Foundation stone of KHA astroturf project laid

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Sindh Chief Secretary, Mohammad Siddiq Memon, along with the Chancellor of the Sir Syed University of Engineering & Technology (SSUET), Karachi, Jawaid Anwar, unveiled the foundation stone of the sports complex project of the Karachi Hockey Association (KHA), located just opposite the SSUET campus. 

The complex will have a hockey ground with astroturf besides a swimming pool and a multi-purpose hall as suggested by Chancellor Jawaid Anwar and approved by the Chief Secretary. 

Speaking on the occasion as the chief guest, CS Siddiq Memon observed that upon the directive of the Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, the allocation for sports promotion in Sindh has been increased in the budget from Rs one to two billion.

He pointed out that the Sindh Government, besides laying astroturfs, was carrying out construction of sports complexes throughout the province and at present 38 sports-related schemes were under implementation with KHA’s Sports Complex opposite SSUET a part of the same. 

He informed that the schemes have been completed in Sukkur, Larkana and Mirpurkhas where astroturfs was laid. On the special directive of the Chief Minister 54 more projects were being initiated and funds allocated thereof in the budget 2016, he informed adding that objective was to make all out efforts to provide sports facilities to the youth of Sindh. 

He declared that Karachi Hockey Association (KHA) will be given a grant of Rs 30 lacs this year. Addressing the ceremony, the SSUET Chancellor, Jawaid Anwar thanked the Chief Secretary with whose efforts development of the hockey ground had started and it was a welcome initiative that an astroturf will be laid there.

He underlined the necessity of having a swimming pool and a multi-purpose hall in this under construction complex and pointed out that there are a large number of universities, colleges and schools around this ground whose students would be able to benefit from the facilities of this project. 

He congratulated the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) and particularly the Karachi Hockey Association (KHA) for making outstanding efforts for the promotion of hockey. 

He announced that after the astroturf was laid there, the Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology will organize an inaugural match between the SSUET’s hockey players, Olympians and Internationals.

He declared that the university will first hold an All Karachi Hockey Tournament on this ground and will provide a good number of students to benefit from this ground. 

He extended all out cooperation of the university towards the promotion of hockey. 

Earlier the General Secretary, KHA, Farooq Khan, thanked the Chief Secretary Siddiq Memon, Sports Secretary, Mohammed Rashid, and Chief Engineer, Aslam Maher, for their contribution in the development of sports complex and laying of astroturf which would provide an opportunity for the youngsters to play hockey . 

The Senior Vice-President, KHA, Aijazuddin, described the project of sports complex and astroturf as a gift from Sindh Government and the youth should take maximum advantage of the same so that new talent could emerge. 

The ceremony was largely attended, among others, by, Anwar Ali, Advisor to Vice-Chancellor, Registrar Syed Sarfraz Ali, besides Olympians Saleem Sherwani, Qamar Ibrahim, Sameer Hussain and Internationals Jan Mohammed, Mohammed Ali and Mubbashir Mkhtar who is also the Director Sports of the SSUET.

Capacity building of Sindh health officials

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Aga Khan University (AKU) in partnership with the Department of Health, Government of Sindh, and John Snow Inc is hosting a ceremony to recognize and review ongoing efforts into capacity building of government health managers in Sindh.

The Sindh Health Department’s district and provincial managers who have successfully completed standalone graduate courses in health sector reform and quality management, as part of an initiative to build capacity to improve the health delivery system in the province, will also receive transcripts and certificates at the ceremony. 

This is the first time government managers have been able to study while continuing to work in the Health Department. 

The programme, offered every weekend, is a blend of theory and practice, and targets working professionals who wish to enhance their academic knowledge and leadership skills. 

So far, Sindh is the only province that has invested in a formal MoU for capacity building of health managers and has a tripartite agreement between the Government of Sindh, John Snow Inc and AKU.

School students discuss issues with Ombudsman

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Foundation for Research and Human development (FRHD), in collaboration with Action Aid, arranged a prospect for children’s councils comprising of young activist from government schools to meet and have one-on-one discussion with Provincial Ombudsman, Sindh, Asad Ashraf Malik. 

