Video Transcription
Event: AMDISA Conference 2016
Country: Colombo – Sri Lanka
Format: Interview
Duration: 35.7 Mins Video
Link: https://youtu.be/uKnw71a94fu
Good day everyone. We’re here at the Postgraduate Institute of Management where the AMDISA 2016 Executive Council and regional conference is currently underway. It is hosted by the Postgraduate Institute of Management, University Of Sri Jayewardenepura and the Institute of Certified Professional Managers. Here with us now is Dr Hasan Sohaib Murad, Rector, University of Management and Technology in Lahore, Pakistan.
Host: Welcome to our program.
HSM: Thank you
Host: Sir you were the session chairman for the second session which was entitled Strategic Actions and Networking: Key Initiatives. Could you tell us a little bit about what was discussed?
It was a very interesting session. There were four speakers. Dr S Padam, who is a very senior management expert from India, elaborated upon the idea of SAQS, which is South Asian Quality Systems, which has been developed by AMDISA to help businesses schools improve themselves and achieve high academic standards. It is an indigenous system, it has gone through developmental process and it has evolved over the last five years. It has its own structure and process. Dr Padam gave us the background of SAQS, its history, structure and processes.
Then came Dr Satish Ailawadi from Institute of Technology Management, Hyderabad, India and he highlighted the requirements of a quality system. Quality is something which is intrinsic as well as extrinsic and it necessitates coordination of all aspects of productivity in terms of business organizations and education in the university. So, he gave us an X-Ray of the details that are very important to be kept in mind by the deans of higher education.
The third speaker was Director General of the Ceylon Institute of Development and his idea was that we should keep in mind the overall imperative of organizational development and organizational improvement and these systems are meant to help us grow the organization, transform the organizations. So he made a very passionate appeal. If I recall correctly, his name was Professor M Thilakasiri and his presentation was very good. And the last presentation was made by the Dean of IBA from University of Dhaka, Professor Dr AKM Saiful Majid and he also highlighted a few aspects of quality which means that we need to have more interaction and we need to have better collaboration so that we can together achieve better quality. So this was focused upon quality and its various aspects.
Host: Okay, all right. Could you tell us a little bit about the university that you are a part of, the University of Management and Technology in Lahore?
HSM: UMT is in Lahore, which is a historical city of Pakistan, a city having a very lively culture and rich heritage. This city is famous for its throbbing people, its food, colleges and gardens. We are based in Lahore but we have a sub-campus in Sialkot city, which is near to Lahore. It is very enterprising and famous for footballs, surgical items, cutlery and leather items. The university currently has 9,000 students and 10 schools. It is not just limited to IT or business but has a very comprehensive range of programs in social sciences, law and other degrees. The university has a history of about 12 years now as a chartered university. Previously it was affiliated. In all, it is now about a 20-year old institution. We have achieved SAQS about four years back. So we are one of the three SAQS accredited institutions in Lahore, Pakistan. We have 450 full-time teaching staff out of which about 120 hold doctoral degrees. So we have a good faculty, good programs and it’s a great place to learn. Our mission is to lead and our vision is to learn. So we are a very active and very competitive institution.
Host: So would you recommend that universities here in Sri Lanka take on that SAQS accreditation?
I think so. You know we have had a very good experience and we think that we have learned through this process. You know there were many things that we thought we would do at some point and we kept delaying them and SAQS became an external factor which forced everyone to do whatever was not done by that time.
So all faculty members and administrative staff, the leadership and governance, everyone then you know were brought to one page and we took that document as something that we have to achieve. So it helped us achieve, not that we were not geared towards it before but we were not cognizant of its importance. SAQS gave us a milestone and it forced upon us a time schedule to do this by now, do that by now etc.
So I think it’s a very useful instrument and once you achieve SAQS you can even refer to European and American accreditation systems. It’s a gateway to European and American systems, it is the first step. Once you have SAQS, you can prepare yourself for European (accreditations), which we are doing now. After having completed SAQS, we immediately shifted our attention to European and then American (accreditation systems) and also it helped us gain more credibility in the eyes of European accrediting bodies that do not consider institutions as eligible without having substantial, you know, credentials. So, I think it’s a good initiative and a good first step.
Host: Could you tell us a little bit about Pakistani government’s involvement in the educational system?
The government takes care of primary and secondary education and they try to provide higher education. It is their responsibility under the constitution to provide education to all citizens, but they lack the resources. So, they have involved the private sector, they’ve given a space to private sector. About forty percent of education in schools, colleges and universities has now been taken up by the private sector.
The government is also handing over some of its public institutions to private sector for management with hope that at least there will be efficiency and there will be movement towards standardization and (institutions) will be more updated in terms of curriculum. So the government is doing whatever it can to promote and facilitate education at all levels. The government of Punjab has really done well, they have offered scholarship to students who need them on merit, they have offered foreign scholarships and have set up some really leading institutions under the name of Danish Schools for the poor to provide them first class services that you have at any convent school.
Getting the top class you know educational facilities so these are some of the things and in higher education government is very interested for public sector they have open grants for everything that they want to do that they need to do infrastructure operations faculty training they spend a lot of resource on them for private sector yes little bit in terms of some facilities and conferences in some facilities in research and some facilities in training but not much so government ought to do more you know the Government of Pakistan is not spending even two percent of GDP on education which is very bad. It should be spending at least four percent s which is the recommendation by UNESCO so that is still we are very short.
We have a huge youth population, young population which is two third of our overall population and unless we do something now in this time, in their time span when they are kid, they are youth, they need education, basic education and for their employability if we are not able to do anything now then they will pass time and they will lose the opportunities so we have to make most of this population and the only way we can do we are able to ensure is through education. So while I appreciate whatever government is trying I think they are short by at least fifty percent.
Host: All right and how accessible is education in Pakistan current day?
HSM: I think there is access to education and equity even if access available then it is not affordable and if there is access then it is not up to the mark. So there are issues of access especially in remote and rural areas I don’t think there is this issue of access in urban areas or semi urban areas but remote areas issue of access we need more schools and we need more teachers so if there are schools then maybe they lack teachers if there are schools then they lack facilities they have very basic structure which is not very helpful so if there is a school then it is at far way distance and not many people would agree to send their daughters at such a far-flung distance. You know schools are available but the distance which is discouraging them so we have issue of access and I think government should consider to establish more schools. Development planning should take care of it and should do whatever it can because I don’t want to say that on national forum but Pakistan is one of the few countries which would not be able to achieve Millennium Development Goals which is very sad and this was something which Pakistan should have achieved by 2015 and the many other countries in South Asia were able to do that and I know Sri Lanka has very good education system in primary and secondary level. Sri Lankan workforce is highly appreciated at a national level and I see them even in Europe so we think that we can learn from Sri Lankan model how to make their work, how to make young people more productive more employable and more useful so that can lead their life they can show progress they can be you know happy and prosperous within their own area that I am contributing to the development of my country.
Host: You mentioned an example of the Danish School. What is this model of education and what is the outcome that you are seeing?
You know people who have been involved in this project and we’re seeing that I didn’t have the chance to go there but they talked very highly about it you know there have exceptionally good campuses you can envy the facilities the equipment the classroom, teachers and infrastructure. Someone who came from the United States and visited one of the schools was telling me that he thought he was entering a palace. So they are really well furnished and the objective is that poorest of the poor should go through this education and should be a cause for mobility of the whole, in transformation of people in the whole area. So if they pick up students who even don’t have enough of clothing or who have don’t have shoes in their feet’s and they don’t have shelter so they pick up those and they put them into a very out class institution and it is certainly they’re not free of criticism because people are saying that what about those hundreds and thousands who are already in government institutions so instead of giving so much to very few why not distributed to and make an effort to increase the standards of all of these situations so this is an acronym to which government normally responds by saying that yes we want to create some islands of standards and which can make us proud of that we have done something for the poor but on the other hand they are also taking care of the lack of infrastructure facilities or equipment in the general schools but that progress I believe is slow. I would like to see that more needs to be done and should have been done by previous government there were enough funds, there were never shortage of funds for education it is just that we lack resolve and we are not clear about our priorities.
Host: Alright. At UMT, is research a big component of the education?
Yeah it’s a really good question you know we are in higher education and we think ourselves research driven institute and research has to be one key outcome of whatever we do I would admit that it is not to the extent that we would like it to be but we are moving ahead. We are certainly research means funding, separate funding. When most of the resources that university generates comes through tuition it is not possible to allocate funds for research because tuition allows you, to make you know to provide the essentials, the basics you know it doesn’t even cover the developmental cost for that we have to mobilize resources separately so research needs more funding but if you can see our student teacher ratio it is one to 20 almost and we have so many PhDs hundred twenty plus and we are continuously inviting more and trying to attract more is that we want to strengthen our research. So research is in our planning and is currently our priority and I hope that you know institutions have their own phases of development so the first phase was infrastructure second phase was the formation of programs disciplines the third phase was quality you know the fourth phase is having good and better faculty and comparative faculty and then the final phase comes of collaboration and interaction and more partnerships so now it’s about research and I think in about a year’s time there is a pretty good progress. Those who haven’t produced any research for the last three years we recently send them a letter that look you have not produced anything in the last three years so should we keep you on or should we replace you with someone who is more habitual and trained in doing the research so we are taking the steps and with some efforts I think we will do better in terms of funding for research.
Host: Is it usually the government or the corporate sector that you would seek funds from?
Right now mainly it is government but corporate sector is ready to give funding for their projects so for student projects and at the final year and that areas where we deal with their problems so if research is about corporate projects and it’s problem solving then yes there is funding available and you can take advantage of that but for broad-based and discipline based research project it is the Higher Education Commission which comes up with the funding. Private sector will not give you enough of the funds in science or in other areas which will help you build your laboratory, switch you need for research in science but the government you know considerate of the need of laboratories and when they approve a project it also contains procurement of equipment so for research I think it’s the government mainly that is still the main source of funding.
Host: All right. The graduates that come out of UMT, do they usually head abroad or do they stay on in the country and engage in the corporate sector?
I must mention here that over the last you know 15-16 years we have also received students from Sri Lanka and I think about more than half a dozen came to us and have studied with us and they went back to Sri Lanka and they are serving in various sectors so we have had very good relationship with Sri Lanka after nine eleven it is stopped but we are trying to put it back and hope to have more students from Sri Lanka to study with us.
Our students mainly when they graduate, we can categorize them into five broader areas. So the first category is of course those who come from business families especially SMEs and they straight away go back to their family businesses and their parents and their uncle’s or whatever so that’s the first category and we do receive a lot of them because they can afford higher education at private sector and their purpose to gain in a specific education in engineering or business is to then get back to their family business and when they come here it is the investment that is done by their parents.
Second category is for those who then you know go for the open recruitment and to national corporations, multinationals and they are good they’re well-prepared and they make sure that their academics is good and they are sharp and they go for the jobs and they go on to those open management training officers recruitment programs in other areas.
The third category is of those who come from abroad for example expatriate Pakistanis in about half a dozen countries like Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Qatar and other places in the world. Now we are also getting students from Canada expatriate Pakistani families in the United States for the professional programs if they don’t get admission there then they come to Pakistan to study with us and then they go back to their own places so this is the third category of expatriate Pakistanis who come to us and get education here and then go back they retain their visa while they are studying here. The fourth category is of those who want to go to higher education they are not interested in job they just want to go for the higher education and the fifth category of those who are you know the open pool but they are not really ready there they are among the bottom of the graduate class and they are confused what to do and what not to do and they have different ideas. They have different plans whether they should go for the job here or do something else and the last category which is very important to us is consists of those who immediately go for an entrepreneurial career. They have a product in mind they have a business in mind and they get the funds they can make the plans and they developed a project and as soon as they graduate they go for their entrepreneurial career and so we have these six categories.
Host: So the last category that you mentioned it seemed that many of the people that have spoken to who come from different universities in the region they do emphasize about their business schools developing entrepreneurs and what are there any special steps that you’ll have taken at UMT?
We are very keen on entrepreneurship we started courses on this discipline from 1990s. I myself taught a course on starting up new business in mid-nineties so we are very old in this filed that you know entrepreneurship is about developing a leadership caliber it’s so that the students can take a risk can think out of the box can critically see the existing products and services and come up with some innovative and creative ideas as to how to improve upon them and they should be good in communication they should be good in team building and they should be output looking they should be very dynamic and active so that they can go through the tests and the challenges that faced by the entrepreneurs so we do a lot of things for example skills development courses on entrepreneurship and SME small business we take them through special lectures by successful entrepreneurs we help them develop their own plans we take them through product development and there are so many exhibits. There are so many competitions for entrepreneurial ideas our students normally go and participate in those competitions and they come back by winning the prizes and with recognition which makes us very happy so entrepreneurship is something which is a holistic development of the personality, a way of life and this is not just one thing that you need to do in one place. There are ten things that you need to do in 10 places and not just one time but throughout their stay so it helps and we have our own entrepreneurial club those who have become entrepreneur successfully after they graduated so their source of inspiration for these and they get connected with them and this is the entrepreneurs then they get ideas from them and then they are on their own but certainly we needed a lot more to abreast them with the challenges of the 21st century.
Host: All right. Having participated in the AMDISA 2016 regional conference. Where do you see scope for UMT to engage with some of the other universities and bodies that have come here?
You know besides about cooperation and participation within South Asia it is a very useful forum I mean I attended the first meeting in 1996 in Colombo so I think this is after 21 years that I’m here again. I found AMDISA forum is really good because it help us interact with institutions in India, Sri Lanka Bangladesh and Bhutan and at UMT we are committed for development and progress of AMDISA and AMDIP. AMDIP which is Association for Management Development Institutions in Pakistan so this is our lifelong commitment. I believe we will always have that office with us so I think we have a very strong commitment with them besides we think that you are not closer enough we are not still cooperating with each other the way we cooperate with institutions in Europe and in America. There are some differences there are some political differences which are not allowing us to really collaborate with each other but there we are managing these issues in the last 21 years.
You know it has not been easy but certainly workable and feasible and with every year we become more convinced of its importance and that we should and we must continue with it and so are our enthusiasm and support to whatever AMDISA does is unwavering over the last decades and it is going to be in future as well. And especially important because as you said there’s a window of opportunity here to educate the younger generation that’s coming up now and it’s a very important task. Yeah I look forward to develop more beneficial and more connected with Sri Lanka since I am here now and I found goodwill among the people of Sri Lanka among the government and the higher-ups. Whoever I have met has been very open and welcoming to us so I’ve been overwhelmed by that Sri Lankan you know positive attitude towards Pakistan and I would like to build bridges in the area of education so that our national linkages are also get stronger in future.
Host: What are your thoughts on e-learning in Pakistan?
Yeah e-learning has taken shape and is now for something which is the nightmare of education institutions. We are running an educational institution and sometimes we have this nightmare that if e-learning catches up and everything is on the server, really, where will we be? But no, it is not just a nightmare, it is an opportunity as well and we are thinking of taking advantage of that. You know in some way we are utilizing the technology and all of our courses are internet-based. You know we have our own learning management system LMS so that we are using. But we haven’t got all the lectures video recorded and uploaded, so lectures are live classroom lectures but LMS is there to reinforce our teaching and so this is how we are trying to utilize the e-learning technology. But there are institutions which are totally based upon eLearning. They don’t have any brick and model campus, they don’t have any address and they are all you know based digitally so they are also doing well.
