FARUKH SHEHZAD

ISLAMABAD, OCT 16 /DNA/ – Vice Chancellor Air University Air Marshal Javaid Ahmed (Retd) has stressed the need of promoting career-focused education, stating that: “Air University focuses on enhancing the employability skills in order to facilitate students for choosing a perfect career path.” He was addressing the concluding session in connection with the first-ever Career Counseling Week (AUCCW 2022) organized by the AU Career Support Office. On the occasion, Director Student Affairs Fazaila Ali, Assistant Director Sabahuddin Qazi, Placement Officials Gulnaz Batool, Misbah Shahid, Mobeen Jamshed and other distinguished guests were also present.

The Vice Chancellor, in his address, emphasized that a career-oriented education is the need of time that empowers students, through academic programs and co-curricular activities, to identify their professional goals and let them move forward in the right direction to achieve successes. “Air University is taking various initiatives facilitating students to earn their valuable degree, develop bright destiny, and ensure a solid foundation for their future achievements,” he further said.

Answering a question about the importance of CGPA in job hirings, the VC acknowledged that the CGPA is usually considered the most important factor when being shortlisted for a job position. “You might get a job offer based on your academic performance, but in order to secure the seat and compete in the job market, you need to demonstrate extraordinary competencies related to creative thinking, interpersonal skills, team spirit, decision-making, and a strong grip on technology,” he stated.

“It is a universal fact that students who are more self-aware and clear on their career strengths feel more confident to explore professional opportunities,” DSA Fazaila Ali expressed while expressing her views with students. “The key objectives for organizing the Career Counseling Week include to brief newly-enrolled students of 1st semester about the significance of choosing the right career path, to test and evaluate job readiness skills, and to devise a concrete plan of action in support of career planning and development,” she emphasized.

“The data obtained could also be beneficial for research purpose and decision making process to find out more about students’ career readiness, their strengths and needs for grooming,” Sabahuddin Qazi, who heads Career Support Office, stated, informing that “it will also provide a comprehensive framework for addressing career-related goals and outcomes of curricular and co-curricular activities in terms of student’s field of study and interest areas.”

According to him, a total nine sessions were held throughout the week starting from October 10, during which the AU Career Counseling core team, composed of Gulnaz Batool, Misbah Shahid and Mobeen Jamshed, evaluated the employability skills and career readiness competencies that employers value most in the recruitment process. “The participating students were thoroughly tested on the basis of job readiness competencies, as per international best practices,” he stated.

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PODA conference concludes at Lok Virsa

DNA

ISLAMABAD, Observing International Rural Women’s Day (Saturday) the rural women from 123 districts present the 15th Annual Rural Women Conference by PODA-Pakistan here at Lok Virsa demanded to set minimum age for marriage for girls 18 years. They said that this age limit should be for all beyond race, ethnicity and creed.

The Three-Day Annual Rural Women Conference organized by PODA-Pakistan and supported for European Union Delegation to Pakistan, Election Commission of Pakistan, National Database Registration Authority (NADRA), GIZ and National Endowment for Democracy concluded today (Saturday) on passing a unanimously agreed resolutions highlighting rural women’s issues at the grassroots level to ensure their constitutional rights. PODA-Pakistan has been organizing the Annual Rural Women Conference since 2008 in Islamabad.

Urging the legislators, policy makers and parliamentarians to main the primary principle of gender equality enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan to uphold women’s political, social and economic rights, the gathering passed a set of resolutions unanimously. 

The resolution focused mainly on the areas of health, education, women’s financial inclusion, climate change, access to basic social services, political participation and women’s constitutional and citizenship rights while highlighting the need to adhere and ensure the principle of equal representation of rural women at all levels, policy, planning and implementation.

The conference participants of four provinces and regions of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan urged the provincial governments to adopt policies based on the concept of gender-equality which includes all segments of the society from person-with-disabilities, transgender persons, minorities, different ethnicities and indigenous communities to allocate resources for their development, while at the same time recognizing their contributions in the national development.  

The conference participants reiterated their demand to recognize rural women as “farmers” so that equally to men they could be benefited from the government policies.

Reiterating European Union Delegation to Pakistan’s commitment for gender equality, present on the occasion, Thomas Seiler, Deputy Head said this conference is a “platform from where you make your voices heard collectively to tackle problems and challenges”.He also recommended the participants to take back their action plan in the form of conference resolutions with them to work on it at union level with their utmost resilience. 

He said that European Union Delegation to Pakistan has been working closely with the government of Pakistan and with other donors in assessing the needs for rebuilding the flood-hit areas and supporting future recovery efforts. 

“Women are among the most at risk in flood-affected areas. However, at the same they need to be on the frontline of relief plans ensuring their needs are treated on priority,” Thomas Seiler said.

Thomas Seiler also termed the conference an effective drive in connecting women’s demands raised from this platform with the steps taken and efforts initiated by the state institutions of ECP and NADRA for ensuring women’s equal participation in political processes.

Lauding the efforts of PODA, Farkhanda Naz, Provincial Ombudsperson Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace urged to extend harassment act to protect women working in informal sector. Earlier President, PODA Sameena Nazir presented an over view of the previous annual rural women conferences.

Nuzhat Shirin, Chairperson Sindh Commission on the Status of Women also spoke on the occasion terming conference a unique place for nurturing “a great sense of sisterhood” among women which was in itself a great accomplishment to celebrate.

Deputy Head of EUD to Pakistan, Thomas Seiler, awarded partner organizations and rural women for their contributions taking forward the conference’s agenda into their districts across Pakistan

The solidarity partners who received awards were: Nuzhat Shirin Chairperson Sindh Commission on the Status of Women, Rukhshanda Naz KP Ombudsperson for Protection against Harassment at Workplace, Shaheen Farooqi, Bhera Press Club, Zarina Salamat, member PODA board, eminent poet, Kishwar Naheed. 