The meeting with Ombudsman was held at the Sindh Secretariat in Karachi with the primary objective of providing an opportunity to children for discussing education-related issues that negatively impede with their academics and integrate vulnerable children with education. 

The students discussed the issues bothering them face to face with the Mohtasib who promised to take immediate notice in order to rectify the problems. 

The three key problems that the students were able to highlight among others were the mismanagement and corruption of School Management Committee (SMC) fund in government schools, students being deprived of their right to free course books by the government and the high rate of student dropout at Class VIII because of their financial inability of affording the examination board fee for matriculation examination. 

The member students of Children’s Councils proposed recommendations those are directly link with the inclusion of vulnerable children in education system and quality education. It included ensuring implementation of Sindh Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act-2013, in its true letter and spirit, specifically Section 10, constituting committees, as provided under the Ombudsman’s Act, to monitor the working of government schools specially posting of teaching staff besides forming committees to ensure imparting formal and informal education to the Juvenile with the view to rehabilitate the Juveniles. 

They further sought providing access to and support quality professional learning for school staff, constituting committee for making recommendations to the Government of Sindh for legislation regarding the employment of Children Act in view of Act promulgated by the Federal Government in the year 1991 and increasing the SMC fund related to education and create a committee for monitoring the holistic dispersion and utilization of the fund. 

The Executive Director of the Foundation for Research and Human Development (FRHD), Nazra Jahan, acknowledged that education was the most essential ingredient for the development of a nation. 

“It is a universal fact that nations who have reached the heights of the development and prosperity have done it by using education and information as a tool to do it. The students, being the major stakeholder of education system, can serve as an asset to improvise the education tools. And implementation of Article 25-A is the guarantee to eradicate poverty from Pakistan,” the FRHD official reckoned. 

The Sindh Mohtasib arranged for a 20-minute presentation during which children were briefed about Children Complaint Office (CCO) and the precise way through which they can file complaints in line with the mandate of Ombudsmen.

Physicians appeal for tobacco control measures

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The renowned physicians working in major hospitals of Pakistan have sent a letter to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, raising serious concerns on the growing tobacco epidemic in the country. 

“Cigarette smoking kills more than 100,000 people every year in the country. This death toll is far greater in number than total deaths taking place as a result of suicidal bombings, traffic accidents and crime related killings,” Prof Javaid Khan, Chair. National Alliance for Tobacco Control and Professor of Medicine at the Aga Khan University (AKU), Karachi, submitted in the petition. 

“We, the doctors, see the victims of tobacco every day in their clinical practice and are very concerned on the growing mortality and morbidity due to tobacco use in the country,” he remarked. 

Prof Javaid Khan warned that failure to control tobacco use in the country would be a health and economic disaster for the country. “Tobacco use increases the risk of heart attacks, hypertension, stroke, various lung diseases and twenty different types of cancers,” he explained. 

Elaborating on the impact of tobacco on Pakistan's economy he said that Pakistanis spent over Rs. 260 billion on over 64 billion cigarettes in the year 2015 alone. 

“Equal if not more amount was spent on consuming smokeless tobacco in the form of paan, naswar and gutka. Huge sum of Pakistan's foreign exchange is spent in importing medicines for treating diseases caused by tobacco. Tobacco control measures would help in improving the country's economy,” he reckoned. 

The petition was signed by well-known physicians belonging to leading hospitals of Pakistan including Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), Dow University of Health Sciences, Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, Liaquat National Hospital, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital, Sheikh Zayed Hospital Lahore and Rahim Yar Khan, Gulab Devi Chest Hospital Lahore, King Edward Medical College, Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar and Fauji Foundation Hospital Rawalpindi.

The petition demanded that the ‘Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of non-smoker's Health Ordinance of 2002’ should be strictly enforced in order to control tobacco epidemic in the country. 

The doctors urged that all public places and public transport should be made completely smoke free in order to protect the health of non-smokers. 

The petition also advised the government to increase the taxation on cigarette in the forthcoming budget as at present cigarette prices in the country are lowest in the region.

They claimed that according to World Bank research increasing the tax by 10 percent, tobacco consumption in the country can be reduced by 11 percent. 