I personally feel that education will never be free of face-to-face contact and face-to-face teaching it will always be regarded as important and as priority and will always be there it may become more expensive the rates of face-to-face based direct teaching and learning will increase more rapidly than for instance CPI consumer price index it would reach it will increase by two to four to five to maybe ten multiples of CPI because of the costs associated with it which will then create a room for e-learning because that will be not that expensive right so a combination of face-to-face and e-learning would be an ideal and that is what we are planning at UMT and we hope that humans will always be appreciative and we be able to differentiate that face-to-face has more to offer them.
Host: Ok. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us and for joining us on our program, thanks
HSM: You’re welcome!
Video # 2
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDCSdslOkOc
Topic: Inter-Religious Harmony
Event: 6th UPIC
Event Date: Not Available
Audience: US Delegation, Students and Faculty
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 13 Minutes and 35 Seconds
Summary:
Rabbi Simkha Vointrop, Reverend Dr Brian, Counsel General Jury Fitco, Reverend Bob Chase, Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid, dear Junaid, my very dear members of the US delegation, very young students who are visiting us from Chicago during this week, esteemed faculty members, learned scholars, dear students, ladies and Gentlemen, Assalamo O Alaykum. Welcome to 6th US Pakistan Inter-Religious consortium. It’s great to start something and it’s by chance that things come up and they exist, but then it is very hard to set a good tradition. I think US Pakistan Inter Religious Consortium has done that. Now that we are meeting for the 6th time in the city of Lahore and at this scale with such an elaborate program and with such a distinguish delegates from US as well as Pakistan who are going to join us. It’s a great blessing. We all believe that what we are doing is a work of God. We are blessed at this place where people from all faiths, people who subscribe to the Abrahamic faith are here together, they have joined hands, they are sitting in one room, they are trying to understand each other, they are trying to interact with each other, they are trying to engage with each other with a spirit of dialogue and understanding.
So I believe that blessed is this place and blessed is the work that we do. My own exposure from US Pakistan Inter-Religious Consortium took place 4 years back. I received a short email from Mumtaz bhai that this something which is happening and he told me that he had already committed me to the event, so I had no choice to refuse. I went there and I was with then for half of the program and I felt that there is something unique in that gathering. Those who have come from United States, have come from all 3 major faiths and disciplines i.e. Christianity, Judaism and Islam, and those who have come forward from Pakistan also belonged to two major religions here i.e. Christians and Islam. We were there not to not to engage in a polemic or to debate in the heart and tough their reign and trying to knock down each other.
This is happening in so many other places and so many other ways. We don’t want to add another event devoted to that activity. We are here and knowing well that where we stand, what is our conviction, what our belief system is and being firm on that, yes we want to come out of our faith and we want to help others and we want to understand others. So this is something that carries a lot of values for us. And it also carries value for the people out there who belong to all these three faiths. So this is something which was unique, because here we are trying to not distance from each other, we are not trying to overwrite each other, we are not trying to knock down each other in the ring of the debate, but we are trying to relate with each other, we are trying to collaborate with each other and I was glad to find out that out of these six series of US Pakistan Inter-Religious Consortium, about two dozen projects have come out. These projects relate to rural and urban communities, these projects relate to academia, these projects provide an opportunity for employment and enhancement of skills. So this wonderful that it is happening.
Then I decided that as a university, University of Management and Technology, we should extend our support to it and should see what is possible at the level of academia. Because as an academic institution, we are committed to teaching, we are committed to learning and we are committed to research. So I found out a value here and at the end we developed a long term collaboration with George Mason University, which came out of this interaction. It is a two year program which was funded by the state department. Collaboration for Faculty, Excellence in teaching and Research. So it was something that happened as a consequence of this and 40 faculty members of UMT went to George Mason University, they received training and they came back. And twice the faculty members of GMU came to UMT and they interacted with all the faculty members. So we see that rooted in our faiths and rooted in our belief systems, how we can help each other, how we can collaborate with each other, how we can add value to each other and this is something that perhaps God is also looking for and waiting for. This is something that should happen with a greater momentum and lot of other numerous ways. So this is may be a unique effort but I believe that this effort should be duplicated and this effort should go on and on.
When we align ourselves to faith and when we declare our faith, it suddenly transforms us. It helps us relate ourselves to first of all our own beings, so it is a different story than anyone else who do not profess faith or who has no faith. So we relate our self in terms of our beings, where we have come from and where we shall return to, and this brings major questions in our eyes. Secondly, this helps us to relate ourselves with not just this world that is around us but also to a Higher Being and we discover that Higher Being. The attributes of that Higher Being. We see how we can relate ourselves, how we can talk to that Higher Being, how that Higher Being loves us and how we find value and meanings in our lives by our attachment to that Higher Being. Then immediately we see people around us, the creatures and creations of that Higher Being and we relate to those creatures and creations in totally different way because we think that we don’t own them yet we have them. So we are entrusted with a responsibility and with this responsibility comes accountability and how we use them, how we utilize these resources. So we suddenly change the orientation from only this worldly to a transcendental world. Faith does a remarkable job of bringing about the best in us, bringing about excellence in us, bringing about trustworthiness among us, bringing about accountability among us and enhancing our sense of our responsibilities in this world. So ladies and gentlemen, I see a great potential here, I see a great promise here, I see a great future here and at University of Management and Technology we remain committed to it. We will see this even go successful and in two days ahead, you enjoy the discussion. You’ll see that how you can mirror yourself against each other, how you can learn from others, how you can build bridges and walk over those bridges and how you can connect and add value to whatever you are doing. So I hope that these two days would be great and eye opening for us. It was eye opening for myself. I hope those who have come from Pakistan and those who never had a chance before to talk to a reverend or a rabbi, those who were never in that company will enjoy that company and will learn from them, and same goes for those who have come from United States. So this interaction is also something that opens a new chapter in the history of US-Pakistan relations.
I welcome Mr. Raza Gillani, the Minister of Higher Education who has been nominated by the Chief Minister, Mian Shahbaz Sharif to attend this gathering. Pakistan and US have been already engaged on security issues, in economic plane, they have been engaged in the world of business and industry. They have a deep history of interaction, support and working together. So they have been engaged at the level of security, geopolitics, they have already been engaged in the world of business and industry, they are also engaged in the domain of education but this is a wholly new dimension that is being added and that the religious community of United States is reaching out to Pakistan to establish people to people relations, and here is something altogether different that is going to happen and this would be more reliable, sustainable and deep routed engagement that we are going to see. So I think in terms of the value of Pakistan and Unites States relations, this event and the projects coming out of it will be tremendously be adding the value. I welcome you all once again. I have no words to thank those who have come to Pakistan from Unites States. I know there are many warnings and alarms and there are many questions that you may have faced from your friends, relatives and colleagues that why are you going to Pakistan but you took the courage and came here. So welcome to Pakistan, this is a really good time.
We have a splendid spring before us. You can see the colors of flowers, the fragrance coming out of them. Lahore is a city of gardens, so you are fortunate that you came here during the spring time. Spring is the time when nature shows the colors, when nature shows its beauty and I think it’s not just the flowers that are showing colors but the people who are sitting here are also showing and reflecting the beauty and excellence. So thank you for coming to the city of Lahore. I am grateful to the Department of Political Science, Chairman Dr Shoaib and his very able team, I am grateful to Ibrahim Qazi, Junaid and many others who have made it happen.
Video # 3
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA_phcUpa-Q
Topic: Message to Network Associates and Principals
Event: Knowledge School Workshop
Event Date: Not Available
Audience: Network Associates and Principals
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 22 Minutes and 59 Seconds
Summary:
Welcome to the workshop of The Knowledge Schools. It’s a great day for all of us when we are able to see each other, those who are at the helm of knowledge schools, those who are responsible for the conduct of knowledge schools and we are very pleased to welcome our esteemed network associates who have taken this responsibility to initiate the cause of education in their neighborhood, in their cities. We are delighted to welcome the principles who share this responsibility with us, who organize the teaching, who ensure that quality of teaching is reinforced and continuously increased. We are very pleased to also welcome those who provide various services which make it possible for all of us to offer cutting edge education and training.
At the knowledge school, there are many franchises now up and running. This country has 200 million people. Two third of its population is less than 30 years of age and this country needs at least twice the number of schools that are already there. So the future of this country belongs to us. And when we work in the field of education, we are in the business of shaping the future and not just the future but the destiny of our nation. When we go to our workplace, we are going to the place where we are cultivating minds, where we are characterizing the morals of our students, where we are trying to refine the habits of our people, where we are trying to enlighten the hearts of our pupils. So it’s the most challenging task for all of us. It’s not easy. It’s not like running a shop. It’s not like running a factory.
It’s altogether a different thing. And this cause requires not just capital or infrastructure but above all it acquires and deep commitment. It requires a holistic commitment and it requires that those who are sponsoring the projects, those who are taking the responsibility of running the projects, they are holistically and deeply committed to it only then we would be able to see the outcomes and results we desire. So I would like to welcome to all of you, not just this workshop, but what is ahead of this workshop, what is going to happen after this workshop and that is enough to motivate you so that you can do your best, so that you can really commit yourself wholeheartedly and you are willing to do whatever it takes to do, not just satisfactory job but to do an outclass job so that you can win over the future of our beloved country. Here we are gathered under the umbrella of The Knowledge School.
The Knowledge School is not just like any other franchise. It’s a totally new concept. People today, when they think of education, they think of jobs, they think of salaries and they think of where a person can be employed or in case of the school where the next stop would be for higher education. We believe that school is the nursery of nation. So we would like to connect schools to the home. We would like to connect schools to the families. We would like to connect the schools to the life of our pupils. We would like to connect schools to whatever is going on in the neighborhood from where our people go after the school and they play in the park. They go to their other relatives, they visit parks, and they meet people.
So we would like to connect school to the life as such. It’s not just about curriculum filled up with textbooks, with formulas, with theories, with histories, with information about what has gone in the past and what is said by others. So these things, these theories are uncontestable. They are already there. What we would like to do is go take a step forward and do something which is rarely done by any of them and that is the uniqueness of The Knowledge School. The Knowledge School brings knowledge to home, Knowledge School brings knowledge to the self and Knowledge School brings knowledge to the success of a citizen in the life. So we are about success at happiness in the life of families from where our people are coming. We are about success and happiness of the parents who are sending and entrusting us with their kids. We are about success and happiness of teachers. We are about success and happiness of principles. We are about success and happiness of our sponsors, of our investors. And we got about success and happiness of our heads who are actually taking the trouble of running it. So Knowledge School is totally altogether and revolutionary new concept and we are trying to convey that. It’s a very tough task for us to convey this message, to bring everyone on one page on this idea.
So it’s a new idea. So please take that as a challenge. Take this message from here and then work accordingly. Align everything accordingly. The way you manage your school, the way you train your teachers, the way you conduct, the way you speak to parents, the way you speak to your pupils and the way you organize your curriculum, everything has to be organized accordingly. So given this uniqueness of The Knowledge School, it falls upon our shoulder to align ourselves to this mission and to this vision. And in order to align ourselves, first of all the first requirement, the first critical success factor is passion. That we work with our hearts and our souls in attendance and we are devoted to it. So unless we are devoted, nothing can come about. So that’s the first thing. We need to have a passion for this. We need to have passion for education. We need to have a passion for the success of our people. We need to be cherishing and we need to be hungry and starving to see our people crossing milestones, developing themselves, beating the previous records and surprising us with their outstanding and brilliant performance. So that is the passion that when we see smiles in the face of parents, when we see excitement in the face of kids, that actually mobilizes us and that motivates us and we need to be hungry for that, starving for that and dedicating and working for that.
Second thing after passion is about purpose. So what is the purpose of The Knowledge School? It is to impart education. It is to convey and transfer the knowledge contained in the curriculum. It is also to develop themselves as good human beings for the goodness of the society. So that is the purpose of The Knowledge School. It’s not just about tutoring them and examining them and issuing the scores of their test results and printing their report cards and conveying it to parents. It’s much deeper and integrated than this. So it is about developing themselves as good humans for the goodness of the society. So that’s our value contribution. That’s our competitive contribution and that’s our differential advantage. So that’s the purpose of The Knowledge Schools. The third thing is that we need to have a plan for this. That what is our plan? How are we going to spend this week, this day, this session in the classroom, this year, this quarter, these three years and two years?
So your project is in your hands and this project will succeed, it will grow and it will progress only if you have a plan. If you don’t have a plan, any written plan and if you don’t have any milestone for yourself, you will see that it goes and it passes. When you leave it up to the time, then time will not have any mercy upon you. Then you will be left out of time. Those who leave things upon that time, over to the time, then time forget them and walk speedily ahead of them, past them. So I think that’s the important thing, you need to be a very good planner. So you have passion, you have purpose in your mind, and then you need to have a workable plan for yourself. Fourth is that this is all about a project which has inputs, which has a process and which has output and which has feedback system. So you need to work out all the elements about good teaching, good atmosphere, and good activities. So that’s your input. Good attention, good supervision and good training.
This entire thing is a part of the inputs. Then it’s a process. These all things then are deployed so that your school runs and offers the required teaching and training. And then there are outcomes in the form of the success of the students, retention of these students in the form of their enhanced self-esteem, in the form of a new identity that they get as a learned person, in the form of their new questions, the new learning and in the form of the brightening of their future. So these are the outcomes that you are looking for. So that is perhaps more detailed work that you have to do. Whenever you will leave things upon others, whenever you will take the comfort and sit and relax that okay now everything is done and I have appointed this and I appointed them and now that everything is done I can take off and I can just come to the school for 10 minutes to half an hour, one hour and do something else, believe me your school will go down. So it is you who has to see this through and through as a gardener, as an engineer, as a doctor, as an artist, as a designer, as a scientist, as a teacher, as an executive and as a manager. You have to be all of this put together so that your school achieves a uniqueness and there are people who look forward to sending their kids to your school and your schools promises what is part of the expectation of parents, but then goes on to deliver much more.
So this is how you can organize your school. We all look forward to making this whole profitable project, so that whatever you have invested also brings dividends to you. But profits alone if targeted, if your attention is only limited to profits, they will never come. You will never see them. You have to take profits in the overall context. If you will do justice, if you will invest what is required and if you will work hard then you will get all dividends and also profits which you look forward to and whatever you receive as gain, please invest part of it back to school. Refurbish refurnish, renovate and also reinforce your facilities because people expect that as you grow, you will give back. So you have to return back. So keep something for yourself. But then put back all in the project. This is the best advertisement that you can make, that your school continuously reinvest. And that is the best message that you can give to the parents that every year when they come, every six months when they come, they see something new, a new painting, a new chart, a new initiative to provide learning to your students.
So my brief message is that schools are about teaching. So if schools are about teaching and providing the teaching, than those who are running they should be all about learning. If teachers are not learning, if parents are not learning, if principals and headmasters and headmistresses are not learning, if responses are not learning, if network associates are not learning, schools will not learn. And schools which do not learn, they fail to also educate the students in order to have students educate and learn, the schools must learn. In order for schools to learn, teachers must learn continuously. Every month, every week and every year they come, they should go to the same subject, same class next time with new knowledge, enhanced knowledge, more enlightened, more sharpened and more skilled.
