Sindh government supports scaling up of Nigraan project

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Nigraan, an innovative research and capacity building project, has been extended to a second district in rural Sindh, Mirpurkhas, under the project name, Nigraan Plus. The Nigraan Plus project was formally launched by the Sindh health secretary and AKU’s Community Health Sciences (CHS) Department at an event.

The initial phase of the Nigraan project in Badin has helped Lady Health Workers and Lady Health Supervisors to manage potentially fatal diseases in children such as pneumonia and diarrhea, which lead to over 140,000 child deaths a year equating to 46 per cent of all child deaths in Pakistan before the age of five. 

Since the majority of deaths from these two diseases occur in the home, Nigraan focused on boosting the knowledge, skills and performance of Lady Health Supervisors (LHSs), who supervise the performance of Lady Health Workers (LHWs), and LHWs who provide relevant home-based health services to communities. 

Commenting on the programme’s extension to Mirpurkhas, Sindh Health Secretary, Dr Fazlullah Pechuho said: “The basic unit of the health system are the caregivers, the LHSs and LHWs. If we empower them we can achieve great results. Nigraan has already provided high quality training in Badin and AKU’s research will help us replicate these results across the province. Good research leads to good policy formulation and I look forward on continued cooperation with AKU’s CHS team through a formal agreement.” 

Nigraan introduced LHSs to supportive management practices that resulted in both the LHWs and the LHSs providing more adequate care during visits to households. In Badin, LHSs who were trained in enhanced supervisory skills through the project, noted a doubling in their supervision skill scores, a remarkable improvement on their ability to provide quality support to LHWs in the field. 

The ability of LHSs, trained under Nigraan, to correctly diagnose and treat diarrhea and pneumonia also improved markedly. Moreover, LHWs who were supervised by the Nigraan-trained LHSs, showed improvement in their ability to correctly manage diarrhea and pneumonia in children under five compared to those outside the programme. 

Speaking about the impact of Nigraan, Assistant District Coordinator for Family Planning and Primary Healthcare, Badin, Taskeen Fatima said: “The trainings were practical and hospital-based which helped us improve our skills to identify cases of diarrhea and pneumonia and also boosted the ability of LHWs to diagnose cases at the community level. The tools developed by the project had a very positive effect on our skills and it was very memorable to see how LHWs appreciated the support being provided by their supervisors because of Nigraan.” 

In the next phase of the project, Nigraan Plus will introduce similar evidence-based, supportive supervision system practices in Mirpurkhas so that healthcare workers can correctly detect, diagnose, report and treat cases of pneumonia and diarrhea at an early stage, when care is the most effective. 

Nigraan Plus is also asking LHWs to use their mobile phones to record and relay data about children suffering from pneumonia and diarrhea to their supervisors. The LHSs use this information to maintain location-specific records on these diseases and to coordinate LHWs visits. 

The Provincial Coordinator for Family Planning and Primary Healthcare, Sindh, Dr Jai Ram Das said: “I’m pleased at how the AKU’s Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health and the CHS department are working together to upscale Nigraan. We look forward to working with AKU so that Nigraan’s training materials can be formally included in the training programme for lady health workers.” 

Highlighting the contribution of such programmes to the country’s health priorities, AKU’s Community Health Sciences Department Chair, Professor Fauziah Rabbani, who is working as the project’s principal investigator, added: 

“Building awareness about the importance of early administration of oral rehydration solutions (in the case of diarrhea) and the timely prescription of antibiotics (in the case of pneumonia) can save many lives.” 

“Nigraan Plus’s system of constant training, feedback and community visits not only builds the capacity of healthcare workers but also ensures that at-risk children get the attentive care they need at their doorstep. In the long term, such interventions will help Pakistan achieve targets under Sustainable Development Goal 3 on reducing childhood mortality.” 

