Vendors displaying the lighting balloons to attract the customers at Latifabad
US-Pakistani Diaspora Engagement Conference held
ISLAMABAD, Dec 20 (APP): At a US-Pakistani diaspora conference here on Tuesday, United States Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Andrew Schofer emphasized that the United States considers the US-Pakistani diaspora as a key partner in the humanitarian, social, and commercial sectors in Pakistan.
The United States Mission in Pakistan, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and in close collaboration with the US-Pakistani diaspora, hosted a one-day US-Pakistani Diaspora Engagement Conference, said a press release.
The conference showcased key contributions and investments by the US-Pakistani diaspora in the humanitarian, social, and commercial sectors, and explored avenues for future joint engagements.
More than 100 participants attended in-person, including members of the US-Pakistani diaspora, and prominent local business leaders.
At the closing session, USAID signed two partnership memoranda of understanding with US-Pakistani diaspora entities: one with Datarocx to set up digital centers in Pakistan in the Special Technology Zones and the other with Global Semiconductor Group and HUM Network Limited for Pakistan Katalytic Fund to improve access to growth capital for established businesses in the technology sector.
USAID Mission Director Reed Aeschliman said, “The conference was an opportunity to highlight some of the contributions and investments already made by the Pakistani diaspora, facilitate collaborations between Pakistani diaspora entities, and develop a road map for collective action to address the current humanitarian and social challenges in Pakistan”.
In his remarks, Chargé d’Affaires Schofer highlighted the long history of the United States and Pakistan working together to advance Pakistan’s economic growth and to solve development challenges. He also highlighted opportunities for future partnership: “As the Green Revolution improved lives in the past, a ‘Green Alliance’ between the United States and Pakistan will help us jointly strengthen climate resilience, develop clean energy alternatives, and foster economic growth.”
The United States remains firmly committed to engaging and partnering with the US-Pakistani diaspora to address Pakistan’s challenges in the humanitarian, social and commercial sectors and to further Pakistan’s development goals.
Many deserving women waiting for their turn to receive cash under Benazir Income Support Program by Govt. at Al-Fatah Sports Complex Saleemi Chowk
Vendor displaying and arranging oranges to attract customers at his roadside setup
Laborers cleaning and packing peanuts in a sack at Grain Market
Teenager jumping on trampoline at G-7
A vendor selling clay pots while sitting at roadside
President for an integrated national mental health helpline
ISLAMABAD, Dec 20 (APP): President Dr Arif Alvi on Tuesday emphasised the need to set up an integrated, effective and standardized national-level mental health helpline to provide mental health services and counseling at the grassroots level.
The president, chairing a follow-up meeting on mental health here, said a coordinated, sound, and singular approach at the federal and provincial levels, with the participation of the public and private sectors, should be adopted to address the issues of mental health and well-being in Pakistan.
Country Director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Palitha Gunarathna Mahipala, representatives of the National Commission for Human Rights, Pakistan Psychological Association, Pakistan Psychiatric Society, other organizations, and officials of the federal and provincial governments attended the meeting.
The president emphasised that all resources and initiatives taken at the federal and provincial level and in the private sector related to mental health and well-being should be enlisted and incorporated into a single national helpline for providing speedy and prompt mental health services to the people of Pakistan.
He called for enlisting mental health institutions, teaching hospitals, and other mental health facilities, besides creating a database of mental health providers, which should be integrated into the helpline for providing efficient and effective referrals to the patients.
The president said that avenues in the public and private sectors should be explored to meet the financial need of Rs 45 million for the establishment and launching of the first-ever national mental health helpline.
He added that after the establishment and activation of the mental health helpline, there should be a fully coordinated awareness campaign through conventional and social media and other means of communication to sensitize the masses to seek counseling and help through the helpline.
President Alvi called for creating a curriculum on mental health and well-being in coordination with relevant stakeholders from the public and private sectors and teaching it at an appropriate level in educational institutions to sensitize students on stress and tension management during their studies and handling emotional and social issues.
He said that such students would also be able to educate their family members regarding the importance of mental health and well-being.