So our target at Knowledge School is to create a new breed of schools. A new breed of innovative and creative schools. Schools the world hasn’t seen like any time before, schools that will shape a new generation of our nation beloved Pakistan, schools that will create a new generation of leaders and teachers. So that is our job. We want to make schools nowhere and in no way and in no regard any less to any school that is considered the best. We want to have the schools which are best in their neighborhood, in their area, and most preferred and most competitive. And it’s your job. If you will do the work that is expected of you,if you will take advantage of the opportunities, then you will have it. And you will see the day when your school is the number one school. And that’s the message of The Knowledge School that never compromise for anything which is less than number one.
We want you to be the best in the world and we want to equip you for everything that is required for you to be the number one to be the best in the world. And the best school doesn’t mean that it should have the most expensive infrastructure, it should have the best location, it should have all the richest people coming and studying. The best school comprises of values. The best school comprises of good ideas. The best school is about having this spirit of education and even in the school which is running under the shadow of a tree on grass can be regarded as the best school. And we have seen people being studied and tutored in those constraints under those limitations and those confinements and beating everyone all the way in this world. So don’t think, don’t equate excellence with sources or with infrastructure. Excellence is about your attitude. Excellence is about empowering yourself with the dream to be the number one.
Excellence is about your vision, your commitment to that mission. That’s excellence. And if even if you are constrained in your neighborhood, in your locality, you can be better than anyone in Pakistan. That’s our hope and we are together for that. Let us know what we can do for you and how we can help you to be the best in Pakistan. I wish you every success on your way. We look forward to your suggestions. You are on ground, you are working and you meet these stakeholders, parents, teachers, students. You have better idea as to how we all can be successful. So tell us how, what new things we should be doing, what new actions we should be undertaking and head office of The Knowledge School is geared to listen to you, is anxiously waiting for your positive, constructive and critical suggestions. Together we will make it a better place, a place that we dream, a place that you will feel satisfied. And on the other hand it is head office that will give you the plans that will give you lessons that will ask you to abide by the rules and regulations which will create a discipline among us and which will help us align ourselves to a speedy progress.
So whatever comes from head office, we hope and we expect that you will abide by it, that you will comply with it. And if you will comply with it, you will make your place a better place. And all Knowledge Schools, wherever they are, wherever their location is, they will all look like one place. They will all have same feeling, they will all have same environment. It is just like any other brand, which I don’t want to name any but when you go to this shop to eat something of a brand, then you are sure you will get the same taste, you will get the same service as anywhere else in the world. So we would like to have the same comfort. We would like to create the same uniformity. We would like to create the same discipline in the Knowledge School and compliance of head office as such, is not to in any way is to undermine your efforts or discourage you. It is to help you create the same impact all over so that all of these Knowledge Schools combined will change the atmosphere, will create the conditions that are required to conduct this training as per the plan. And will help you also and make it easy for you, because otherwise every school will be deciding on its own and given the circumstances and situations of the school, this will create the disruptions.
This will create the great differences and diversity which we do not like and which our parents would not like and which will then disturb the uniformity of The Knowledge Schools. So in order to have impact, we need to be together and we need to be on one page and we need to abide by same set of rules, regulations, policies as determined collectively through consultation, through suggestions by the knowledge schools. I look forward to your cooperation in this regard. Thank you very much.
Video # 4
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgIVO9TEUiU
Topic: UMT – Vision and Mission
Event: In the Office
Event Date: Not Available
Audience: General Public
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 4 Minutes and 5 Seconds
Summary:
University of Management and Technology is a leading private sector university in Pakistan. We started as an Institute of Leadership and Management in 1990 and then grown to become University of Management and Technology by 2004. Universities are known by their vision and their mission. As far as UMT is concerned, our vision is very simple. Our vision is ‘Leading’. We want our faculty and participants both to be engaged in whole person development. We want our participants to be competitive as a person and to make a mark in the real world by virtue of their overall personality. We want them to be good as a person, we want them to acquire the cutting edge knowledge, we want them to be proficient in the skills, and we want them to surpass all the expectations by the employers and by the society by virtue of their performance. So this is about leading, sense of leadership and leadership to us is not a state of birth or a family status, leadership to us is something that can be acquired.
Mission of UMT is ‘Learning’. Learning to do, learning to know, learning to live, learning to excel, learning to lead and learning to be. Learning to be what they can be, learning to be what they want to be and learning to be what they could be. Their challenge is their imagination about themselves and we help them launch themselves into a process of self-exploration, self-development and self-actualization. So this is UMT. UMT is a culture of leadership and learning. It also blends Management and Technology. What’s unique about our programs is already spoken and declared in our names. We are UMT, University of Management and Technology. So most of the programs, they blend management expertise and management concepts with technological skills. So we distinguish our self because of this unique ability to transplant management and technology within variety of professions. Right now we have 75 plus degrees that are being offered. Recently, we have been declared category W4 by HEC. We are lucky to be the first to achieve that category and when rankings came they also brought a very good news to us because we are a medium sized private sector university in Punjab and if you look at the ranking, we are number one in our category of medium sized general universities in private sector. So that confirms to us that whatever we are doing is not just unique, but we are ahead of others in what we are doing.
Video # 5
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdfOCozl-Tc
Topic: UMT – Quality Academics
Event: 3rd UMT Convocation
Event Date: Year 2008
Audience: Students and Parents
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail and Starting of video is missing
Total Time of Video: 13 Minutes and 47 Seconds
Summary:
At this university, we have also taken steps to integrate the knowledge. Management and Technology is just one area where we are integrating and we have introduced programs in the field of Education, Media, Engineering, Banking and Textiles where we are integrating management and Technology both. This is for the higher satisfaction of the corporate sector because we have seen when students go to the corporate sector and they are aware and they are master of just one area, technology or management, they cannot be fully effective. We want to build multi-disciplinary point of view among our students. Not all universities can mean everything to everyone. One area where you would like to specialize and achieve a distinguished image is that this University introduces and brings forward the programs which are in multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary. I’m also delighted to report that because of our continuous emphasis last year alone, our faculty members have produced more than 50 research papers out of a 125 full-time base. This we believe is a respected number. 50 research papers and without any proper research funding. Out of these about 27 have already been published. We have taken steps to enhance the qualification of our faculty members and about 16 of them are enrolled and about a dozen have gone abroad for higher education. We also introduce MS and MPhil programs to strengthen our Education and Research, and the highest number of HEC scholars in Pakistan are enrolled in UMT which shows the research potential of the University. This university has also now introducing centers. We are composed of schools. School of Science and Technology, School of Business and Economics, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, School of Professional Advancement and one institute, Institute of Audit and Accountancy. This year we will set up centers. The purpose of the centers is to integrate the industry with the classroom, is to develop a bridge with the fields of industry and we hope that this year we will be able to set up about six new centers. We already have an interaction experience Design Center, first one in Pakistan and there are several others in planning and we hope that these centers will open a new vista for the contribution of the faculty and students. We also started BS Social Sciences program, BS Accounting program, MS Islamic Banking and Finance, BS in Industrial Engineering and Power Engineering. These are our some of the academic initiatives that we have taken but we are not just limited to academics. We have also taken steps and now with this campus we have more opportunities to hold extracurricular activities. Our Clash 20 Championship program in the field of cricket is very well known. Each year we hold it and more than two dozen universities from all Pakistan they come to it and they participate in it. It is one of the programs that we have been holding for the last four years. We’ve also started Sports competitions in Football, Snooker, Rugby, Chess and many other fields. Our students have also performed well in debates and drama and they have also taken in steps to undertake social work in the earthquake areas and also within the university and outside the university. Our library, I can assure you that if compared to the others it is one of the most competitive and it fares well in the survey of other libraries. We have access to about 50,000 books right here and thousands of that books and journal articles through databases. We have extensive resources in CDs and videos. Our Laboratories were very meager before but now we have about 15,000 square foot area reserved for our engineering Laboratories, IPC (information processing center). They are all now providing facilities to our students.
This is all being possible because of a good team, a motivated team of faculty and on behalf of university, on behalf of the board, I would like to acknowledge their services. I would like these graduates to please applaud their contribution and you hope and we are proud that the team that we have is Noble, it’s committed to the cause of education and they have a higher goal in their mind. They are not mercenary teachers or part-time teachers. We have a base of 125 and we hope to increase that to about 150 before the start of the next fall. For the corporate sector, we have started Center for management development about five years back. Today it has earned its reputation and recognition in the area of executive development and its offering specially the outdoor training programs and Noble idea that was brought to Pakistan for the first time under CMD. So this team consisting of about 12 people is continuously busy round the year with their calendar for executive development programs. We continuously try to build this campus through mobilization of resources in the last convocation the chief minister announced a grant of hundred million rupees. Mr. Imran Khan, the co-founder of pixel granted us two million dollars and we are also here to acknowledge the grants that we have received in between our pride, our alumni one of the one of the faces that you must all be also very familiar with the man who introduced the First Technology brand computers in Pakistan, Ibrahim is with us. He studied at UMT and ILM in early 90s and has introduced referrals computers and also brought Apple Computers now, he is here today. And with his cooperation, we are starting a media lab at UMT by the month of February and he is donating five computers for that lab, and we will be adding five more. So this will add to our current capacity of it.
We are also grateful to Mr. Shumail and Galib who are founders, Father and Son of tech access. They are the leader, they are the dealers of Sun Microsystems Computers in the Middle East and North Africa region. And they are also co-sponsor of Tech Access Media, Mr. Arsalan Khakwani one of our another alumni is here and they have given us a donation of 12 Sun Microsystems Computers and four servers to set up a Medium-range Computing lab which can deal with the software required for supply chain, required for ERPs and higher-order applications.
So we hope that this system will be arriving in this month or the next month of January and the lab would be starting in February. We would also like to acknowledge the services of Mr. Ashraf who has contributed in providing the air conditions to classrooms. He installed them and then forgot to take his bill, which was nice of him. We would also like to acknowledge the services of Mr. Abdi who has been kind enough to facilitate UMT students for securing admissions abroad and has also given us a scholarship right now for those who are graduating, one full scholarship at University of Nottingham. And I would request him that one is not enough, make it two. So one for the School of Science and Technology and one for the School of Business and Economics. We have here with us also. Mr. Ahsan Naveed, the director of Deen group and Mr. Asghar Ali Shah, the director of Daud group, both have donated a reward for the graduating students worth hundred thousand rupees and a gold medal. We are grateful to them and we hope that this favor will continue to the graduates coming in the future years and we will add more rewards inshAllah in future.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have taken enough time and you must be waiting for your degrees and medals and awards to be awarded to you. In the end I would like to once again thank all the graduates. I would like to take this opportunity to also thank the worthy parents. You must be proud of the shine, the confidence and the commitment that you would be seeing in the face of your sons and daughters. We certainly are all indebted to you. You have sacrificed long years and your heart money that you spent on the training and education of your sons and daughters. Whatever best we could do to them, we tried and we hope that they would live up to your expectations in future. They would be a source of encouragement and delight. They will bring happy news one after the other as they start their careers. I was very happy to note yesterday that about eighty percent of the graduates are already on job. This is a great news that shows the promise of our potential. Although times are trying, these are times of Crisis. But our graduates have been able to storm the real world and convince the recruiters of their potential and found good opportunities. We hope that they will have more successes and promotions in future and they will take on the career ladder with confidence and move up. Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen.
Video # 6
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKmj-a34otI
Topic: Leadership Roles
Event: 3rd Convocation
Event Date: Year 2008
Audience: Students and Parents
Issues in the Video: Improper Thumbnail, Start of video is missing and incomplete ending
Total Time of Video: 24 Minutes and 16 Seconds
Summary:
Who was founder of a civilization based on truth, justice, peace, equity, excellence, accountability, prosperity, knowledge, technology and ever everlasting rewards? Ladies and gentlemen, we welcome with these praises and salutations to all of you to the third convocation of the University of Management and Technology. We regret that our first Chief Guest, Prime Minister of Pakistan who was supposed to be here could not be here because of the events in Mumbai. And our chief minister who was then supposed to be our chief guest today could not make it because of his health. We pray for his health and fast recovery. We certainly miss him and we would certainly invite him once again when he gets better. We have decided anyway to hold this convocation on time because the purpose of chief guest of course is one to honor them and certainly also to make it befitting for our graduates.
Once they take the degrees, they walked to the corporate sector and certainly with the best wishes and blessings of the chief guest. Ladies and gentlemen, we have with us a chief guest who is in no way less than the ones we invited, in fact in many ways he stands taller, superior, nobler in terms of his accomplishments and his work, Professor Khursheed. Let me introduce to you an intellectual, one of the finest intellectual and a scholar that Pakistan has produced. Today we see branches of Islamic banking dotting the streets of our countries, creating worldwide 600 billion dollar plus market. It was his voice in the 50s and 60s and 70s, drawing the attention of economists towards the benefits of Islamic banking and Islamic economics.
He’s one of the chief architects of Islamic economics and Islamic banking. It is good that he has seen within his lifetime that what was at the level of ideas, what was the question, what was controversial, what was debated and what was not recognized or respected by the bankers and by the professionals, today is sought after. And today even the secular banks are introducing and initiating schemes of Islamic banking. So from this stage of ideology, thrashing out the principles and tenets to institution building, Professor Khursheed has seen that and he was a player and a participant, and reaching the process and contributing to it at every step. He is to Islamic economics and Islamic banking someone like what Adam Smith is to capitalism, what Karl Marx is to socialism. And this is not just one area where he contributed. And he was also teaching Islamic economics in Karachi University for two decades. As a public servant, as a member of Senate his contributions have been compiled in six volumes and the topics range from education to constitution, politics and governance to policy, security to defense, culture to international relations and society to sociology. He has contributed in all areas right from knowledge generation to the formulation of policy and when it comes to policy formulation, his another contribution stands unsurpassed as to his credit goes.
The accomplishment of setting up the first policy institute focusing on policy in the private sector in the Muslim world and by the name ‘Institute of Policy Studies’. The first policy studies institute in the Muslim world, in the private sector. And when it comes to institution building, it is not just Institute of Policy Studies but also he has spent more than a decade in Great Britain and has set up there the Islamic Foundation. The Islamic Foundation in the UK is not only a research institution but there is also now associated an institution of higher education known as Mark Field Institute of Higher Education. He was also instrumental in setting up the International Islamic universities in Islamabad and is a lifetime member of the board of these universities in Pakistan and elsewhere. He is perhaps the only public servant who has not taken a rupee from the public exchequer for his services as a member of the Senate or as member of the committees since he started working with various capacities in Senate and also as minister. He’s perhaps one of the very few Pakistanis honored by foreign universities with honorary doctorate. He has received not one not two but three honorary doctorate degrees from institutions in UK and Asia.