The first phase of the Nigraan project was funded by the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, an international collaboration hosted by the World Health Organization. Nigraan Plus is part of the Umeed-e-Nau project that is being implemented by AKU in collaboration with Pakistan’s provincial health ministries with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 

Present at the meeting were Mirpurkhas District Health Officer Dr Anwer Palari, Assistant Provincial Coordinator for Family Planning and Primary Healthcare Dr Pir Ghulam Hussain, and members of AKU’s Community Health Sciences faculty Dr Shagufta Perveen, Dr Kashif Sangrasi, Dr Aysha Zahidie and Dr Wafa Aftab.

Zakir Ali Khan remembered

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Glowing tributes were paid to Engr Mohammed Zakir Ali Khan, the late Vice-Chancellor of the Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET) and the Secretary General of the Aligarh Muslim University Old Boys Association (AMUOBA) on the occasion of his fifth death anniversary held at the Aligarh Institute of Technology (AIT).

The anniversary was observed in a programme whose arrangements were made by Anwar Ali, Vice-President, AMUOBA, and Convener, AIT. 

On the occasion the services of late Zakir Ali Khan were recalled, particularly for the cause of education which led to the establishment of the iconic institutions like the AIT and the SSUET as well as for the promotion of activities of AMUOBA. 

A large number of students of the AIT, besides its Principal and academic staff and some Aligarhians including the General Secretary of the AMUOBA, Arshad Khan, attended the gathering and participated in Dua-e-Maghfirat for the departed soul of late Engr Zakir Ali Khan as well as for late Engr Z A Nizami, the founding Chancellor of the SSUET and late Brig (Rtd) Qamarussalam. 

Later the AIT Convener, Anwar Ali, chaired a meeting and said that observance of anniversaries of great reformer and educationist Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Engr Zakir Ali Khan and Engr Z A Nizami was meant to acknowledge the legendary personalities and derive inspiration from their accomplishments.

SSUET offers Graduate Diploma in Management Sciences

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services) 

The Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET), Karachi, has announced admissions in one and half year Graduate Diploma in Management Sciences. 

According to the SSUET notification, it will be an evening programme which may lead to MBA in Human Resource Management; Islamic Banking and Finance; Banking and Finance; Marketing; Supply Chain Management; International Relation and Management; Media and Communication Management and Labour and Social Management. 

The qualification for admission has been described as 16 years of education from the HEC recognized institutions with minimum of second division or equivalent. 

The university is already offering Masters programme in Electronics, Telecom, Civil, Bio-Medical, Computer Engineering and Computer Science and offering PhD program in Computer and Electronic Engineering. 

The SSUET is planning to offer PhD programme in Bio-Medical as well. Starting with only two disciplines of Computer Engineering and Electronics at the time of its establishment, the SSUET is providing education in eleven different disciplines in its Morning program and at present about 5000 students are enrolled. 

The disciplines being offered at the SSUET are Computer, Electronics, Civil, Telecommunication, Bio-Medical, Electrical and Software Engineering besides Computer Science, Architecture, Information Technology and Bio-informatics.

SSUET advancing in sports

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET), Karachi, had a very busy sports month in January with the start of new year 2017 with its teams participating in different sports events in a big way.

According to the SSUET Director Sports, Mubbashir Mukhtar, the their outfits participated in cricket, football and table tennis competitions during the month of January, having emerged successful as the champion in the Inter-University Cricket Tournament organized by Bahria University. 

SSUET had clinched the trophy by dethroning Indus University in the final. 

The SSUET had another achievement when it, for the first time, organized the HEC Football Tournament (Zone G) in a most successful manner. 

The tournament was participated by as many as 15 universities with the University of Karachi becoming the champion of Zone G alongwith IBA as the second qualifier. Both teams will now take part in the final round to be staged in Peshawar. 

Mubbashir Mukhtar disclosed that a schedule of sports events for February 2017 has already been prepared whereby a five-member team will take part in All Pakistan Judo Championship to be held in Tando Jam on February 3-4.

