated on the outskirts of Karachi in the vicinity of Northern Bypass near Sindh-Balochistan border, aims to forge a national identity and consciousness by fostering close links and cooperation amongst all students as Pakistanis.  "It will not only create a middle-class for future good leadership and good governance in all fields but will also produce young boys with character, discipline and integrity for a better world and a better and more prosperous Pakistan,” Abdul Kader Jaffer, the present President of Ahmed E. Jaffer Foundation and a former Pakistan's High Commissioner to UK, stated in an exclusive ...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) Ever since the present management led by Chancellor Jawaid Anwar, who is also the President of Aligarh Muslim University Old Boys Association (AMUOBA) has taken over its leadership, the Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET) has taken, on a positive note, many issues as a challenge.  To begin with, according to the progress report 2016-17, issued by AMUOBA, a strategic plan with corrective measures to address the challenges was delivered on stringent timelines. The salient features of the plan included the establishment of Quality Enhancement Cell, establishment of the office of Research, Innovation and Commercialization (ORIC) with a monetary grant from the European Union, revamping of Center of Guidance Counseling and Career Planning/Placement (CGCCPP), establishment of postgraduate studies Directorate, signing of MoUs at national and international levels, HEC and Foreign Funded projects...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) Malnutrition has a lifelong effect on Pakistan’s children and adults and severe consequences for the economy, experts opined at the launch of the Global Nutrition Report 2016 and in the subsequent discussion on policy responses to the country’s nutrition crisis. The seminar on Towards Sustainable Nutrition in Pakistan: Unlocking Barriers focused on identifying multi-sectoral interventions that could help reduce malnutrition and nurture future generations.  The speakers called for simple accelerated actions to improve the quality of life and to meet commitments under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Goals 2 and 3 on ending hunger, and ensuring healthy lives and well being for all ages.  “Inadequate access to nutrition in the first few years of a child’s life results in irreversible neurological and physical effects, diminished mental ability and learning capacity, increased vulnerab...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) The Aga Khan University and key government officials marked the launch of a major new project aimed at improving maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health in Pakistan.  Funded by a US$25 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Umeed-e-Nau (new hope) is a five-year project that will see AKU work with public sector programmes and primary care providers such as Lady Health Workers and Community Health Midwives to deliver proven interventions and improve the quality of care at health facilities in 14 mainly rural districts in Balochistan, Southern Punjab and Sindh, as well as urban slums in Karachi.  The districts include Badin, Dadu, Hyderabad, Matiari, Karachi, Jafferabad, Jamshoro, Lasbela, Mirpur Khas, Muzaffargarh, Nasirabad, Qambar Shahdadkot, Rahim Yar Khan, Sanghar and Thatta.  The project also includes a ground breaking effort to provide health education throug...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi   (Pakistan News & Features Services)   The experts in the field of medicine, business, the arts, and social policy highlighted a range of strategies to build peace and stability in Pakistan on the final day of the National Health Sciences Research Symposium, the Aga Khan University’s annual event on November 6.  Neuroscience researchers and clinicians shared insights on how the mind and brain can contribute to, or take away from, individual and social peace while people from the arts and humanities narrated their efforts to introduce positive change in society and the process of overcoming challenges in their private and public lives.  Creative arts play a vital role in human development, from rehabilitative treatments for post traumatic stress disorder after violent incidents to programmes to treat mental illnesses noted Dr Saad Shafqat, Professor of Neurology at AKU while moderating the session on Art, Music, Litera...