Ladies and gentlemen, to me personally he is more than a father and when my father left, before he left he did once tell me that he means more to you than a father. And though he left twelve years back, but in his company I’ve always felt that he’s more than a father and a mentor. So it is our privilege that he’s with us. Ladies and gentlemen, these are the real heroes of Pakistan we need to honor, we need to acknowledge from a scholarship to the real world, from the world of thought to the world of practice, from the world of ideas to the world of actually turning those ideas into reality. So we feel that in that respect we have a chief guest we can be proud of and feel great that this convocation focuses on him.
This convocation of course marks a special phase in the history of the University of Management and Technology as this is the first one that we are holding in this permanent campus of the university. This convocation is being held of course in the midst of fog and lack of sunshine outside. But I see more than 300 suns shining inside, so we don’t miss any sun here. And whatever we lack in terms of fog and clarity is quite visible here.
Convocation is an occasion of celebration. It’s the culmination of education for the graduates. It is a solemn Mark of accomplishments, of the glory, of a smooth landing and a subsequent takeoff. A beginning of a journey to high altitudes, to altitudes even higher than what can be measured, trespassing stars and beyond. Here is a time, here is a moment when prospects merge into perspectives. Here is a par to bring future into present times and to have present mark into the past. Here’s a moment which we can showcase with determination that come what may, we will build our nation, we will build this country, we will work for its prosperity to strengthen this nation. For faculty who worked hard, this is certainly a time to wave off and bid farewell to those with whom they had long lasting relationship embedded in devotion and affection, and grounded with the deep sense of purpose and learning. For the university, this convocation, is just a pause in its endless passage. It is just a port of call in route where ships anchor for a while to offload and get the fresh intake.
Certainly enduring the fresh and enduring the old is what gives life to the universities. It is also a day of reckoning for us. The standards that you have set, faculty and graduates would be a starting point for us in future. We will remain there, continue to build further and advance further. Their graduates, worthy graduates, your time has begun now. Your clock starts today. Go from here now and make your way to the world of work. Challenge the status quo and set new standards. Build meaningful relationships with all with whom you converse and relate. Help others. Always have a positive mindset. You are there to build, to construct. You focus on future and command your respect and dignity on the basis of your performance. There is nothing to hold your back except your back. There is nothing to deny you reaching higher except your own gaze lowered.
There is nothing to stop you from marching forwards except your own steps. You need to strike first to outcompete. You need to think first, act first, lead first, question first, answer first, arrive first, stand first and sit first, and you will see how world open its doors for you and how it welcomes you with its arms wide open. You brought your presence here, you just brought your persona here and you are walking today with a new identity towards your destiny. Graduates, in many ways this degree is at best a deception. Yes indeed it is a condition that you need to qualify.
It is a license to enter into your profession. It adds to your embellishments in your resume and your visiting cards but it cannot be in any way a substitute to your dreams, your imagination. Dropping in from the areas to the areas where you are interested, areas where you are passionate about and dropping out from the areas which cannot bear any results. This degree cannot be a substitute to your discovery seeking what is unknown, learning about your potential, seizing the opportunities. This degree cannot be a substitute to your determination, the power of your intention, your will and choice to act in the face of an action and this degree cannot be a substitute to your development, mobilizing your strengths and unleashing your talents, trying out whatever is new, whatever is better rather finding consonance and comfort in whatever is old and in the process of making yourself rigid and unadoptable.
This degree cannot be your destiny. This is just think just the beginning of the happiness, the gratification, the fulfillment, the actualization and the harmony that would come later because of your work and because of your contribution to the society. You have seen in the world today, the very best of the world have fallen like house of cards. The companies on the top of the world with hundreds of billions of dollar worth of assets and one of the best minds and hundreds of supercomputers aiding and equipping them and facilitating them. We have seen in the last couple of months those companies, those times, and those individuals falling flat on the face of earth.
Why was it, why it must have happened? It was because they were not the real people. They were not men and women of character. They were not sincere. There were people who were driven by greed, by hate and they hide their ulterior motives in the face of their huge buildings and their corporate images. Graduates, a nice tailored suit cannot be a substitute to your intelligence and integrity. The money that is in your reservoir cannot be a substitute to your ethics and morality. We are proud of you and we hope that you will break that notion that whoever succeeds in the corporate world succeeds because of malpractices, because of deception and because of fraud. We hope that you will be part of that new breed of corporate managers, corporate executives and corporate leaders who will show the world that with character with morality, with ethics and with integrity, and sincerity you can have a long lasting sustainable corporations. And come what may, move the mountains, change the courses of rivers but do not betray the trust and honor that your families, your parents, your father and your mother, the purity of their love and affection have bestowed upon you and the degree that we will hand out to you today. This university certainly seek to take a position here and would like to distinguish itself as an institution not just helping graduates to develop themselves and to generate their competency and refine their skills, to chisel their mindset and thinking but also becoming a better holistic human being.
Our mission is learning, generating useful knowledge, fostering enduring values, promoting sustainable practices and technologies and actualizing strategic partnerships with the stakeholders as the leading community dedicated to the integrated development of the global society. With this lofty mission, we have given ourselves a mandate and we also charge you today that this mission will continue to be your mission to the rest of the life. We have in the last two years taken some strikes, humble steps to develop this university. Shifting to this campus is just one step. We are now seeking a comprehensive change. The way we teach, the way we relate, the way we discuss, the way we work, the way we do research and the way we relate ourselves to the world of business and industry. We have taken steps to redraw our course outlines to enrich them with the concepts and knowledge that is cutting edge to increase their effectiveness by making better choices and assessment methods and to provide opportunities to our participants for more interaction for more life in classroom and outside the classroom to provide opportunities for experiential learning and more comprehensive development of the self. So that once they walk into the corporate sector, they are not only tested by the examinations and the tests and multiple choices but have also gone through the type of work that they would be expecting in the corporate world.
Video # 7
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxoAZhW1FOQ
Topic: Value of Quran and Sunnah Teachings in Our Lives
Event: 3rd Convocation
Event Date: Year 2008
Audience: Students and Parents
Issues in the Video: Includes other speakers, Voice quality of Dr Hasan’s speech is too low in start and ending is incomplete.
Total Time of Video: 24 Minutes and 16 Seconds
Summary:
Respected Chairman of the Board of Governors of University of Management and Technology, Chairman of the board of trustees of the Institute of Leadership and Management Trust, Professor Khurshid Ahmed, Vice Chairman of Board of Governors of UMT and ILM Professor Rafiq Ahmed, Distinguish members of the board, Pro-Rectors, Deans, members of faculty, distinguish guests, dear parents, my worthy graduates, future of the country and leaders of the future, ladies and gentlemen Assalamo O Alaykum. Thank you very much Bilal for initiating this fine morning with the finest word that a human being can ever utter, the word ‘Al-Rehman’. There is no word like this. There is no word that can promise for us what this single word can do. There is no word which has a magic, which has a treasure in which the heavens and skies, planets and earth all can merge together and whatever is in between, whatever it was before and whatever it will be thereafter. So this word ‘Al-Rehman’ is the word that guides our journey, that indicates our destiny and that highlights our source. All glories and praises reserved for this ‘Al-Rehman’. Our humble existence is but manifestation of infinite attributes of this word. This wonderful life given to us and this beautiful planed in which we walk and spend our time shows the glimpses and vastness and richness of this word ‘Al-Rehman’. The skies and heavens are just a dot that we can find out. The power of expression given to this creation human being, so critical for learning, so in integral for our life is also a testimony that the creation which started with the word ‘Kun Faya Kun’ was then given the power of expression so that this creativity can further continue upon the call of the Creator, with the blessing of the Creator and His unbounded mercy.
Let us also take this opportunity to recognize the man who was the greatest of all. Whose humility made the super powers of the day surrender and dismembered. Whose silence orchestrated the course of history, who lived and sacrifices for all of us, who cried and bent down and exhausted himself to serve us for our salvation, who loved us like no one else in the world and who entrusted to us his wisdom with the hope that we will honor the trust and who built amongst us, from us a nation who was supposed to be a torch bearer of life in the ages of darkness, who was a leader of the teachers and indeed a teacher to all the leaders.
Video # 9
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DpuxiL5BPM
Topic: Innovative Computing
Event: First International Conference
Event Date: Year 2016
Audience: International Delegation and local people
Issues in the Video: Improper Thumbnail, Audio is missing in the middle of the video, few seconds skipped from the middle and ending of video is improper.
Total Time of Video: 14 Minutes and 36 Seconds
Summary:
My very distinguished guests from abroad, welcome to Pakistan, welcome to Lahore and welcome to UMT. My very learned guests from Pakistan, but outside UMT from different cities and different institutions. Thank you very much for honoring us. Thank you very much for participating in this conference and thank you very much for taking the initiative to enrich the dialogue and discussions here at International Conference on Innovative Computing. The present epoch in which we are living and working is characterized by the world of computing. I try to think that what is it that Computing does for us? In the way we live, the way we work, the way we think, the way we act and the way we project and plan. So I could not see any domain that could possibly be left out of the reach and influence of computing. So computing is all pervasive. It is everywhere. It is embedded and it is outsight, it is insight and it characterizes everything today that we do and I felt that it determines that what it that we should be doing is. It determines our choices for us. It discovers what it is that is possible. It discovers what is it that has not been achieved and accomplished and that can yet possibly happen. So this is what computing does. And then it helps us and equips us to decide, to make intelligent choices. It arms us with tremendous power backing up our own reflection and thinking our own judgment and helps us to decide what should be the way forward? What should be the preferred way? And what is right, what is better and what is truth? So I think Computing helps us in making better decisions. It increases the quality of our decisions. And then Computing also delivers. It is integrally responsible for the delivery of outcomes and output that we desire. The products and services that we target, computing delivers. It helps us. It comes up with what we aim at and it facilitates our production of output. It facilities generation of services. And then you go on and you will find that computing also has taken a role to develop our civilization, our culture. It has taken upon itself the responsibility. And it is increasingly factoring in the thresholds of civilizations which is dependent upon enlightenment, which is dependent on reasoning, which is dependent upon rationality, which is dependent upon what we create. So computing is also responsible for transition of our age, from one age to the next age, from one threshold the next threshold, from one stage to another stage and it is good for the nations especially who are beset by the problems of poverty, Illiteracy and unemployment. Who have resources but they are unaware of the resources sitting within the borders. Who have got talent but they don’t know how to put that talent in fruitful, meaningful and purposeful jobs. So computing is also integral to developing. It develops.
And then you go on to find that it is also now part of the design process. You have imagination, you have fantasy, but then you need a factory, a design factory to put that imagination into a realizable thing. And computing helps us to generate the range of products that are possible without actually making the models. Before you make the models, before you do pilots, there is this designed factory that computing enables you to work with to actually develop and design things. So our capability to design, creative design, and our capability to critically evaluate our designs, before incurring any cost is also possible because of computing. And then computing helps us. It depicts. It helps us find out what’s happening, what’s going on, what’s working, where are flaws and what the state of affairs is. Computing helps us in gathering data from billions of sensors and posts and it collates it, it interprets it infers and then it leads us to the information that what is it that’s going on because we really want to be immersed in the reality as it is unfolding, as it is taking shape. You don’t want to be behind.
What I would like you to do is, computing is it response to the challenges of the present times, it’s a response to the challenges of optimization, it’s a response to the challenges of scanning and monitoring and calculation. So computing world is a challenge and you have to link that with the world of business and industry. You have to see what is it that is needed, what it is that is demanded, what is that is required, what it is that is expected and then put yourself in that bridge, that need and that power of computing, and you will have your way. You will have the research papers, you will have the intellectual property and you will have something that will make a difference in the world of business and industry. So I firmly believe that while Pakistan has made some progress, we have moved to about 2 billion dollar worth of exports now.
This field is employing about 40/50 thousand people now, but we can be 10 times more. We can be 20 billion dollar. There is a need for 500,000 people to be employed who are computing persons, tune to the culture of computing. Your computer is running at 1 gigahertz but you are running at .001 gigahertz. So how will these two speeds link up? So you have to be faster thinker, as a thinker, as a planner than the processor speed that is at your disposal. So this is how I believe that we can make our classrooms computing classrooms, our projects computing projects, our interaction and conversation a computing interaction and computing conversation, and our courses computing courses. So there has to be that computing ingrained in our being, in our culture, in our learning, in our teaching and our research. And I can assure the young youth who are enrolled in computing programs, who are teaching computing subjects that future is yours, treasure is yours, money is yours, name is yours, and fame is yours if you think creatively, critically and innovatively. Otherwise, it’s a subject for you like history. You will study introduction to computer science, you will teach introduction to computer science, but nothing will happen except the pages of the text books. You will not create any difference. So make sure that you are in a field which can make a difference, which can create an impact and now it’s time to develop ourselves to bear upon the strengths that we have and then make an impact. I’m really delighted and very much pleased to see that an idea that we discussed sometime back has seen the light of the day and it was tireless effort by team headed by Dr Hannan Abid, guided by Dr Gohar and participated by all faculty members of the Department of computer science and also students who have seen that. I welcome the interest and participation of all who are presenting. I hope this conference would become a platform for exchange of ideas and thoughts, sharing latest research, developing new scholarly partnerships and I hope that this will set, this is the first mark and it will set the tradition for future and we will have this conference going on every year as a milestone to share the research, thinking that has gone in the preceding year. I am grateful to all of you. Thank you very much.
Video # 10
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwKrNzFSv8o
Topic: Islamic Economics and Finance
Event: IIB Global Forum 2016
Event Date: January 20th, 2016
Audience: General Public
Issues in Video: Words missing from start and another speaker in the video.
Total Time of Video: 23 Minutes and 48 Seconds
Summary:
It is an unusual cold morning in the winter season of Lahore but I am sure that our warmth brotherly affection is what mitigates this coldness to a great extent, InshAllah. A wide range of participants have gathered here today under one roof and InshAllah we are here together with the best of intentions to learn more and share all. We want to learn what is new, what are new challenges, how we can respond to those emerging challenges, what needs to be done next, where are we all heading, where is our destination, what are our milestones, what have we accomplished so far, what are our problems, what are new perspectives, prospects, paradigms, platforms and perceptions about this field. Certainly, as a practitioner and as a scholar in this field it falls upon us to be ahead of the current of time and to relate our steps to the future and guide this field towards better success. My own recollection on Islamic banking and Islamic economics takes me as far as 1977. I did read a few books on Islamic economics, social justice, interest free banking by learned authors from the subcontinent. But then it was my good fortune that I happen to be in United Kingdom in the summer of 1977. I had just passed my high school and I had taken admission in NED University of Engineering and Technology and wanted to study civil engineering. During the summer of 1977, Islamic Council of Europe which was at that time headed by Mr. Salim and Islamic foundation which was headed by Professor Khurshid Ahmad, organized the first international Islamic Conference on Islamic economics. And there I found about two hundred scholars, practitioners from all over the Muslim world and from the Western world as well. Those who are who were in academia teaching economics, those who were working in the banks and central banks, financial institutions and that was the first conference first gathering of people who are who found themselves committed to Islamic economics. It was a thriving conference and I could see the emergence and the formal birth of the discipline of Islamic economics in our modern times. Maybe anyone else could I could take it much farther back in time but for me that was my first milestone when I got to see people and got to talk to them and I saw them concerned about the overall economic conditions of the world and I saw them committed to finding solutions to those challenges and problems from the Islamic perspectives. So I was humbled by the all of that gathering. They were all gathered there with good intentions and May Allah SWT reward them for leading the pathways future and May Allah also reward us for coming together here now, help us in enlightening our minds, endow us with wisdom and knowledge so that we can find the right way, and also facilitate us as we take our steps in future.