The university hockey team has making preparations to participate in HEC Hockey Tournament (Zone G) which is scheduled to start in Karachi from February 7. The tournament is expected to be participated by eight universities. 

In February, Director Sports SSUET informed that the university's boxing squad will be in action in the Final round of All Pakistan Boxing Championship which is being organized by SBB University Lyari. 

The final round will start by the end of the month. 

During the month, Pakistan Marine Academy (PMA) is organizing a Sports Gala from February 16 in which SSUET will participate in cricket, football, hockey, volleyball, badminton, athletics and tug of war events. 

The SSUET Director Sports stated that the preparations for participation in these events have started in a big way. 

He remarked that the SSUET could not have gone this far in its sports activities without the active support of its Chancellor Jawaid Anwar, Vice Chancellor, Prof Dr Jawed H. Rizvi and Registrar Syed Sarfraz Ali who themselves are passionate about sports and desire to see the institution on the top in the sporting arena.

Railways undertake coal transportation

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Pakistan Railways has embarked upon another profitable operational venture by starting exclusive coal transportation for upcountry coal-fired power plants. 

The Pakistan Railways, Karachi Division, has dispatched the first coal-carrying train for Yusuf Wala Power Plant in Sahiwal. 

The train left Karachi on January 29 and was expected to reach its destination in 32 hours. 

According to a spokesman of the Karachi Division, the train comprised 25 wagons loaded with 1,500 tons of coal. 

Initially a couple trains carrying coal will be dispatched daily and this number would be increased to five trains gradually, the spokesman said.

Railways procure GE manufactured diesel electric locomotives

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

“Pakistan Railways has embarked upon an ambitious plan aimed at strengthening its freight transportation service and has purchased 55 diesel electric locomotives, each of 4000 to 4500 horse power, for the purpose,” Mohammad Javed Anwar, General Manager (Operations), Pakistan Railway, disclosed.

Talking to journalists on the occasion of delivery of seven of the 55 engines at Karachi Port, he said these freight specific locomotives, manufactured by General Electric (GE), USA, will be particularly utilized for coal and freight transportation. 

About the seven locomotives, the GM (Operations) revealed that these will carry coal from Karachi port to coal power plants in the up country. These will soon be carrying coal to Sahiwal power plant. 

To another question, he said that an agreement worth US$ 213,689 million had been signed with GE to procure these locomotives for phase wise delivery to Pakistan Railways. The supply of the remaining 48 diesel electric engines, he said, will be completed in next six months and utilized with high capacity wagons and coal hopper wagons. 

"A two-fold increase in the Pakistan Railways freight earning is expected through the fresh induction," Javed Anwar stated. 

Supplementing his claim, the Railways functionary said that the newly purchased locomotives have the capacity to haul 3400 tons load against the hauling capacity of 2250 tons of existing engines. 

He informed that these engines are five percent fuel efficient besides being environment friendly and have less maintenance cost. 

To yet another query, he said that Pakistan Railways was also in process to procure a few more DE locomotives of 2000 horse power from General Electric. These engines, he added, will be used to transport goods from Karachi to Quetta and Quetta to Karachi. 

Mentioning that 77 relevant employees of Pakistan Railways were sent to USA for required training in the operation of these engines and now they will serve as master trainers. 

The CEO of General Electric for Pakistan, Sarim Shaikh, shared that the agreement between his company and Pakistan Railway was signed in 2015 with delivery to be made in 16 months. 

The Divisional Superintendent Railways, Karachi Division, Engr Nisar Ahmed Memon also responded to media queries.

SSUET projects clinch UNIDO awards

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET), Karachi, added another feather into its hat when two of its projects in bio-medical engineering and Telecom engineering won the UNIDO awards worth Rs three million. 

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) had, in March 2016, organized a contest.

Around 80-90 projects were initially selected from all over Pakistan with four from SSUET. Since then theses projects were being monitored and surveyed how to commercialize them. 