The doctors also raised their concern that despite of law which prohibited the sale of tobacco products to Under-18 age group no shopkeeper has ever been punished in Pakistan for selling cigarettes to minor. 

The letter said that the strong pictorial health warnings on tobacco products are a proven strategy to reduce its demand. The petition demanded of the government to increase the size of pictorial health warning on cigarette pack to 85% without any further delay. 

The doctors regretted that in spite of the fact that tobacco is responsible for almost 50% of all cancer cases in the country, yet smoking is still being advertised in the country at the point of sale. Also, it is portrayed through TV drama serials as a pleasurable, cool, glamorous and an adventurous act. 

The petition demanded a comprehensive ban on all forms of tobacco advertising and sponsorship in the country. The physicians also appealed that all universities and colleges must be made smoking-free zones in order to discourage youth from taking up this addiction, suggesting that there should be no tobacco vendors/shops allowed within walking distance of schools, colleges or universities.

Administrator Karachi East lauds SSUET heatstroke treatment centre

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Administrator Karachi District East, Rehmatullah Shaikh, visited the Heat Stroke Treatment Centre set up by the Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET), Karachi, at its campus and lauded the university’s initiative. 

At the centre he was received by the SSUET Registrar, Syed Sarfraz Ali, who took him around and informed that it was established to take care of the university students in case of any heat stroke incident during heightened temperatures. 

He shared with the Administrator that, on the directives of Chancellor Jawaid Anwar, the centre besides taking care of the university students, it will also cater to the needs of any heat stroke victim from outside the campus.

Administrator Rehmatullah Shaikh inquired about the condition of a victim and said that it was appreciative that the university has taken such an initiative. 

He said although the temperature, at present was on the lower side, yet the centre will remain functional until the end of the Holy month of Ramazan and as the weather conditions started changing. 

The SSUET Director Sports, Mubbashir Mukhtar, said that the university has established the camp as one of its social responsibility. 

The SSUET had taken a lead over other universities with the establishment of a Heat Stroke Treatment Centre which was inaugurated by the SSUET Chancellor, Jawaid Anwar, on May 19.

Chancellor highlights SSUET glories

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi 
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Chancellor of the Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET), Karachi, Jawaid Anwar, has remarked that no country can ever develop until it is free of corruption with discipline having been infused in every sector of the society.

“A disciplined society can only be guaranteed when sectors like education and sports are freed from corruption and a heavy dose of discipline injected,” he said while talking to a group of journalists at his office. 

“We at the SSUET have fully focused to achieve the cherished objectives by fully concentrating on improving the standard of education with greater focus on promoting disciplined sports,” he observed. 

Chancellor Jawaid Anwar said that there’s a big gap between certified work force like doctors, engineers, technologists and scientists, and non-certified work force like plumbers, diploma holders and similar other professions and this gap needed to be bridged to ensure fast economic progress. 

He said that in order to achieve this objective, emphasis was being laid on introducing courses at Aligarh Institute of Technology (AIT), an offshoot of the Aligarh Muslim University Old Boys Association (AMUOBA) so as to promote creative abilities of its students to help them contribute towards national economic progress. 

He underlined the importance of sports and said that at the SSUET, the sports department has been reorganized with the induction of sport professionals like Mubbashir Mukhtar as its Director. 

Pointing out that the SSUET is performing well in sports, he said the objective is not to win awards alone but infuse a sportsman spirit among students to take wins as a pride and defeats as a lesson with positive attitudes which in turn will infuse discipline in them. 

He described corruption as a ground reality and there was a need to transform the mindset against this evil by keeping the vision of great reformer and educationist Sir Syed Ahmed Khan in view. 

Jawaid Anwar told a questioner that their sports policy was very simple, having been based on promoting the students’ physical and mental growth and keeping them engaged in constructive and positive activities. 

He said that the university is taking stock of a policy for sports-based admissions while the university has allocated a big chunk of fund for award of scholarships to merited students and particularly those who face financial constraints. 

“Our policy is that no student is allowed to give up education just because of financial problem," he stressed.

The Chancellor said that in order to ensure merit, the university management is making efforts against various malpractices and has taken up this challenge as a mission and this has started producing a positive thinking. 

