Revitalisation of universities urged
Karachi : Pakistan cannot effectively communicate with any country, including India, unless Pakistani universities are brought at par with international standards, said Hameed Haroon while speaking on Saturday at the Sarwar Nasim Memorial Lecture on “Communicating Pakistan to India”.
The lecture was organised by the Karachi University Teachers Guild (KUTG) at the University of Karachi (KU).
“Universities in Pakistan are groaning under the yoke of insufficient funds, absence of towering figures who can guide universities to the height of excellence, appropriate infrastructure and neglect from society. It is surprising that journalists, parliamentarians, NGO personnel and businessmen can go to India without any obstacles, but academics have to channel their application through the governor. We are looking at bigotry, it is unfortunate,” he remarked.
Haroon further drew the attention of the audience towards the fact that an elite system of education has been developed in Pakistan, where the affluent send their children abroad for education. Those who are not as fortunate have to go to public sector universities, which are substandard. The former group of people, he said, are not interested in doing anything that does not help them, while the latter have no proficiency in such things. This does not leave any avenue to talk with our eastern neighbour, he said.
“There could be no progress in the country, and other countries will continue to view us as ignorant and unreliable if we, the government, and society continue to ignore universities,” he asserted.
Haroon said that strategic faults remain even while communicating within Pakistan, claiming that a factional society, which in turn is divided on different issues, was responsible for such a phenomenon. He said that communicating with India becomes more difficult due to the lack of cohesion in the government. “Who will do that? The president, prime minister or the masses,” he asked.
Haroon said that Pakistan has to adopt a dignified, rational approach for self-identity. India with superior education and better political understanding has ignored or does not understand Pakistan. “We have to be accepted by others as a dignified state. India does not accept Pakistan as its equal. It patronises Pakistan,” he maintained.
“A country must show vibrancy, dynamism and qualities to communicate with their own people and other countries. It is a harsh fact that Pakistani rulers have been unable to take note of the masses that are suffering with deprivation, illiteracy and poverty. We have to tolerate people from other religions too. A safe and satisfied society is the base for a strong country. We have to achieve that goal,” he said.
The KU vice-chancellor hoped his university will come out of the deep slumber and apathy that has been the rule for a long time. Dr Aqeel Ahmed, Dr Shakeel Farooqui and others also spoke on the occasion.
Source: The News Sunday, February 21, 2010
KU researchers establishing Pakistan’s first Bio Bank
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Karachi: Researchers at the Panjwani Centre of Molecular Medicine and Drug Research (PCMD), University of Karachi (KU) are in the process of establishing Pakistan’s first Bio Bank that would provide biological materials to other researchers throughout the country.
The Bio Bank, which has a state-of-art storage facility at PCMD, is the brainchild of Dr Iqbal Chaudhary, Director PCMD and is supervised by Dr Kaneez Fatima Shad, a Professor of Neurology and assisted by Dr Sonia Siddiqui, who is a neuroscientist and holds a PhD degree from Bochum, Germany.
The Bio Bank will produce primary and continuous cell lines that posses the similar properties of the body organ they are extracted from. One of the examples is that of B1O3 cell line that possesses the property of important brain region called Substantia Nigra, which is responsible for the synthesis of serotonin.
Dr Shad has requested surgeons, especially neurosurgeons from all over Pakistan, to help them in expanding the Bio Bank facility by providing them a piece of each discarded tissue while performing surgery. “We are requesting the surgeons to inform us about the surgery in advance to enable us to send a person to collect the freshly discarded tissue. The size of the tissue could be one mm and will be enough to generate the cell line. We will immediately dissociate the cells and incubate them in the special media for propagation (growth). Once the cells are propagated and grow properly, they will be differentiated and classified according to their properties,” Dr Shad said while giving details.
Dr Sonia Siddiqui added, “The main purpose of the Bio Bank is to store the tissues at the required temperatures and other suitable conditions and then supply them to the scientists and researchers throughout the country. Currently we have preserved the tissues at -180 degrees Celsius in a Nitrogen Container.”
The cell tissues, once established would be used for testing the natural compounds extracted in HEJ Institute of Chemistry, KU. The results would be compared with commercially available drugs to analyse their potential for therapeutic action. “The isolated tissues obtained from the hospitals will be further tested for genetic information to generate data bank of DNA mutations present in the Pakistani population,” Dr Shad explained.
According to Dr Shad most of the drugs are tested on people in Western Europe who have a different genetic make up but are used by the people in our part of the world. There is a possibility that therapeutic effects could either be none or negligible. This is an alarming situation because it would mean that our people, while spending money on the medicines, would possibly be not getting any healing effect on them.