International Islamic economics finance and banking is also now popularly known as just another way of banking, just another alternative to the interest based banking. Some call it as an ethical banking. So there are new ways and new perceptions about Islamic banking, what it is, what it means, what its significance is, what it entails, what it requires and how it turns around the economy. To me and I want to share this at the start, it is nothing but a faith based economics. It is faith oriented economics, it is faith driven economics and it is faith lead economics. If we disconnect faith with Islamic economics then we will lose the import, the spirit, and the meanings of Islamic economics. So while we are blessed with the interest of many who don’t share faith but have enthusiasm for Islamic economics and we feel that Islamic economics has been able to make a compelling case and has been able to put forward a rationale for its existence and for its feasibility for its workability, we should remain focused upon its origin that Islamic economics ores its roots to our faith. We are dealing with accumulation, development and applications of resources endowed to us by none else than Allah SWT and actually held by him but given to us so that we can exercise our discretion during our lifetime at the maximum.
The whole machinery system, human resources should be fully cognizant of this precarious and highly normative relationship between economics banking and finance from Islamic perspectives and faith. I recall the saying of Mr. Ashraf who is former chairman of national investment trust that once I was talking to him and he mentioned to me that Islamic banking would perpetuate and would grow stronger only if we’ve tried to find its relevance and fulfillment and satisfaction in the mirror of the faith that we have. If we make the profits coming from Islamic financial transactions, a prime motivator and a prime objective, we will lose its meanings, its taste, and its essential feature.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is yet another conference on a very important subject and recent years have seen a surge of conferences on economics, finance and banking all over the world. Such conferences with cross-border, cross fields and cross realms participations provide the necessary impetus for strengthening the discourse and dialogue for integration of theory and practice and cross fertilization of new ideas. The partake and parlays at formal and informal levels provide avenues for better understanding and new partnership to take this field forward. The unique feature of this conference is that it aims at widening the discourse and keeping alive the fundamentals of Islamic economics as the soul and spirit of Islamic finance and banking. The guiding principles of Islamic economics are drawn from the teachings of Quran and Sunnah and as expounded by the scholars of early ages to middle Ages, to modern ages, to contemporary times. It is important to revive and revisit the fundamentals. It is important to remain relevant and extend the useful knowledge but not without departing and deviating the fundamentals, the core, the essential and the necessary.
This conference undertakes to build a comprehensive framework for the emerging ecosystem of Islamic economics finance and banking. We aim to develop convergence and alignment. Starting from principles to problems, to practices, developing institutions and instruments. Pakistan as a country has carved out a unique niche in Islamic banking. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the regulatory patronage extended by State Bank of Pakistan right from its inception in 1947. Mr. Saeed Ahmad has further invigorated the role of State Bank of Pakistan. I have met him several times and I found him restless and enthusiastic and highly committed to promote Islamic banking in Pakistan. I wish him good luck and a great success. Similarly the tremendous work done by the Dar-ul-Uloom Karachi, has been a source of guidance for hundreds of institutions from all over the world. Dar-ul-Uloom Karachi has courageously bridged the gap between theory and practice.
They facilitated by developing necessary documentation, conceptualizing transactions according to Islamic teachings, partnering with financial institutions to learn practices and resolve issues, and finally generating the carter of sharia advisers to support and sustain this initiative all over the world. Ladies and gentlemen the momentum of Islamic economics finance and banking as we see today would not have been possible without the painstaking research and credible and authentic development undertaken at Dar-ul-Uloom Karachi. We invited Maulana Taqi Usmani and he was confirmed but yesterday he expressed his regret because of cold weather of Lahore. We welcome Dr Ashraf Usmani in his place.
I would fail in my duty if I do not express my gratitude on behalf of Muslim Ummah actually to Dr Justice Khalil Ur Rehman. It is him to whom the Almighty SWT accorded the singular privilege and honor of discriminating what is right from what is wrong. As a learned judge he conducted an exhaustive debate and concluded it decisively for all forever. He has put a period and I mean a final period on the ensuing confusions and ambiguity and brought clarity and force. What we see today unraveling is because of that clarity. Thank You Justice Sb. Only Allah SWT can reward you for that historic and heroic contribution. You have settled the matter of Riba eternally. On behalf of UMT, I would like to declare our unequivocal commitment to support the field of Islamic economics finance and banking to complement all that the efforts going on elsewhere. We have set up IIB, you have heard the introduction of IIB. We offer teaching, we conduct research and we have just started. We hope that IIB will make progress in future and would contribute to the promotion of Islamic banking. I wish to comment the hard work which preceded this conference. The work done by Mahmood Shah Khan and his very able faculty has made it possible. There is a strong commitment by faculty and students to make IIB a center of excellence in this part of the world.
A very brief about UMT, our vision is learning and our mission is leading. We have a student body of about 10,000 and a full-time faculty of 400, out of which 120 hold PhD degrees. The rest are have at least MS or MPhil degrees. Our programs range from science, engineering and technology to social sciences and humanities to law and business. We have about 125 programs up and running. Before I conclude I wish the participants a very good conference, a collaborative avenue where they can engage themselves into collaborative thinking. I hope this conference will add value to their insights, will pave the way to make further progress and will help us unite and work together to uphold the mission of Islamic economics finance and banking. Thank you very much.
Video # 11
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGAaz6byS2M
Topic: Importance of Mathematics
Event: UMT International Conference on Pure and Applied Mathematics (UICPAM 2017)
Event Date: March 4th, 2017
Audience: Faculty Members, Students and Researchers
Issues in Video: No Issue
Total Time of Video: 22 Minutes and 20 Seconds
Summary:
Dr Shoukat Chaudhry, Dr Azhar Iqbal, Dean School of science, Dr Saeed, Chairperson of Department of Mathematics and my very respected and honored guest Professor Burt Little, Dr Carl, Dr Tohru Nakara, I also see our very old friend Dr Arif Zaman, Dr Arfeen Lodi, my very young faculty members, researchers and students, Assalamo O Alaykum. I am really pleased to see that this conference is being held now for the third time. So in the language of mathematics maybe the first time is a chance, the second time is continuity and third time is consistency and some indication of permanency. I hope that as explained by Dr Shoukat that we will continue to hold this conference in years to come, every year and this will become a platform for interaction. These conferences are important and I am not surprised that family of Dr Shoukat is perturbed and is bothered by it as he devotes his time and attention at home and in office in organizing this conference. It is not easy to organize this conference. In fact I also faced this question many times in university that people ask me that why you want these conferences, why you are pushing us to hold these conferences.
I believe that these conferences are an important element of the ecosystem of research that we should try to promote and encourage and try to actually enact in whatever way we can. So it is not just for us, it is not thinking only about UMT or the researchers and faculty members and students in the UMT. But as a university offering graduate and undergraduate degree in mathematics, we believe that it is it becomes our responsibility to see that the community of mathematician faculty members, professionals and researchers who have an interest in this field, they are provided with opportunities to interact with each other. Because knowledge is transferred and knowledge is disseminated and knowledge gets advancement and refinement. When it receives attention, an interaction is the fundamental exchange unit that contributes to that attention. When you interact with your teacher you get an idea, you get something new and you get some guidance and you solve your problem or you see something that you could not see before. And when faculty members meet with each other from across the across the boundary as well as across the borders then they also get enlightened.
They meet people, they may get chance to learn a few new things or how others are looking at the old things or they can be a source of enlightenment to others. So these this is something which we should take up as the serious engagement and I’m glad that this conference the first of its kind, pure and applied mathematics in Pakistan, something like this is being organized. I know that there are other conferences on mathematics organized elsewhere but this is a new addition and something that we hope that will continue. We also organized last year a conference on pure and applied science and I hope that the school of Sciences would continue to hold this conference and again this year so that our departments of physics, chemistry, biotechnology and other departments who are involved in these statistics they could also find a platform and an opportunity to interact with others.
So these conferences also serve as a showcase for us to demonstrate the latest. Whatever has been thought, whatever has been discovered, whatever has been found out and whatever new research has taken place. So these conferences provide that informal opportunity to get it across to those who can be a resource to critically evaluate it and to add value to whatever has been done so far. So it’s a process of refinement. These conferences also provide opportunities to make new friends and to get out of the boredom of the classroom and academic corridors meet new people and make new friends and make your life more interesting in the field of mathematics. So the more friends you are you have within mathematics, the more interest you will be able to maintain in your subject of mathematics.
A couple of ideas that I would like to share with you. I am not a mathematician and I’ve been subject to the teaching of mathematics quite a number of years when I was in school because I opted for pre science pre engineering and also during the course of my civil engineering and somehow I passed all of them. But when I try to see this universe in the light of Quran I feel that the first principle of this universe is based upon mathematical equation. Mathematics is the first discipline of this universe. Everything that I see around us over us, beyond us and within us, I feel that there is mathematic, mathematic formula, mathematic equation, mathematic grammar and mathematical algorithm that is working behind it. And somehow the God in Quran has taken pride in His ability to encompass everything, to account for everything, to count everything and to be aware of and knowledgeable of everything that is hidden in the darkness, in the middle of the earth that falls from the atmosphere or trees or that goes from Earth to up, to the atmosphere and whatever happens.
So He has the command He has introduced Himself as the one who holds the command, the key and also the knowledge of everything and who is very quick, very smart, very complete, very authentic, very trustful and very honest in his accounting. So that actually leads me and turn my attention to mathematics that what it is in the mathematics that I feel if this universe has a system, if this universe is based upon rules, if this universe has a grammar, a way and it is mathematics that is how it is been able to survive and sustain so far. So generally, as a society I feel we need greater awareness of mathematics, we need to be more knowledgeable about this subject and we need to be more sensitive to mathematics.
And here I am not just talking about the world of commerce and business which is always busy and engaged in counting profits, counting money, counting debts, counting assets and accounting for everything but I am talking about our life, our living as a responsible citizen. As a responsible citizen we need to be more calculative. Responsibility means to be aware of the effect of your actions and deeds. So I feel that we lack that and I feel that in our communication we lack mathematical orientation. We are too abstract, to general and there is too much ambiguity in our communication. We lack precisions and we lack the focus. So I feel that this is perhaps the responsibility of our school and this was the point and I wanted to communicate to Minister for education that we need to strengthen our subjects in the field of mathematics, from class 1 to class 12.
We need to develop the aptitude that one becomes aware of what is happening and how it is happening and what it would lead to. You see that United Nations and the world today are crying for climate change, the impact of climate change and they are crying for actions to offset that and offset what has happened because of the actions taken and done by the way we lived, the way we conducted ourselves, the way we behaved ourselves in the last century or even before that. So there was this accounting going on within every corporation, within every business and there were those celebrations going on the floors of the stock exchanges, celebrating the success and celebrating the generation of wealth and everything. But now there is a meme going on around the departments and the academia and scientist who are looking at what have we done to our climate, to this world and to this planet. So this is one planet, this is one world, this is one nation and this is one people and we all face the consequences of whatever we do as one nation, as one people anywhere in the world with what we have.
So again, I feel that it was lack of proper mathematics that blinded us from what is going to happen at the next level, in the next step, in the next age and down the road. A mind who is more tuned to calculus and who is more aware of accounting and can do it at individual level and also a nation or a company you can do it at collective level and as a citizen if we can do it do it at the level of our cities and our neighborhood, I think we will become more responsible. So that occurred to me that in order to be more responsible, we need to be more precise. In order to be precise, we need to have the quantitative perspective along with the qualitative insights, so that we can exactly and precisely know.
That is all that is all about science as well and that is the scientific attitude and the scientific way of living. So we will not be spared, we will not be forgiven if we ignore mathematics and we will suffer from our consequences if we are not aware of the key equations operational in our lives, in our work, in our surroundings. And a general awareness of mathematics needs to be enhanced and sensitivity needs to be developed among our new generation and those who are responsible in in the corridors of policy making. I would also like to suggest that in order to have a brighter future we need to develop these skill sets especially in the applied area and we need to be better as a nation in tests of numerical literacy and when the students, a certain age group are challenged by tests conducted all over the world, so our nation, this Pakistan needs to participate in those events.
And we should see that how well we do, how well our new generation is prepared in those tests. Because that is one way of also realizing our potential and that is one way of also evaluating that how prepared we are to be responsible citizen in future and to take up the challenges within the fields, within the professional fields and as a professional. So how well our education system is working, these kind of evens would promote the interest of young generation into mathematics.
We have tried to revive the teaching of mathematics. UMT offers four years undergraduate degree BS Mathematics. We started this degree and I met some of the students who have taken up for year undergraduate degree in mathematics and I’m glad that they are satisfied and they are doing well. So I see this promise here, these students who have opted for BS Mathematics, four year undergraduate BS Mathematics degree, could have easily gone for BBA, could have gone for LLB, could have opted for commerce degree, could have gone to any other degree which would ensure or guarantee their them their jobs as soon as they graduate. So this is not something which is happening in the elitist families, sons and daughters of business executives or business owners opting for mathematics that I would know, this is happening in middle class, this revival of interest is taking place within lower middle class and I see a great potential and I see these minds they require good training, they require exposure to good teaching and if it is provided it would help overall everything. Because now mathematics as we see is all pervasive.
There is no boundary where you can say that this is qualitative, this is arts and this is science. Science and arts are increasingly merging into each other and there is a scientific view of art and there is an artistic perspective of science and both merge and both overlap and both act and react to each other and both help each other and support each other. So we have to take a holistic view of the world or multidisciplinary view of the disciplines and only then we will be able to frame the problems in the right perspectives and find solutions which would really solve the problems and which would work. So my another suggestion is that we conduct something like exhibition in mathematics and where we ask those who are in schools, colleges and universities to come up with their posters, come up with their software and come up with their papers where they would apply the mathematical tools on the issues of our daily lives to see that how mathematics can help us gain better insights into our daily problems and how it can solve and how we can find out what is struck and what is fact and what is going on by using the mathematics.
So maybe in the next conference, if we add an exhibition to it and we send the information and announcement to all over the country and also outside, I think we would get lot of creative inputs from people and they will come up with their works which will help us promote general awareness of mathematics. Mathematics of course has also been strong in our engineering institutions, in our public sector universities and now also gaining attention in private sector universities. And I hope that this revival of mathematics, revival of teaching basic sciences, physics, chemistry and mathematics, revival of interest in opting for the disciplines of basic sciences, physics, chemistry and mathematics would further increase.
We look forward to your suggestions and your ideas as to how we can promote the teaching of basic sciences and how we can cater to those who have opted for this and how we can lay out a plan for the young who are from middle class, lower middle class, from distant places not from urban and cosmopolitan but from remote areas and who have opted for this, and there so how we can make their life know successful, how we can make their life beautiful, how we can lay out career opportunities for them and how we can keep them focused and make them stronger and well equipped, well-educated data minds in this digital world. I believe that has become more important and we need to connect the variety of disciplines with mathematics, with the core of mathematics, so that those who opt for mathematics can then find search of mathematics. Thank you very much.