In this regard he particularly referred to the work being done at Career Planning department under the guidance of a highly educational expert Siraj Khilji, whereby a positive guidance is being provided to students. 

He told the journalists that the sports activities at SSUET are being brought into a system with an end to adhocism. This would include sports based admissions and scholarships. 

He informed that the university has various sport teams like cricket, hockey, football badminton, table tennis, basket ball, boxing under qualified coaches while a team of girls in basketball has also been raised. He said plans are afoot to raise teams in snooker, squash and other sports. 

He said that their teams have won trophies and awards in various events and the university can also hold events under HEC. He shared that the SSUET’s Electronic team was the national robotic champion. 

The Vice-President AMUOBA, Anwar Ali, Director Sports SSUET, Mubbashir Mukhtar and Director Literary and Cultural Forum, Razi Haider, were also present on the occasion.

New intensive care facility for children launched at Aga Khan Hospital

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

A brand new Pediatric Intensive Care Unit was inaugurated at the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), Karachi, on May 23.

Specially designed to treat children fighting life-threatening diseases, the new 5,500 square foot, Rs 200 million, eight-bed facility will facilitate many more infants, toddlers and pre-teens whose fragile health requires special attention. 

A quick glance at Pakistan’s child mortality rates highlights the urgent need for dedicated facilities to treat children facing complicated diseases. 

One in 11 children die before their fifth birthday and one in 66 infants lose their lives before the age of one, according to Unicef’s State of Children in Pakistan report. Over the past five years, the university’s teaching hospital at Stadium Road, Karachi, has noticed a three-fold increase in children requiring intensive care. 

The new Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) will provide personalized care to around 400 at-risk children every year thereby helping address the shortage of intensive care facilities for children. 

Outlining the need for a PICU, Interim Head of the Division for Women and Child Health Professor Iqtidar Ahmad Khan noted: “At present many critically ill children continue to receive treatment alongside adults in intensive care units even though a child’s needs are different to that of an adult.”

“A dedicated facility will improve the availability of specialists for ailing children and also create a more comfortable environment for parents seeking the best treatment for their child,” he added. 

The new facility has eight large rooms whose open spaces have been designed to enable a variety of specialists to collaborate in treating the child. 

A dedicated waiting area is present for families and a parent can be with the child in the room whenever s/he is awake. Every room is equipped with state-of-the-art ventilators and advanced syringe pumps to administer essential medicines. Monitoring systems constantly track breathing, heart function and electrical activity in the brain. 

The PICU also houses two negative pressure isolation rooms to provide special care to children with contagious diseases. The advanced systems available in each room are used by skilled pediatricians supported by a team of nurses, one nurse to each patient ensuring that no child in intensive care is left alone. 

Each nurse is trained to identify signs of worsening health in young babies and is aware of how to calm the fears of children and parents in the unfamiliar environment of a hospital. 

The opening of the PICU follows the January 2015 doubling in the capacity of the University Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) to a 24-bedded unit, which cares for babies under the age of 28 days. 

“The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit is an integral part of the University’s commitment to Women and Child Health. This focus on children’s health through the provision of intensive care for neonates, babies and adolescents is a key part of our services and education as well as research," commenting on the impact of the PICU, the AKU President, Firoz Rasul, remarked. 

The benefits of the PICU will extend beyond the boundaries of the AKUH and its patients. During treatment, AKUH’s specialists are constantly sharing their expertise in pediatric critical care with young doctors through the University’s fellowship programme. 

Upon the completion of their education and training, fellow will be able to apply their skills at any hospital, inside or outside Pakistan. 

At the ceremony, one of the PICU donors said: “There is nothing worse for a parent than seeing their child suffer from a life-threatening disease. The uncertainty and helplessness of such difficult times is eased when you know that there is a specially designed facility that can bring them back to health.” 

“We know that there is a shortage of high quality facilities to treat critically ill children. By helping the AKUH set up such a facility, we are confident that we can save the lives of many young kids,” he added.

Simple intervention can preserve kidney health

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Up to one in five adults in Pakistan has chronic kidney disease, which has become one of the rapidly escalating causes of death. Patients with advanced CKD require dialysis or transplantation, unaffordable for the vast majority of people.