It is worth mentioning here that some students in Dr Shad’s group are working on the genetic profile of the Pakistani population for diseases such as schizophrenia and depression. This information may help in future to identify the potential therapeutic targets for these diseases.
Source: The News
Student unions a must if govt wants country to progress
Friday, February 19, 2010
Karachi : Eminent lawyer and human rights activist, Asma Jahangir has strongly advocated the revival of student unions in universities if the government wants the country to progress and produce an able leadership.
Jahangir stressed the need of student unions while speaking as a guest speaker at a seminar on “Global Standards and the Current State of Human Rights in Pakistan” at the Arts auditorium, University of Karachi (KU), organised by Karachi University Teachers Society (KUTS) on Thursday.
“We need student unions that are vibrant, mature and have intellectual hue that could lead the students in the universities and provide strong leadership in the country for good governance as the most educated segment of society would be ideal leaders,” she suggested.
She spoke about the need to have political and social rights in the country that would bring peace and prosperity to the country and the people. She thought that the French decision to ban scarves in the schools and offices was the violation of human rights but the German decision against a veiled teacher was the right one as the students needed to see the expression of the their teacher and veil between them and her teacher was an obstacle. It was against their (children’s) human rights.
She pointed out that Pakistan, including other countries of South Asia, had dismal human rights record, especially the religious rights while Latin American countries had excellent record in religious tolerance. She talked about the rights of women in Pakistan and was later peppered by the questions about the rights of Afia Siddiqui who was languishing in US prison under sub human conditions. Her replies produced more questions from the students that resulted in the show of disapproval from Jahangir.
Moving on, she approved the idea that the rules of human rights should be taught in the schools and the academia should propagate it. She acknowledged the fact that our part of the world usually had sham democracy and reminded that Adolf Hitler had been elected with popular majority votes.
Vice Chancellor KU Prof Pirzada Qasim welcomed Asma Jahangir and spoke on some length on the tricky world of human rights that eluded some while rewarded others. He favoured more human rights lectures in the university and hoped that the same would be arranged.
President KUTS Dr Abid Hasnain reminded the audience that usually people were talking about their rights and others’ responsibilities though it should have been the other way round.
Source : The News
Registration, exams form submission for overseas Pakistanis
Karachi: The University of Karachi (KU) has announced the schedule of the submission of registration and examination forms of B.A, B.Com and M.A. for overseas Pakistanis as external candidates on Friday.
The interested candidates have been asked to contact the Pakistan
Embassy School at Jeddah, Riyadh, Bahrain, Muscat, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Kuwait. The normal registration fee for B.A, B.Com and M.A. is $100 and can be deposited from January 14 to February 14, 2008, while the examination fee for B.A. (Part-I and II), B.Com. (Part-I and II) and M.A. (Previous and Final) is $250.
A sum of $50 will be charged from those who have failed before. However, the candidates will have to pay $50 as a late fee in addition to the normal fee.
With a view to give another opportunity to overseas Pakistanis who failed in B.A. (pass), B.Com. and M.A. either as regular or external candidates irrespective of the time limit, they will also be allowed to appear at the above Overseas Examinations Centre with a payment of $50 in addition to the normal registration and examination fee.
Meanwhile, KU also announced the results of the B.Sc. occupational therapy part-I supplementary examinations 2006. According to the results, only five candidates appeared in the examinations out of which all passed, making the overall percentage at 100.
Moreover, KU also announced the results of final professional BDS supplementary examinations 2007. According to the statistics of the results, a total of 48 candidates appeared in the examinations, of which 33 were declared to have been passed. The overall percentage remained at 68.75. The News
KU extends admission date of BS programme
Director Admissions, University of Karachi (KU), Dr Saleem Shahzad, has announced on Sunday that candidates who were unable to apply for admission to BS programme in departments where aptitude test is not mandatory can apply on December 10 and 11, 2007. The forms can be obtained from the United Bank Limited branch, Silver Jubilee Gate, KU, and can be submitted at the same branch from 9:00am to 1:00pm on the same dates. Furthermore, those candidates who could not apply for MSc Physics can contact the admission office on December 10 and 11, 2007 during 9:00am to 1:00pm.
Source: The News
University of Karachi (KU) Exams Forms
The University of Karachi (KU) on Saturday extended the submission of examination forms of B.Com (improvement of division) external annual examination 2007 (to be held in January 2008) from December 3 to December 15, 2007.
The examination forms of B.Com part-I can be submitted with a total fee of Rs2,000, B.Com part-II, improvement of division Rs2,000 and B.Com part-I, II (both parts) and improvement of division Rs3,300.
Source: The News