Video # 14
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Fz7sJmXGSo
Topic: Pakistan and Turkey Relations
Event: Pakistan Turkey Forum
Event Date: Not Available
Audience: International Delegate, Higher Management UMT and National Guests
Issues in Video: No Issues
Total Time of Video: 10 Minutes and 57 Seconds
Summary:
Ambassador Sadiq Babar, Council General of Turkey in the city of Lahore, Rector UMT Dr Muhammad Aslam, our very distinguished Professor, academic soldier and Director of Pakistan Turkish studies General Javaid Hassan, very esteemed guests from Turkey and from Pakistan Ambassador Haroon Shoukat, ladies and gentleman Assalamo O Alaykum. It is indeed another remarkable day in the history of UMT’s contribution to Pakistan Turkey relations. If I were to recap our milestones, I have to turn pages a lot of pages and go back to actually 1995 when we organized the first International Business Forum in the city of Lahore and a contingent of about 25 Turkish business people came to this conference on their own, and we set up this institution which became a platform for interaction of businessmen industrialists and traders from all over the Muslim world. This institution has to date met about 22 times in different cities of the world and this year they are meeting in Amman. So it is not new, we have been doing some really similar work to strengthen this. It started back in 1995 and I really feel delighted and take pride in that achievement that with the corporation and our steam spirit, our collaboration and the great mutual trust we have, we can see that how a very small initiative can grow, can expand and can take root. And last time when it was held in Lahore in 1995 there were about 235 delegates from 33 countries.
Today when it is organized there are delegates from 100 plus countries and more than 8000, sometimes 10,000 12,000 delegates from all over the world participating. So the seed were the seed work was done by people like you when they were your age and certainly I was much younger 22 years back. Since then we have kept our focus on strengthening the relationship and I think at least half a dozen time I took business delegates to Turkey for different activities. Very recently we have also strengthened our relations with academic institutions of Turkey and we have increased our frequency of visits and exchange. We hope to organize the global conference on Islamic Finance Banking and Economics with Sabahattin Zaim University of Finance and Economics in Istanbul next year in January. Another conference that we planned on history and culture is in collaboration with another University. Another conference on Public Policy and Global Governance is in the drawing work with Beyazit University Ankara.
So we hope to have these three conferences regularly convened once in Pakistan and once in Turkey. So these three conferences will take shape in the next year. Then we have a relationship with the Turkish Aviation Academy. I visited Turkish Aviation Academy, our faculty members have visited. We have been trying to launch their training programs, I’ve seen their facility, excellent facility and we also have aviation program. So I think our students in aviation can learn from Turkish programs and courses in Turkish aviation offered by Turkish Aviation Academy and they have offered a 50% waiver of tuition fee to Pakistani students which are not available to Turkish Students. So the students from Pakistan will be studying there at 50% less cost than their Turkish brethren taking the same courses. So this is a great facility and a great contribution by Turkish Aviation Academy.
We have then set up and General Javaid joined us and we learned about his expertise in Turkey, about his knowledge in Turkey, his background in Turkey and Rahat Sb also has been Pakistani Commercial Counselor I guess in Istanbul and a Counsel General in Istanbul. So I think we have a background in Turkey now. We are deepening our resources in having expertise in Turkey. So we started with this Pakistan Turkish Studies Centre and we are going to identify areas where we can work. We have a lot of sentiments, we have a lot of emotions, we have a golden past, we have a shining present time and of course we have a bright future. But we need to do some hard work as to really figure out how these two countries can capitalize upon the relationship economically, financially, trade and commerce wise and also in the fields of Education and Culture. So you have open invitation that if you want to draw upon your interests in these areas please contact general Javaid.
Now you have a club with you also, partnering with you. So I hope that the members of the club will take a leading role in guiding our students. We will see that we take Pakistani students to Turkey soon next summer so that we have a study visit. We go to Turkish institution. You will really enjoy the history that you get to see over there. Roman history, Ottoman history and then the development that you would see in Turkey that how Turkey has solved its issue, has solved its problems, how it has been able to catch up with the most advanced countries of the world. I am truly impressed by what Turkey has achieved under the heroic leadership of President Tayyip Erdogan. The per capita income in 1995 was about $2000 in Turkey, now it is over $10,000. The exports of Turkey were 30-35 Billion dollar, now the exports are 160 billion dollar and you can see in all other primary parameters, Turkey has grown and has achieved a lot.
So I think we can learn from the Turkish experience and these brothers are willing to welcome us with their open mind, open heart and open arms. So we need to take this opportunity and it is your future, it is your chance and I believe that it is your pod. So this club, I would suggest that you have set up this club in Pakistan and with the patronage and direction of the Ambassador, I hope that you will take this club to other universities as well, why not. Go to the other universities and establish the same club so that it is a nationwide spirit and it should be seen in campuses that here is a country we can emulate, here is a country we can learn from and here is a country which is our brother, truly brother.
As I mentioned in my last speech, there are relatives in terms there are brothers, there are sisters and they are truly Blood Brothers. So we are more than blood brothers. I’ve seen that warmth and that fraternity and great attachment among our Turkish brothers for their sister nation, brotherly nation of Pakistan. I’m really pleased to welcome Ambassador Sadiq Babar Gorgon, who before his term expires has taken time out to visit UMT. The essentials of as an ambassador in your list wouldn’t have completed without your visit to UMT. So I am glad that you have fulfilled one of those last things to be done and I hope that you will carry forward this flame of Pakistan Turkish relationship back to Turkey and we hope to see you in Turkey and we hope to continue to work together with yourself. Thank you very much.
Video # 15
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MFhFAD5cKc
Topic: Convocation Speech
Event: 10th UMT Convocation
Event Date: Year 2014
Audience: Students, Parents and Faculty
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 19 Minutes and 47 Seconds
Summary:
Pride of Pakistan, undoubtedly the hero of Pakistan, our chief guest today Dr A Q Khan, members of the board, distinguished guests, my very esteemed faculty, joyful and worthy graduates, happy and delighted parents, our pride, our alumni ladies and gentlemen Assalamo O Alaykum. Let me begin with the first and the foremost, a sincere gratitude to an entity who causes everything, Allah SWT. Who is the ultimate source of knowledge and success, who enabled us to be what we are and empowered us to do what we do, who blessed us already when he declared us a human being and who promised to bless us more and more beyond our imagination and beyond the limits of our desire and dreams when we meet Him again in the next world. Ladies and gentlemen, let us also concentrate every attention that we can direct to the man who initiated a new epoch in the history of humankind by the magic word ‘Iqra’. Who illustrated to us what none else could before and told us what none else did before, who is an architect of a new living, a new thinking, a new nation of leaders and teachers and who laid the foundation of a new civilization based upon knowledge.
Ladies and gentlemen, if Quaid-e-Azam made Pakistan and lead the struggle for the existence of Pakistan, Dr A Q Khan you gave life to this Pakistan. We sleep in peace and hold Pakistanis citizenship today because of your valuable contribution. Thank you very much. Thank you for your contribution, your service to the nation and making this day a historical day for us by revisiting us. If you could recall on November the 25th of 2000, you came here and laid the foundation of this campus in a barren land. Today when you are visiting it again, you can see that the seed that you sow that day is today full of fruits and has turned into a garden thriving and throbbing with learners, seekers of knowledge and illuminated with the light of knowledge.
Ladies and gentlemen the chairman of ILM Trust is currently in UK and I would like to discharge my obligation to him by conveying his message to you. He has given us a one-liner, he told me to convey his salaam to Dr A Q Khan and he further asked me to convey to the graduates that they must dedicate themselves to the well-being of Pakistan’s progress and development of Pakistan which is our homeland, and to be faithful to Islam which is our faith and salvation and to work for the cause of Muslim Ummah of which we all are part of.
Ladies and gentlemen this is our 10th convocation and ‘10’ represents something very special to UMT. The star of UMT is 10 sided, because in Islamic cosmology the star with 10 scorners represents knowledge, perfection and excellence. So we thought this is the best way to represent our ideals. And today this is the 10th convocation, certainly it marks a new milestone in the history of UMT but I also see it as a new beginning. The decade of determination, the duration of development is behind us and now we look forward to emergence with eminence. We look forward to a form and a state to be a force of reckoning for all. We look forward to extending our best contribution for the renaissance and for the revival of the Muslim leadership in the field of knowledge. We look forward to synergize and capitalize upon our unique strengths and resources to discover new possibilities and we look forward to the challenges of the future. Our vision remains ‘leadership’, this one word in capsules everything that we want to be and our mission remains ‘learning’, and this one word again summarizes and symbolizes everything about how we want to achieve leadership.
Dear graduates I’ll be very brief because last time I was told that I made a long speech. Very briefly I would like to part with a very few advises that I could find of value to you today. Number one, find your uniqueness although you all have the same cap and the same rope, and many of you have same degrees but within this sameness and similarity and in this common place, it is your challenge to find your uniqueness, what is unique about you, how can you differentiate yourself, what is your anchor, what is your north and what are the limits of excellence that you can achieve. So that is your uniqueness. Unless you can tell who you are by way of uniqueness, you will be lost in the haystack of mediocrity and sameness. So it is important for you to find your color, to find your character, to find your class, to define yourself again and again every day, every morning and every evening.
The challenge before you is to identify your uniqueness, what defines you and what you intend to do and that is what will dictate your future. Secondly, I have met thousands of people in my life in the professional world. I’ve met thousands of students, professors, corporate captains, chieftains, artists, players and what not. My lesson is that unless you could coordinate between your mind, heart, body, soul and spirit, you will be confused and you will be all over the place. People who have achieved what Dr A Q Khan could achieve, people who could make a mark are the ones who draw upon their mind to logically and rationally analyze everything and to determine through crystal reasoning what is the best way to do. And people who could draw upon the vastness of their heart to fill their emotions in the right manner, people who could then take advantage of the resources that Allah has given in their body and people who could then find their anchor and they’re north in the soul that Allah has entrusted as part of his own soul and spirit are the ones who are never confused, who are dedicated and who are devoted.
Their every ounce of energy and every second of their time goes to the target and they’re able to then achieve something. So it is up to you to develop yourself in a way that your mind, your heart, your body, your soul and spirit are all in control of you and you are in command of all of them and you could synchronize everything to lead your effort and lead your life. Thirdly, make yourself aligned to your future. There are people who live in past, there are people who are too much engrossed in present and there are people whose gaze is focused in future. So I think if you want the future, then live in your future, detach yourself from your past and immerse yourself in present only to the extent that it is required for the future. Your call is in future, your world is in future, and your time is in future, the future that is still to unfold, that is still to come and it is up to you to remain aligned to your future. Make a new week every week, a new day every next day, a New Year every New Year and Insh Allah you will see yourself growing.
You will see yourself happy; you will see yourself being doing better and better. Forth, real world is not about quiz or assignments or midterm, real world is not about reading books, real world is not about turning into class and exams, real world is about the real act, real world is about doing it practically, it’s about proving yourself, it’s about demonstrating yourself in the mirror of others. So you are heading from the world of artificiality to the world of reality and it is the great difference, a bridge that you are crossing today. In the real world you have to strive and keep striving incessantly.
The real world is merciless. On the one hand it is waiting for people who can turn their dreams into reality and on the other hand it is merciless in rejecting people who are waste of time and just a burden. So my dear, when you are going for real world, be real, nothing less than real in the real world and you will be fine. Fifth, you are living today with a degree but that degree shouldn’t stop your learning. You continue to learn on your own. In real world, the good thing is if you fail to learn your lesson, then it will let you repeat the lesson for you again. So in real world keep learning. Learning to know, learning to act, learning to live, learning to lead, learning to be what you want to be, learning to become what you aim to be and learning to be truthful all the way. So learning continues today. It begins today through your experience while your education will be part of your past now. Lastly, I would like to suggest one lesson that we have repeated again and again and I hope you forget that when you go to the real world, people will say that you are just beginning so come for internship, come for this junior position and that you have this starting letter so you are in the first step.
While they rate you as a beginner in your heart, in your mind, in your soul and in your own capacity, never miss the point that you are a leader, you are a born leader, you are destined to be a leader, leadership is your destiny and you have to manifest that destiny by your sheer hard work. Your capacity to lead others, your willingness to be ahead of others, to take risks and to go to the peak to hit the top that should be your aim. No matter how people judge you, how people rate you, how people reward you, this is your own call and if you are determined that you are on the top, that you are the leader and that you are the best, I can assure you that the world will follow you and one day they will be united and unanimous and will call you a leader. So this all lies in your own hands. While you are leading, make sure that you know that what you have sent forth for tomorrow so that it comes to facilitate you and make sure that you know that what you are going to leave behind when you walk out of this stage, as life consists of phases and stages. Your one phase of your life is now closing and a new phase is beginning.
So you move from phase to phase and stage to stage. So as you move from phase to phase, make sure you know that what you have gathered, sent for tomorrow and what you are leaving behind. With these advises, I say goodbye to you with every best wish for your happiness, for your success, for your leadership, for your undoubted caliber, your competence and I am sure that you will do well and when you will come back to us in five years and ten years, we will be proud of you. Thank you very much Dr A Q Khan for coming to us and revisiting us. Thank you very much our distinguished guests, our faculty, our students and volunteers who have arranged this convocation. Thank you very much.
Video # 16
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QdFCvxlXJA
Topic: A Talk on CPEC
Event: Pak-China Forum
Event Date: Not Available
Audience: Chinese Delegation and Pakistani Guests
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail & Music in background
Total Time of Video: 8 Minutes and 51 Seconds
Summary:
Federal Minister Mr. Ahsan Iqbal, Mr. Sarfraz Ahmad – Director ITAC, Mr. Hassnain Javaid, Dr Saleem Janjua and Dr Yong, distinguished guests from China, from Pakistan, ladies and gentlemen Assalamo O Alaykum. I would be brief as I know that after my speech, Mr. Ahsan Iqbal will take the floor and I would like to give him the maximum time. My basic submission is that we now understand what CPEC is. It’s no more just confined to newspapers or MOUs and agreements. We can see in the broad daylight, how it is creating the infrastructure, we can see the growth of infrastructure and we can see now the completion of infrastructure projects and we can see how these infrastructure projects are making an impact in Pakistan.
So, this is now a reality that is past us pretty much. And we are also amazed by the speed, by the momentum and by the commitment of the partners and collaborators in CPEC in the form of the government of Pakistan and China, as well as the large number of companies that are involved in it in various projects from north to south and the large number of management professionals, engineers, labors, who are all working day and night for the completion of the project. So we can see the alignment, the coherence and their ability to complete the projects on time and to remain on target, despite many different kinds of uncertainties, turbulence, complexity and changes that have come about since CPEC projects have started.
So what’s the challenge now, the most urgent challenge for us who is a part of academia? I think the challenge for us is that because of the movement through the infrastructure projects that are going to be realized and because of the increasing opportunities of collaboration and interaction with the world players like China and other countries of the world and the whole ambit that is part of CPEC which directly spreads over about 60/70 countries and is almost related to the whole world, the business of the world.