Rural Women Leaders who were awarded included: Aqsa Noor, Mirpur, AJK, Shahida Irshad, Quetta,  Balochistan, Shazia Fida Gilgit, GB, Rukhsana Jahengir, Swat KPK, Mehwish Majeed, Layyah, Punjab and Azra Memon, Dadu, Sindh.

Chairperson National Commission on the Status of Women, Nilofer Bakhtiar, Reema Aftab, DG Inclusive Registration, NADRA, Moazzma Yousaf, Director Inclusive Registration and Zahid ur Rehman Assistant Director NADRA were also among the award recipients for their contributions to uplift the cause of rural women.

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ISLAMABAD, OCT 14 /DNA/ – Pakistan Hotels Association’s annual election results were announced at its 58th annual general meeting, held on September 30, 2022. The following Office Bearers have been elected for the term 2022-23

Mustansir Zakir as Chairman, Mian Akram Farid as Senior Vice Chairman, Mr. Faisal Qayyum Khan as Vice Chairman North, and Mr. Abdul Jabbar Rathod as Vice Chairman South.

Mustansir Zakir has been elected as Chairman, who is associated with Hashoo Group for more than 25 years, and is the CEO of Hashwani Hotels Limited, the owners and operators of Islamabad & Karachi Marriott Hotels and Zaver Pearl-Continental Hotel Gwadar.

Mr. Zakir is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) and Associate Member of the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICAM).

He has done his certification in Hospitality and Strategic Management from Cornell University, USA. Mr. Zakir has remained Chairman and Executive Committee Member of PHA in the past as well, playing a vital role in the hospitality sector on behalf of the Pakistan Hotels Association.

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ISLAMABAD, OCT 14 /DNA/ – A roundtable discussion titled “An Appraisal of 10 years of Chinese National Congress and Regional Outlook” was organised under the banner of Islamabad Institute of Conflict Resolution (IICR), an Islamabad-based think tank.

The panellists included Professor Zamir Ahmed Awan, Founding Chair GSRRA, Lecturer NUST; Dr George H Cooke, Diplomatic Historian, Sri-Lanka; Mr Shakeel Ahmad, Political Economist; Mr Carlos Martinez, Independent Researcher & Co-editor of Friends of Socialist China, UK; Dr Tahir MumtazAwan, Head of China Study Centre, COMSATS University. Ms. Sabah Aslam, Executive Director of IICR delivered opening remarks and welcomed the guests and panellists.

While addressing the panel, Professor Zamir Ahmed Awan, Founding Chair GSRRA, Lecturer NUST, said “The future is China, China is the rising superpower, and the Communist Party of China (CPC) has played the main role in achieving such a feat. He further said that Chinese President Xi Jinping is a visionary leader with a global perspective. The policies implemented under his leadership in China are being followed by multiple countries across the world.

He asserted that the US openly considers the emerging power China as a threat and is exercising a policy to contain China, counter China, and engage China at strategic diplomatic, and economic levels. China has the capacity to reshape the global order, as its leadership has emerged as the strongest in the world. China has successfully curbed the menace of corruption which led to the eradication of poverty.

In his virtual presentation over Zoom link, Dr George H Cooke, Diplomatic Historian, Sri-Lanka, said that the most precious aspect of Chinese economic and social development in the last 40 years of reform and opening up has been the ability of the country to grasp the logic of history and adapt to the tendency of the times. He underscored that the Chinese leadership has sought to strategize foreign policy efficiency by basing it on domestic demand and policy.

Mr Shakeel Ahmad, Political Economist, in his talk on the occasion said that the most important contribution of CPC is the production of visionary people who possess leadership characteristics of wisdom, competence, and selflessness. He further highlighted how the Chinese Leadership could foresee things beyond the wall, possess the competence to draft and frame policies, and steered the state out of poverty. He underlined that selflessness, and high moral and ethical values of the leadership helped China to emerge as a rising power.

Mr Carlos Martinez, Independent Researcher & Co-editor of Friends of Socialist China, UK, with the 20th CPC National Congress being held in three days, it is an opportune moment to take a look at china’s system of people’s democracy, a subject that is often misunderstood and misrepresented. Particularly in the western world in the context of a new cold war where China is constantly demonized and labelled as being undemocratic.

He went on to say that, the western world has positioned itself as the sole arbiter of democracy. However, the big priorities for the Chinese Government are tackling poverty, building common prosperity, ensuring that everybody has a home, has access to healthcare, has access to education, clean water, and modern energy, ensuring people are protected from the pandemic, dealing with pollution, developing renewable energy, cracking down on corruption, and generally improving people’s quality of life, this is people’s democracy.

Dr Tahir MumtazAwan, Head of China Study Centre, COMSATS University, in his address said, The 20th CPC National Congress has been termed as ‘Xi Jin ping’s Coronation’. Hopefully, CPC and Xi Jinping will emerge even more resilient post the 20th CPC Congress, which paves the way to China’s rise as a global power. China is working further to become not only more powerful but aiming for regional prosperity and common growth, he added.

He stressed that China has a policy of non-interference and not suppressing other nations. China was the first country to receive and send diplomatic delegations to and from Afghanistan post US withdrawal in 2021.

In the concluding remarks Ms Sabah Aslam stressed that Pakistan dearly needs a strong and selfless leadership like that of China. We need to learn lessons from the Chinese to help develop our country Pakistan. We need to evaluate the Chinese growth and strength and allow the national government to consolidate and strengthen so as to be impactful and strong enough to implement the policies for the betterment of the nation.

The conference came to end with a question and answer session followed by Hi-Tea.

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