He underlined that a separate initiative may be taken to educate parents and family members to remain engaged with their family members and provide mental health counseling and help.
The president said that the HEC, universities and teaching hospitals should create additional seats to encourage enrolment in mental health education to create a critical mass of psychologists and psychiatrists to cater to the need of growing mental health issues in society.
He also said that the management of the national helpline may also consider engaging final-year students in the psychological and psychiatric disciplines for six-month internships to respond to the queries and provide counseling to the patients using the helpline.
President Alvi appreciated the committee for coming up with a fully integrated comprehensive and all-inclusive first-ever national helpline model with an integrated WhatsApp chatbot, web-based counseling and referral system across the country at par with the world standards.
The president said that a separate committee may be set up comprising stakeholders from federal and provincial governments and the private sector and legal fraternity to review all the existing laws and rules that exist at different levels and propose improvements and suggestions while factoring in best practices around the world.
He said that it should come up with standardized laws and rules which may later be adopted at the federal and provincial levels to create an interface across the country of the resources and interventions in the mental health sector.
The president also took notice of the high suicide rate in certain parts of Gilgit-Baltistan and emphasised the need to carry out a comprehensive study to unearth reasons for such a high rate and put in place a counseling and remedial system to first arrest this trend and later fully eliminate it.
Country Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the helpline should be made part of an integrated system of providing mental health services to the masses by integrating the primary, secondary and tertiary health systems at the federal and provincial levels. It should also involve Lady Health Visitors to provide mental health education and information at the grassroots levels and to unprivileged people in underserved areas.
He further said that WHO would provide the seed money of Rs 5 million to start the project. He also said that there was a need to establish a sustainable and fully budgeted program to pursue mental health well-being in society.
The participants thanked the president for providing his leadership to the stakeholders to develop the model of the first-ever national level mental health helpline by assembling the stakeholders from the public and private sectors and providing them with the motivation to proceed on a timeline basis to achieve the set targets.
13 Pakistanis included in world’s top 2000 scientists
BAHAWALPUR, Dec 20 (APP): As many as 13 scientists of Islamia University Bahawalpur have been included in the world’s top 2% of scientists in the Stanford University ranking. Top scientists, doctors, engineers, and mathematicians from around the world are included in the ranking.
The 13 Pakistani scientists from the Islamia University Bahawalpure include Prof Dr. Rubina Bhatti, Dean Faculty of Social Sciences, Prof. Dr. Saeed Ahmed, Chairman Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Prof. Dr. Muhammad Akhtar, Chairman of the Department of Medical Laboratory Technology, Prof. Dr. Muhammad Altaf, Chairman of Green Healthcare System, Department of Pharmacy Practice, Prof. Dr. Zaheer Abbas, Department of Mathematics, Dr. Ismat Bibi, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, Dr. Muhammad Nadeem Akhtar, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, Dr. Muhammad Azhar Khan, Associate Professor, Institute of Physics, Dr. Ghulam Abbas, Department of Mathematics, Dr. Mohammad Adil, Department of Chemistry, Dr. Abdul Rehman, Department of Agronomy, Dr. Mohammad Farooq Warsi, Department of Chemistry and Faisal Zulfikar, Department of Horticulture Sciences.
Engr. Prof. Dr. Athar Mahboob, Vice Chancellor of the Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Deans, and Director ORIC have congratulated him on this honor. It is worth mentioning that every year Stanford University releases a list of the top 2000 scientists in different fields in the world. In recent years, a large number of scientists and researchers from the Islamia University of Bahawalpur have been included in this list, which is a clear manifestation of the Islamia University Bahawalpur’s global standards in research.
Envoys of Canada, Austria, others present credentials to president
ISLAMABAD, Dec 20 (APP): The newly appointed envoys of Canada, Austria, Syria, Serbia, and the Slovak Republic on Tuesday presented their credentials to President Dr Arif Alvi in the Presentation of Credentials Ceremony here.
Later, High Commissioner of Canada Leslie Scanlon, Ambassador of Austria Andrea Wicke, Ambassador of Syria, Dr Ramez Alraee, non-Resident Ambassador Serbia Dragan Todorovic, and non-Resident Ambassador of Slovak Republic Ladislav Ballek also separately called on the president.