Out of total number of projects, five are to be selected for inclusion in the final round for the 15 K and 20 K US dollars prize money and to be taken to Silicon Valley USA as well while two from the SSUET have already been selected. 

The news about these SSUET achievements were broken by Prof Dr Haleem and Prof Dr Aamer during their speeches at the recent Orientation Programme its new batch of 2017 students held at the Karachi Expo Centre on January 18. 

The ORIC introduced this UNIDO contest at the SSUET and arranged the seminar for all the students to avail this opportunity.

SSUET holds Orientation Day

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi

(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Orientation Day of the Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET), Karachi, for the new entrants (Batch 2017) was held at the Karachi Expo Centre on January 18 in a glorified manner with Chancellor Jawaid Anwar exhorting the students to strive to raise their level of thinking along with their academic pursuits so as to achieve success in their practical life and help raise the heads of their parents, teachers as well as the university.

The programme was attended by over 1,400 new entrants who got admission in 11 different engineering disciplines alongwith their parents and were educated about their respective fields by the concerned Chairmen of departments.

In a highly motivational address, the SSUET Chancellor told the students that they are going to start a new phase of their life. The university which they selected for their academic career is a unique and ideological institution which enjoys a creditable and elated position in the field of education but also has a distinctive position when it comes to modern approach, research and career building.

He informed that this year the 200th birth anniversary of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, the great Muslim reformer and educationist is going to be observed. In order to celebrate this occasion in a most befitting manner, Sir Syed University has started preparing programs which would include international seminar besides lectures by noted scholars whereby the mission and struggle of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan will be highlighted.

He pointed out that education played a cardinal and effective role in the transformation of human life and it would merely be a wishful thinking of achieving a bright future without education.

The Chancellor said that Sir Syed Ahmed Khan was a man with farsightedness who was fully aware that only a creative approach of a nation alongwith use of modern technologies will serve as its best asset and this thinking became the starting point of Sir Syed's educational movement.

He said it was his this mission which led to the creation  of Aligarh Muslim University Old Boys Association (AMUOBA) which made the  establishment of Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology possible where students are introduced to modern engineering education besides carrying out graduation and Masters programmes.

In SSUET, he told them, their 4 year academic phase will be an era of their future building and, therefore, they will have to dedicate themselves towards acquisition of knowledge by utilizing their all possible positive capabilities.

Pointing out that their bright future would be dependent on education, the university teachers and teaching staff would be ready to guide them at every stage.

Jawaid Anwar said that for a university, the teachers serve as the backbone and SSUET has instituted extra ordinary steps for their progress and prosperity with the confidence that its reflection would be visible in the academic pursuits of students and their future buildings.

Earlier in his welcome address, the Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Jawaid H. Rizvi congratulated the students for getting admission in SSUET strictly on merit basis and hoped that they would work hard with devotion, dedication and sincerely to achieve their goals and come up to the expectations of their parents and university.

He said they are admitted to a university which carries the name of a great reformer and educationist Sir Syed Ahmed Khan whose contribution and efforts in the face of adverse circumstances led to the awakening of the Muslims of South Asia which led to the creation of a separate homeland for them.

He informed that different from their earlier educational system in school and college, they will here follow a semester system whereby an academic year is divided into two semesters and a summer session with a final exam at the end of each.

The Dean of Faculty of  Engineering Dr Prof S.M. Makhdoomi also welcomed the students on behalf of the faculty while chairmen of  departments of Civil, Bio-Medical, Electronic, Computer/Software, Electrical, Telecommunication engineering, Architecture, Computer Science/Bio-Informatic/IT departments gave an introduction of their respective departments.

Prof. Dr Najeeb, Associate Dean Engineering gave an introduction about CEP and CISCO while Chancellor's Advisor Siraj Khilji dilated upon the Students Guidance Center and Career Planning. Speeches were also delivered by two passed out students.

The programme concluded with the SSUET Anthem and closing remarks by Registrar Comdr (Rtd) Syed Sarfraz Ali who at the outset gave an introduction about the AMUOBA, Sports, Library, Arts and Culture Forum, Students Guidance Centre and Co-Curricular activities.