So what I see, what I foresee is that there is going to be great change in the business model. There is going to be a change, a tremendous change, an alteration in the management model. There is going to be a tremendous change in how we think about business in Pakistan. There is going to be a tremendous change in the critical success factors, the list of critical success factors, how to succeed, how to negotiate with the risks and threats, and how to make space and how to win the opportunities, how to seize the opportunities and how to mitigate the risk. There is going to be a reconfiguration of opportunities and risks. This reconfiguration is not just about interacting with Chinese, this reconfiguration is about the change in the whole nature of products and services in which as a Pakistani nation, our business houses, our corporations, our SME sector, our large scale national companies and multinationals within Pakistan are currently consumed in, absorbed in and engaged in.
So I see a change, I see a tectonic change, I see a change that we haven’t seen in our life and if we are not aware of it and if we are not alert of it and if we are not alive to those changes in the present time, then we will not be able to capture. Infrastructure will be there but we will be failing behind and we will not be able to capitalize and leverage those dollars and those infrastructure projects the way we could. And if we will not capitalize and if we will be weak, so I fear that there will be others who will take up this opportunity and in the process they will consume whatever CPEC has to offer and Pakistani companies, Pakistani management, Pakistani business owners will be increasingly left behind. So here is a challenge of speed, here is a challenge of reorientation, here is a challenge of reengineering, here is challenge of thinking radically, phenomenally, substantially different and here is a challenge of thinking out of the box and here is a challenge that must be taken up by every board room, by every chairperson of the board, by every member of the board and also by those who are involved in their career, who are in the middle level management, who have just started their career and who are looking forward to a great future.
So the changes that are coming about also require that we bring about dramatic changes in business education. And this was the subject issue in the last conference that was held in Karachi of all the deans and directors of the business schools, that our text books teach us a model, talk about a model which is based upon national boundaries and looking at globalization as an enhanced opportunity. Here is something where globalization is coming about as an embedded. It’s really the picture of village that we are going to see and that we are going to live in. So I feel that business education has a great challenge and I would like to draw the attention of all educators in fact, those who are concerned with schools, those who are in colleges, those who are in universities and in all areas engineering, management, social sciences, physical sciences that we must come up with our response and we must work out our strategies, we must reconfigure, redesign, reformulate everything.
With this submission I would like to beg leave and I hope that our educators will join hands with educators of China and other countries and all those 70 countries, and will help us develop a new curriculum, will help us develop a new model for business leadership, a new model for management, a new model for business success and then we will be able to leverage and capitalize the tremendous opportunities that no one can probably and perhaps can actually figure out now. We have to live with these increasing uncertainties, increasing avenues and increasing opportunities day and night and must adapt and alert and do our best to capitalize upon them before anyone else could. Thank you very much.
Video # 17
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMY8Rtnxfmk
Topic: Pakistan Turkey Relationship
Event: Interview with Turkish Channel
Event Date: Not Available
Audience: General Public
Issues in Video: No Issue
Total Time of Video: 48 Minutes and 8 Seconds
Summary:
Interviewer: Mr. Hasan you are most welcome to Turkey.
HSM: Thank you very much. My Salam and my good wishes to the people of Turkey.
Interviewer: For what purpose sir you are here in Turkey? I mentioned in Turkish language that because of IBF Expo they are here.
HSM: The reason for my travel to Turkey is very simple that I like Turkey and I’ve visited I don’t know how many times to Turkey. So I don’t have to have a reason to visit Turkey but in this particular case I came to Turkey to attend International Business Forum, eighteenth International Business Forum and Musad conference in which businessman and industrialists, traders from all over the world came. I have very special relationship with this forum because the first forum was organized in 1995 in the historic city of Lahore.
Interviewer: You were the main coordinator of that mega event.
HSM: Yeah, at that time. So it is my great honor and privilege and always a great delight to see this forum expanding, growing and fulfilling its objective.
Interviewer: So how was it? This one in Istanbul?
HSM: This one I found that this one has further expanded in terms of the interest by the people. If there is more, if there are more exhibition, more stalls, if there are more people traveling to forum, to this forum from around the world, if there are more transactions, if there is more information that is exchanged, if there is more networking that goes on with it, I think that this forum in all those respect has clearly indicated that this is a most popular forum for the Muslim businessman and industrialists and it is getting more and more strengthened.
Interviewer: The attention of the Turkish Authority, President & Prime Minister?
HSM: Yeah this shows the seriousness and commitment of the Turkish government. The President inaugurated the exhibition and the Prime Minister came at the gala dinner yesterday. So we have always been blessed by the presence of the president and Prime Minister of Turkey because the government of Turkey I think wants to increase the collaboration among the Muslim world. Turkey offers unique opportunities to the world, not just Muslim but all over the world because turkey is in Asia and also has access to Europe. So Muslim businessmen if they come to Turkey, they trade with Turkey, they export to Turkey, they import from Turkey, they can utilize that access because turkey is in the center of the Europe and Asia both. So I think the government, when government is involved, when Prime Minister comes, when president appears in the conference and exhibition we feel that they are giving importance to it. We feel very much encouraged and they have shown their confidence on us and they have clearly told us what our responsibilities are, what our future challenges are and how we can respond to them. So they expect from us a lot and they want us to do a lot and contribute towards it. So I hope that this forum will rise to the occasion and would meet those expectations InshAllah.
Interviewer: When I was in Pakistan as a student, in that time it was the ILM, it was the Institute but it was not created as a university which it is a very large University, private university in Pakistan. Actually as a Rector I want you to give a summary of the information about it.
HSM: Yes in 1990 we established Institute of leadership and Management. Our purpose was to develop leadership capability among the youth because youth is our asset and we wanted to inspire them that have they have nothing to fear, they have nothing to be afraid of and they should be the best in the world. They should lead in whichever field they go. If they want to become doctor or engineer or economists or sociologists or government job or industry, they can compete with the world so we wanted to give them that confidence that assurance and develop the strategic base of our youth talent. Alhamdulillah Institute of leadership and management, ILM did a very good job. We offer many courses for the youth. And then slowly we developed into a university. We transformed from ILM to UMT. And University of Management and Technology is now offering degree programs in over 150 areas and I’m very much pleased to tell you that in this university there are students from around the world including Turkey. There are students who go from here and they study in Turkey.
Interviewer: Total how many, what is the totality of the students at university?
HSM: Right now we have about 10,000 students in our Lahore campus which is the main and then also there is a campus in Sialkot. Sialkot is a very important city. Sialkot exports more than other cities with respect to its per capita export. Sialkot is also the birthplace of our famous poet Mohammad Iqbal. So UMT is the first higher education campus in Sialkot. So we have 10,000 students.
Interviewer: How many faculties you have?
HSM: We have about 30 departments and we have organized ourselves in the form of schools and Institutes. So we have a School of Business and Economics, School of Science and Technology, School of Engineering, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, School of Governance and Society, School of Law and Policy and then we have a School of Textiles and Design and then we have got the School of Health Sciences. Then we have Institutes as well, Institute of Islamic Banking and we also offer courses at undergraduate level, graduate level and doctoral level, all three levels.
Interviewer: You said that including Turkey so many foreign countries we have the students, about how many countries from you have students?
HSM: At any time there are students from about twenty four countries.
Interviewer: And the last question about your university, the students are paying it. What is the quality of the paying, how they are studying?
HSM: Well I guess students; this is a private sector which means that for our reliance, for our operations we have to depend upon the tuition fees. Then also we get some donations and grants from the private sector. Sometimes we get some support also from the government of Pakistan and government of Punjab. I want to acknowledge the support that has been provided so far by our trustees, by governments and by the private sector but mainly it is tuition. We also offer scholarships so about one-third of our students receive some kind of scholarships, one third of the students. And we have a scheme that each year we want to, we offer about fifty scholarships to the students from the Muslim world. So I with the courtesy of your channel, I want to invite the attention of Turkish people that if they want to send their sons and daughters to us then let us know, write to us, we will provide them free boarding and free tuition. So they can do engineering, they can do management, they can do social sciences, they can study media.
Interviewer: Besides University, you have the hostels also?
HSM: Yeah we have got our own hostels and hostels are a little like 10 kilometers from the university so but there is bus transport system so they are joined by the transport. So transport takes people from the hostels and brings them to the university. So it is very safe and over the last 24 years it has been 100% secured and safe. And I would like to say that Lahore is a very good City, is a heart of Pakistan, it is what has been the seat of Mughal Empire and it has always attracted the attention of the visitors. People love to be in Lahore and people of Lahore are very live hearted. They are very enjoyable, they enjoy visitors, and they welcome visitors. So if you want to come to UMT for studies, please make this choice and write to us, we will provide you information and support to get in.
Interviewer: InshAllah. Ok Mr. Hasan we will stop this information will be enough InshAllah but I think you will continue your relation with Turkey Authority or nation about your University.
HSM: And I like to inform one more thing that UMT is perhaps the only University in the world where flags of two countries are hosted side by side, Pakistan and Turkey. It is not because Turkey or any Turkish company’s sponsorship, it is just to show the love and affection for Turkey and show that we are brothers. So there are three flags in UMT regularly hosted. One is UMT flag, Pakistan flag and Turkey flag. So every day these three flags are there.
Interviewer: Thanks to you for our nations flag also. Actually these two flags, Pakistan and Turkey, they are Brotherhood, in every way.
HSM: Same flag but two colors.
Interviewer: Yeah. Okay, Sir actually we follow, as the Turkish media what happened in Pakistan, there was demonstration against Nawaz Sharif’s government of Pakistan by the Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf and Tahir-ul-Qadri, and he is also a leader of tehreek. What happened? We want to hear from you really what was it in Pakistan?
HSM: Okay, this is about politics but let me comment on this. Imran Khan has done well in the last election compared to his performance in the previous elections. So he has earned about 16% to 80% of the votes and he has around 30 something seats in the parliament, so this is good performance. But the current government enjoys overall much larger majority and has a great advantage in the parliament in terms of the number of seats. So there was a complaint by the party of Imran Khan that there has been some rigging in the election, there are some unfair procedures which denied Imran Khan’s party a few seats. So there was this complaint and he lodged his complain, he went through the process and but certainly there was in his view, there was no justice in the system. So he lodged a protest in the federal capital and he is asking for the resignation of the Prime Minister, he is asking for reforms in the elections. In my personal view, elections have been largely fair to the extent it is possible.
Yes we can improve some procedures, that’s my first comment. My second comment is that even if in the seats where the margin was very thin, even if those seats are conceded by the ruling party of Nawaz Sharif to Imran Khan, it will not change the results in any way. Still the margin is so high that even if Muslim League N conceits those 5 to 10 seats where it was thin margin, there was still margin in about 10 seats and out of those 10 seats anyway 4 seats were won by the ruling party and 4 by the Imran Khan’s party. So even if those seats are conceited, it will not change the system. So my comment is that maybe Imran Khan is taking this too far and Pakistan cannot afford it. As a citizen of Pakistan, I feel that the system should run. All political parties must bring about changes together with consultation and system cannot allow one man to dictate the choice. Imran Khan is one political party and he represents one section. We appreciate you know, I appreciate his leadership, I appreciate that he has following among youth, he should not be discounted; he has important following so he should be appreciated. But as a leader I feel that he should respect the system and work within the system, parliamentary system. Otherwise when he will win then another small party will come and will say okay we don’t accept this.
Interviewer: That is why we are saying, the man who studied in Western and he knows the model, all the models around the world by the democracy, he knows well that just one year ago election held in Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif’s party got this majority. But he’s trying to abide him by the force not by the votes.
HSM: Yeah so he should, he can, he needs to wait for the next election if he thinks that he has more following. Because elections should be held at the time it is.
Interviewer: For five years or four years?
HSM: It is five years but there is now a greater opinion shifting towards making it four years. So anyway it is up to the politicians to decide.
Interviewer: Same thing was in Turkey for five but we also extend to four years.
HSM: Yeah I think, my personal opinion is that four year is good enough.
Interviewer: Sir okay, after the coop army, Army’s coop of Pervez Musharraf, killing of Benazir Bhutto, then five years government of Peoples Party, Zardari was the president, then changed into again Nawaz Sharif and Nawaz Sharif was in Saudi Arabia, he left by the force of Pervez Musharraf from Pakistan, what you can tell us about the democratic system or process, how is it in Pakistan?
HSM: You know as a citizen of Pakistan, I have now greater faith in the democracy of Pakistan. I feel more assured of democracy. Why? We have independent judiciary. Judiciary is independent which is very important that if any anything goes wrong then citizens can go to judiciary and seek relief. So there is judiciary, there is media, independent media. And government machinery and bureaucracy I think is much more responsive than before because they understand that they are accountable. So we have made progress.
Interviewer: Army?
HSM: Army I think should be respected. Because army has understood that ruling the government or to be in the government is not their proper role. Their proper role is to defend the country, defend the borders of the country.
Interviewer: You are saying it should be respected, it means still there are some problems.
HSM: No I think army had many, there were many opportunities in the past since when Zardari was president during the Peoples Party’s, when Peoples Party was in the Parliament and having the Prime Minister-ship, there were occasions when there was fear that army will take over, there was situation right for it but army didn’t.
Interviewer: Sir when I was in Pakistan, by your budget 81% were given to the army. How is it now?
HSM: Yes a good portion goes to the army but that portion in terms of the ratio of the overall budget is decreasing. But you should also understand that Pakistan is facing internal and external threats. There is terrorism in the country, there are elements which are bound to disturb the public life, there are elements which we don’t know that who is sponsoring who is funding, and at its one point or the other there is an incident which shows that they are bent upon disturbing the civic life of the country and they want to give the message that they are important and they should be listened and they need a bargain. So army has to fight those internal elements and also has to fight external element. So we have armies active now in each all of its eastern borders as well as western borders in addition to internal. So army has now, previously army used to worry only about one border that is Pakistan and India. Now army looks at the India-Pakistan border, Pakistan-Afghanistan border as well as has many things to do inside Pakistan. So army need our support, they need modernization, they need good equipment, so we have to support army and Army has, the good thing is that the leadership of Pakistan Army understands that this should not be, they should not take over the Parliament, they should not take over the government, yes they should be and they are responsible.
Interviewer: What was their action during the protesting of the Imran Khan and Tahir-ul-Qadri?
HSM: I think they conveyed to both, they conveyed to the both that they must negotiate, they must solve the problem by negotiating.
Interviewer: So you can say that they are changing.
HSM: Yeah there is a change in the mindset. Army did not intervene, army did not send a public message to the Prime Minister, army lent its support to the system, to the elected government and gave a very clear message to the protesters that look you have to negotiate with the government, you have to interact face-to-face and solve it between yourself and don’t expect us that since you have disrupted the life in the capital city that we will come and intervene, we will not intervene. So this is I think change in the mindset.
Interviewer: The protests which were going in Islamabad by Tehreek-e-Insaf, Imran Khan, it was so like the out protesting here in Turkey against Rajab Tayyip Erdogan one year ago, 17th of December same thing happened. They were trying to expire the government. Can we find some foreign resources behind of this protests? Because some party members in top also explained that by the Canada or some foreign resources they supported.