Talking to the Canadian ambassador, the president highlighted that there was great economic potential in Pakistan, a market of 220 million people, and investment opportunities.
He said that Canadian businesses should be encouraged to explore the opportunities available in Pakistan.
He said that the resolution of the Reko-Diq project was a positive development, and expressed the hope that it would encourage further Canadian investment in Pakistan.
The president stated that Pakistan and Canada enjoyed cordial and friendly relations and that Pakistan looked forward to greater bilateral cooperation in the areas of the economy, commerce, and investment.
Welcoming the Austrian ambassador, the president said that Pakistan attached high importance to its relations with Austria, both bilaterally and in the context of the European Union.
He informed that Pakistan’s investment regime was very liberal, and the Austrian companies should benefit from it and consider making investments in the Special Economic Zones being set up all over the country.
He said that Pakistan offered significant opportunities for investment in the fields of hydropower, railways, communication, renewable energy, and waste management technologies.
President Alvi said that there were ample opportunities for cooperation in start-ups and information technology sectors, and expressed hope that the two countries work towards enhancing cooperation in these fields.
He also urged the need to further enhance bilateral trade and economic cooperation, adding that the true potential of bilateral trade was still unrealized.
He noted that Austria had remained supportive of Pakistan’s GSP+ status and that the country looked forward to Austria’s continued support towards the successful completion of the ongoing 4th biennial review and for the new GSP Plus Scheme post-2023.
The president underscored that Pakistan would like to work together with its international partners, including Austria, to address the global issue of climate change.
He expressed gratitude to the government and the people of Austria for providing Euro 2 million in humanitarian assistance for the flood victims in Pakistan.
Talking to the Syrian ambassador to Pakistan, the president urged the need for regular contact between the two countries at different tiers of leadership in order to further cement cordial relations.
He said that Pakistan’s relations with Syria were multi-faceted and deep-rooted and that cultural, religious, and historical ties bound the people of the two countries.
He appreciated the friendly gesture by the Syrian government to open group visas for Pakistani pilgrims and commended the decision taken by the airlines of both countries to operate direct flights between Karachi and Damascus.
While talking to the non-resident ambassador of Serbia, the president said that both countries need to work diligently to strengthen their bilateral economic and trade relations in order to bring them to par with the actual trade potential.
He further highlighted that Pakistan offered tremendous opportunities for investment and cooperation in the fields of hydropower, communication, higher and technical education, industrial and commercial interaction, renewable energy, information technology, circular economy and waste management technologies.
President Alvi further said that Pakistan, having a population of over 220 million, was an ideal market to hire skilled and semi-skilled workers, which the Serbian corporate sector could utilize.
“Skilled youth from Pakistan can help the construction sector which is presently booming in Serbia”, he added.
The president thanked the Serbian side for agreeing to support Pakistan’s candidature for the Council of International Maritime Organization and Commission on the Limits of Continental Shelf (CLCS).
Talking to the non-resident ambassador of the Slovak Republic, the president expressed the hope that the envoy would be able to contribute towards expanding bilateral ties between the two countries.
He noted with satisfaction that the ministries of foreign affairs of both countries had set up a mechanism for Bilateral Political Consultations, which would provide a good opportunity to review the overall relationship and take new initiatives.
The president further said that the investment policies of Pakistan were very liberal, and urged the ambassador to persuade the Government of Slovakia and businesses to take advantage of them.
He suggested that bilateral cooperation and investment in a variety of sectors, including the automobile industry, machinery, energy, construction, infrastructure, agriculture, electric industry, tourism and food processing.
President Alvi also highlighted that Pakistan’s start-up and information technology sector was expanding very fast, and urged the ambassador to meet the concerned people in this regard.
He also informed that Pakistan had also established Special Economic Zones and that Slovak investors were welcome to invest in them.
He also noted that GSP Plus had played an important role in the growth of trade between Pakistan and the EU countries and that Pakistan looked forward to Slovakia’s continued support towards the successful completion of the ongoing 4th biennial review and for the new GSP Plus Scheme post-2023.