A research paper published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology revealed that simple and inexpensive public health interventions could help prevent many cases of CKD. 

As part of a two-year study conducted at Aga Khan University (AKU) in Karachi, researchers Professor Tazeen Jafar, Health Services & Systems Research at Duke NUS Medical School in Singapore and Duke Global Health Institute in Durham, and Visiting Consultant Nephrologist, Singapore General Hospital, and Dr Imtiaz Jehan, Associate Professor of Community Health Sciences at AKU observed more than 1,200 individuals with high blood pressure. 

The intervention included training community health workers on the many aspects of a healthy lifestyle such as improving diet, stopping smoking, increasing physical activity, and taking prescribed blood pressure-lowering medications besides training community general practitioners on the latest standards for managing hypertension. 

After seven years of follow up, five years after cessation of the intervention, the kidney function remained unchanged among adults in the communities assigned to the intervention, whereas it significantly declined among those who received usual care. 

Patients with the intervention were half as likely as other patients to experience over 20 per cent decline in kidney function. 

“Unfortunately, there is a dearth of information on public health interventions to preserve kidney health and prevent CKD, even though certain unhealthy lifestyle factors and conditions such as obesity, hypertension and diabetes are common, and are known to increase the risk of developing CKD,” Dr Jehan said. 

“This study shows that such a practical model based on training primary care physicians coupled with lifestyle advice from non-physician health workers is likely to have a long-term benefit on preserving kidney function at a population level,” Professor Jafar observed. 

“These simple strategies can be implementable in other low- and middle-income countries with similar risk factor burden and health systems infrastructure.” 

Other authors of the paper included Dr John Allen and Seyed Ehsan Saffari from Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Dr Aamir Hameed from AKU, Professor Shah Ebrahim from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Professors Neil Poulter and Nish Chaturvedi from Imperial College London.

VC visits SSUET heatstroke centre

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Vice Chancellor of the Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET), Prof Dr Jawed H Rizvi, visited the Heat Stroke Treatment Centre established by the university within its campus. 

The SSUET took a lead over other universities with the establishment of a Heat Stroke Treatment Centre which was inaugurated by the SSUET Chancellor, Jawaid Anwar, on May 19. 

With the temperature continuously soaring, alongwith humidity, the centre has been equipped with necessary facilities and is supervised by doctors and paramedical staff of the university's Medical Centre round the clock.

During the visit the SSUET Registrar, Syed Sarfraz Ali, and Dr Mohammad Taufiq briefed the Vice Chancellor about the salient features of the centre. 

Accompanied by university officials, the Vice Chancellor also inquired about the condition of a student, having been admitted in the centre. 

Chancellor Jawaid Anwar has already directed that besides any mishap within the campus, the facility should also be available to anyone outside the campus. 

The SSUET has taken the initiative of establishing the centre as a precautionary measure to the meet the oppressive summer months of Karachi.

SSUET sets up heatstroke treatment centre

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET), Karachi, has taken a lead over other educational institutions by having set up a heatstroke treatment centre within the campus premises on the directives of its Chancellor Jawaid Anwar.

It may be recalled that the city of Karachi had endured its most oppressive summer in decades last year which caused heavy casualties. As preemptive measures, some organizations have made arrangements and the SSUET has led by example by creating the much-needed facility at its campus. 

With the temperature continuously soaring and the humidity also on the rise, the centre has been equipped with necessary facilities and is being supervised by doctors and paramedical staff of the university's Medical Center round the clock. 

The center was visited by Chancellor Jawaid Anwar, who appreciated the efforts made in this regard and observed that it was reflective of the university's concern about the healthcare of its students and staff, both teaching and non-teaching and other employees. An ambulance is also on duty round the clock to carry any heat stroke affected person.

The chancellor directed that besides any mishap within the camps, the facility should also be available to anyone outside the campus. 

The Vice President of the Aligarh Muslim University Old Boys Association (AMUOBA), Anwar Ali, and the SSUET Registrar, Syed Sarfraz Ali, were also present on the occasion. 

The centre was also visited by Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Jawaid H. Rizvi later in the afternoon and he praised the university's medical team in setting up of the heatstroke treatment centre.