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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...

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi (Pakistan News & Features Services) The application of revolutionary computer models to complex problems in neuroscience, the study of the mind, brain and nervous system, is making a range of scientific and medical breakthroughs possible, said experts at the National Health Sciences Research Symposium, the Aga Khan University’s annual event on November 5. Computer simulations and algorithms have enabled researchers to emulate the complex electrochemistry of the brain.  This has resulted in new insights into mental disorders such as epilepsy, which affects 2 million people in Pakistan, and a range of medical innovations that is enabling children, who were born deaf, to hear for the first time and soldiers, who lost arms and legs in war, to control robotic limbs with their minds.  These were some of the discussions at the three-day conference, Mind and Brain: Neuroscience Today and Tomorrow, that saw specialists from around the wo...