SSUET Orientation Day on Jan 18

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

All arrangements have been finalized for the traditional Orientation Day to be organized for the entry of 2017 of newly enrolled students of the Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET), Karachi. The Orientation programme will be held on January 18 at 10 am at the Karachi Expo Centre.

The orientation programme is arranged for the newly enrolled students to educate them about the engineering disciplines they opted for their future career. 

The day's salient feature is mainly the address to students by the SSUET Chancellor, Jawaid Anwar, besides speeches by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Dr Jawaid H Rizvi and Dean Faculty of Engineering. 

The chairpersons of the various departments will apprise the new university entrants about their respective disciplines. 

According to the university notification the regular classes for first semester will commence from January 19 and for the remaining batches of 2014, 2015 and 2016 from January 23. 

The SSUET's Planning and Development department has carried out renovation work to welcome the new entrants. 

The arrangements for Orientation Day were reviewed at length at a meeting held under the chairmanship of Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Jawaid H Rizvi and attended, among others, by Dean, Associate Dean, Registrar Syed Sarfraz Ali and chairpersons of the various departments.

Pakistan’s newborns face rising risk of non-communicable diseases

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Stress, unhealthy lifestyle habits, and the prevalence of chronic diseases in adults are leaving Pakistan’s newborns more vulnerable to the threat of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), according to speakers at a recent event at the Aga Khan University (AKU) in Karachi.

Experts at the International Conference on Stress and Conditioning: Impact on Maternal and Generation Health noted that economic, social and psychological pressures lead to stress and high levels of stress hormones affect the baby in the womb. 

These chemicals can trigger genetic changes which stall the development trajectory of the brain and heart of a fetus resulting in lifelong effects on the fetus’s learning capability, social functioning and ability to fight disease. 

Pakistan has approximately 80 million people who suffer from NCDs or life-style related illnesses such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, obesity, chronic lung and kidney disease and mental illnesses. 

The number of Pakistanis with these diseases is increasing by approximately 10 per cent a year and speakers noted that prospective parents with NCDs are also more likely to pass on their illness to the next generation. 

“Our healthcare system is geared towards treating those suffering from NCDs now. But there isn’t enough attention paid to the inter-generational effects of disease. By focusing on early interventions in the period between conception and birth we can reduce the lifelong risk of neurocognitive, metabolic and cardiac disease and ensure that every child achieves their full potential,” Dr Nuruddin Mohammad, director of maternal and fetal medicine at AKU’s division of women and child health, remarked. 

During the conference speakers shared how innovations in neurosonographic imaging, advanced ultrasounds of a fetus’s heart and brain, are enabling the early detection of delays in brain and heart development. 

New technology is also helping identify biomarkers (chemical indicators) that can predict developmental delays that may lead to disease in adulthood. This makes the first 2,000 days of a child’s life extremely important and investing in healthcare during this period could result in the greatest returns for society in terms of health and wellbeing. 

The speakers on the day noted that in many cases of NCDs, screening and interventions in adults was significantly less effective as irreversible genetic modifications have already taken place. 

Dr Rehan Ali, associate professor in paediatrics at AKU said: “The link between nourishment and lifelong health has been long established. Insights into the developmental origins of health and disease are clearly showing the importance of environmental factors on maternal and fetal health. This research is making a strong case for conducting healthcare initiatives earlier in life to help achieve targets under Sustainable Development Goal 3.” 

The one-day conference was preceded by three workshops which enabled the exchange of skills in areas relating to disease management during pregnancy and the sharing of knowledge on ethical issues in obstetrics. 

The other speakers at the conference included Dr Stephen Lye, Executive Director, Fraser Mustard Institute for Human Development, Canada; Marleen Temmerman, Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Aga Khan University’s Medical College in Nairobi; and Professor George Chrousos from the Athens University Medical School in Greece.