HSM: I don’t have any guess and I don’t have any information. I think why Imran is so much, so hard and so strongly committed to continue the protest despite the fact that in Islamabad the protest is weakening, why? We have to understand this. It is because Imran thinks that he has a lifetime opportunity, he thinks that among the youth he has greater support and he thinks that if he will sit idle and passively for the next four years he will lose that support his party will become weaken and his members will cross fence to the ruling party they will be bought over. So he by continuing the protest he want to strengthen the party and this assessment has proven because when Imran goes now to different cities to hold the large public rallies, his rallies are attracting more people now. So he’s thinking that he’s gaining, he’s gaining more support.
Interviewer: That was the question I was trying to ask you. By these protesting, his image is high or not?
HSM: The point is that Imran is, I think the reform in election process is one agenda. Resignation of Prime Minister I think in all fairness and a reasonable calculation I think he and his party knows that it is not possible, resignation of Prime Minister which is his demand. So it is not possible, he knows that. So what is it that reform an election is not will anyway will happen, but it does not need this kind of protest. It can be done by negotiation so why this protest? The only purpose that I can understand is that Imran think that it helps it is helping Imran to attract media, to attract attention, to consolidate his party, to expand his party and it is proven because now when you hold a public rally, he goes to different cities where no political party has ever you know dare to go, when he go there at a very short notice like three days or four days’ notice he goes somewhere and then suddenly there is this mammoth you know turnout in which there is historical turnout. So this is what Imran’s gain is.
Interviewer: I see this point is so important and then there is a question for opposition, last question for Jamaat-e-Islam Pakistan which was formed by Abul A’la Maududi then Tuffail Muhammad and then long time Ghazi Hussain Ahmed. After Munawar Hassan there is a new leader Siraj-ul-Haq and during these protesting even he formed a government, regional government in the Pakhtunkhwa sarhad but he didn’t support Imran Khan. He said that we have to make our negotiations. What is the brief about Jamaat, some new leaders and new politics of Jamaat?
HSM: Yes Jamaat has a democratic system inside. So every five years there is election. This time Siraj-ul-Haq who was head of Jamaat in the frontier province which is known as Pakhtunkhwa province. He was an ameer of that province and then he was also these the vice president vice ameer of Jamaat, naib ameer that is called. So he has you know being elected by a vast majority of the members of Jamaat to lead Jamaat for the next five years. Siraj Sb. has demonstrated his dynamism and he has very popular personality because he comes from a very humble background. So Siraj Sb. has been successful in establishing communication with the masses, with the poor people. Jamaat used to have high-caliber intellectual leaders like Abul A’la Maududi, a renowned scholar of the Muslim world and a scholar who has made an impact all over the world and he who has been the architect of Islamic resurgence in the modern world. So on the one end a person of such high caliber was the ameer of Jamaat and on the other hand now Siraj Sb. Siraj Sb. has a very basic ordinary speech and he conveys a very powerful message to the people. He’s focusing right now to those who are powerless, those who are poor, those who never had any privilege, those who were always forgotten, those who were always taken for granted, those who always loved their leaders, elected them, fought for them, sacrificed their lives for them but in return they didn’t get anything. So Siraj Sb. is making an appeal direct appeal to the people of Pakistan that in the last more than six decades you have supported many parties, he is telling them that you have supported and voted many leaders, what did you get, where is your education for the children, whereas your hospital, where is your road, where is your security and where is your respect.
Interviewer: Actually he has some experiences because in the government of the Pakhtunkhwa he was vice prime minister?
HSM: He was vice chief minister.
Interviewer: So people can believe him?
HSM: Yeah and you know that it is something that has not been promoted but when I look at the budget of the Pakhtunkhwa province, I think in the first 5 years when Siraj Sb. was Finance Minister and also in these years when he was again finance minister and senior minister, Pakhtunkhwa has become not a truly or completely a welfare state but in Pakhtunkhwa the services, there is budget to provide services to the public, for old people let’s say. Pakhtunkhwa is the only province where allowance is given to the old people, those widows who don’t have anyone to earn for them. So Pakhtunkhwa has introduced too many features of a welfare state. So people know.
Interviewer: What you are mentioning, can you say that it is known and it is understood by nation of Pakistan.
HSM: Yeah, care for the people, care for the poor. Because government essentially is for the poor. Rich people have their own government. They arrange their own security, they arrange their own education, they pay for everything and they get everything. So they don’t need government.
Interviewer: In Pakistan the rich people are high rich, poor are so poor.
HSM: So rich people have their own government, they provide their own in fact they bypass the government, they don’t want government to come in their way. So the government has to first address the issues of the poor people and Siraj Sb. comes from a poor family and he understands the problems and issues of poor people and he is addressing them and he’s I think he has been a very positive influence.
Interviewer: By this protesting, what he met this his file, how it is seeing in Pakistan? He’s supporting more?
HSM: During the protest, Siraj Sb.’s role was to find a peaceful solution. So he met with all the parties, he met the government, he met the leadership of you know Tehrik-e-Insaaf which is Imran Khan, he met Tahir-ul-Qadri, he formed the parliamentarian group, he formed the opposition group and he held detailed you know interaction you know conversation with all the players and tried to find a peaceful way to solve it and Siraj Sb. is the youngest among all the leaders and he was trying to act as the oldest. So this has created a very positive impact that Siraj Sb. has wisdom, Siraj Sb. is wise and he’s trying to solve the issues because country is paying for it. You know as I said as a country given the geopolitical situation, and I wish Imran understands that Pakistan actually cannot afford such kind of prolonged protests. Pakistan needs internal strength, internal coherence, Pakistan needs unification and integrity so that it can stand on its own and not allow any external threat. So I feel that Siraj Sb. has understood that importance and has work for that and as a result of that recently there was an Ijtima-e-Aam of Jamaat which means the three day rally of Jamaat in the city of Lahore and it has been successful by all previous account. It was like at least you know five times more people came in that rally because there is now increasing expectation from Siraj Sb. that he is going to lead the party to some greater degree of popularity and success in the elections.
Interviewer: Okay, short answer about Pakistani media, how is it? The nation is getting full information from media of Pakistan or it is controlling by one group, business people or how is it?
HSM: Pakistani media I feel, I have to salute Pakistani media that they don’t spare anyone and they bring everyone to the table and everyone is on the screen and everyone has the time to talk. So which means that whatever people want to say, the leaders want to say, they have the opportunity to say. So media is that providing the opportunity for open house debates which is very good because people of Pakistan are now more intelligent, they are now more enlightened, they are more informed and they cannot be fooled around because of the media. So this is good thing. On the other hand maybe what we can say is that media needs to be, there is regulatory power for the media, so media needs to be more responsible in terms of ethics, its ethics, media needs to be more responsible in terms of its responsibility towards building the nation and it is good to be critical but they should be balanced and sometimes there is a feel that media shy away from saying things because they will not be liked or appreciated by some powerful scorners of powerful sectors. So sometimes it happens but it is very normal, it goes all around the world. It is just that media is struggling with its own freedom and it has to manage its own freedom. On the one hand there is regulatory pressure, on the other hand the resources of media comes from the private sector and on the third hand there is public viewership. So they have to balance all these three. So this is a Struggle.
Interviewer: Last two questions sir. One is the about Nawaz Sharif’s government, how is going on? After 15 years again he became power in Pakistan.
HSM: Nawaz Sharif has earned the confidence of the people, trust of the people. For the third time he became the prime minister which is I believe a great honor for him in history of Pakistan. In the turbulent history of Pakistan, for a person to become third time prime minister where Prime Ministers are deposed, Prime Ministers are exiled, Prime Ministers are hanged, to survive, and to become third time Prime Minister is a great accomplishment. The first thing is that. Secondly, since he’s third time Prime Minister, so people of Pakistan perhaps expected much more, much more in terms of outcomes and too soon because they were thinking that this person was Prime Minister two times, this person had good 15 years to think and to develop team, to sort out the agenda, to understand how to formulate the policy, how to solve energy crisis, how to solve the law and order issue, how to provide education, how to provide health care and how to run let’s say top 20 organizations such as PIA, Railway, OGDC and you know big organizations like this, state corporations like this. So people expected that Nawaz Sharif would have sorted out his agenda, his policy parameters, he would know the urgency, he would understand the imperatives and he would have a ready team. The time that has elapsed so far, the time that has gone so far what it tells is that if there was preparation, then this preparation did not see the light of the day, has yet to see that light of the day. There has been before the first hundred days, which is one benchmark that a new government what it has done in the first hundred days, what is the result, what is the scorecard, first hundred days, next hundred days, first six month, first one year. And this has been short of the expectation. There are still many organization where there has been no appointments or very late appointments have been made. Policy agendas, frameworks have yet to come about. And this delay and this slow speed, the speed is slow and actions are delayed. So because of this delay and slow speed people of Pakistan became restless because his following and generally people of Pakistan waited for him to come and everybody knew that during the time of Peoples Party that after five years Nawaz Sharif will come and he will have the magic ran and he will solve everything. Now five years gone, people gave their trust to Nawaz Sharif and they thought that in months and in days things will happen. So it did not happen, that is why people became restless. And if you see what is it that is fueling the protest, what it is that is strengthening the protest, it is because people there are many who voted for Nawaz Sharif but are feeling that the results are not according to the expectation. They might be in the right direction but speed is slow and actions are delayed. So this is creating a problem you know. My advice is that this is a once of a lifetime opportunity. Nawaz Sharif still enjoy support in terms of the public opinion. He still is popular and he has a great responsibility on his shoulder and he should now do something fast-track, something very rapid and there has to be the agenda in the full spectrum of the public life education, health, law and order, industry, employment creation, investments everything.
Interviewer: Okay Hasan Sb. when you compare the relationship or cooperation of him with Turkey and you compare with China and Saudi Arabia, how is it? Because so many people they are saying that he’s very cooperative with Turkey but then we are looking at China at Saudi Arabia.
HSM: You know Pakistan always have had very good relationship with Saudi Arabia because of our again brotherhood. Saudi Arabia has supported Pakistan. China is our neighbor, we are neighbor for thousands of years and we will remain neighbor for thousands of years. So China and Pakistan is the, I think Pakistan is the only friendly neighbor of China. As far as Turkey is concerned, if you go to the background of RCD, so Pakistan, Iran and Turkey, three countries join hands. I regret that RCD could not really strengthen, there was supposed to be railroad connection, motorway connection but it did not happen. But then it became ‘ECO’, Economic Cooperation Organization including Central Asia. But I think during the time, it has always been there Pakistan received lot of support from Turkey when there was flood. Pakistan received lot of support from Turkey during the earthquake, after the earthquake in Kashmir and after each flood. The wife of Prime Minister came, went to all those areas. Prime Minister came many times. Prime Minister I think visits Pakistan, Tayyip Erdogan, he visited Pakistan almost every year, almost every year. And he has taken a great increase in Pakistan just like as if Pakistan is also his responsibility and he has given open support to Pakistan. And right now this relationship has also transformed and I see if you go to Pakistani hotels, then there are in every hotel if there is one nationality, people have of nationality which are more than any other, it is Turkish. You will see Turkish engineers, Turkish businessmen in hotels of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. So Turkish companies are very active. Turkish government is very active and has taken a great deep interest in the development of Pakistan and I would like to see this further strengthened in the future. Turkey and Pakistan are time-tested friends. They are one body, two souls. One nation, two countries. One state and one flag with two colors.
Interviewer: Thank you very much sir. Because our time was 45 minutes, we ended it. Thank you so much, inshAllah I hope that again you will be our guest in this channel 5. Thank you.
Video # 18
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrrVf7r16Ts
Topic: Importance of Drug Free Campus
Event: Drug Free Campus Campaign
Event Date: Year 2017
Audience: Students and Parents
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 8 Minutes and 37 Seconds
Summary:
It’s not long I think it’s just about two weeks back that we organized one session with the anti-narcotics force and we met Zulfiqar Sb there and we had a very good session. Today again we are meeting and this is to celebrate the first drug-free campus status that is awarded to UMT. Let me first of all suggest that it is a great responsibility, we have to defend this status and we have to protect the drug-free environment, we have to do our best to safeguard every individual every girl and every boy and every member of staff or faculty or whoever from drugs within UMT and not just within its boundaries but also around its boundaries. We have to change the whole culture and the echo and we have to institute and implement a system whereby we can maintain our vigilance and we can be aware of the trafficking of its supply line and we can detect in the normal course who is the victim and who is suffering from this menace and who is actually becoming the conduit for its supply.
So drug free status is not something that it’s a building that you have built a now it always be there. It is an ongoing challenge for us. All it tells today to us is that yes we have made a commitment, we have a determination, and we have achieved something but we have to protect this achievement jealously and with every ounce of our energy to maintain this status all around. It would be too bad that after a week or month or year there is news from UMT or something and it would be you know very damaging for us. This is all not possible without the help of every student.
All of you must be aware of this danger, all of you must act as a police for this, all of you must act as a volunteer for this and all of you should be ears and eyes for this, all of you should be ready to extend a helping hand to those who are who have fallen into this or who might fall into this or who are potential you know suspect. So it is your job and without each one of you working together, without each one of you conscious of it and your responsibility, UMT staff or guards or cameras they won’t be of much use. So I want each one of you to claim for yourself that around you, where you walk, where you talk, where you sit, whom you meet and what you see it is all drug free.
if 10,000 students and 2,000 of our staff and employees each one of them is a ready poll of vigilance and poll for protection of this status and is active, I think it would remain a drug-free for all times. But if you will leave this to only the top management or some of the guards or some uniform or something, it will not be possible. So I want you to be active and I want you to champion this cause. This is an honor for us and we would like to have this honor for all times at UMT.
Zulfiqar sb in his very passionate speech mentioned that he has been fighting his life, he has devoted his life for this and it is for the good of the society. I must commend him and I must give credit to him for walking to us for, coming to us and going all around and fighting this battle on legal grounds in the offices of the ministers and government officers and bureaucrats and also going through the institution’s all around. He is an angel for the educational institution and for all of us in the society. But for each one of the angel likes of Zulfiqar sb there are hundreds who are ready to counter him, who are ready to oppose him and this is the problem that right now the cultivation of poppy in Afghanistan is at all-time peak. This is the issue which I believe the Government of Pakistan should raise with the government of Afghanistan. Every inch of the country of Afghanistan is heavily guarded, seen and been x-rayed by the satellites and what not from up in the sky and also from the ground and poppy is not cultivated in underground caves, poppy is not cultivated in the buildings, it is cultivated it open lands and it has its own color. Even a person from a far-distant can see this is the color of poppy and here is it.
So I wonder why it is allowed to be cultivated so freely and its straight, its processing is containing over there while there are Armed Forces from 20 countries with the world best systems and equipment stationed over there. So I think this is something I believe that Government of Pakistan should be raising continuously in its dialogue with Government of Afghanistan because it is detrimental to Pakistani society and to Pakistani youth. And I would also like to suggest to the youth that you know why people fall into this, of course as Zulfiqar Sb. mentioned if they are rich they are into indulgence and they have no sense of challenge in life, so they say okay let’s enjoy this, let’s enjoy this, let’s enjoy, okay let us enjoy this too, let’s try it for the first time, alright nothing wrong. So they then slowly fall into this trap, so this is one category. But there is other category which is middle class, which is lower middle class and they are also following an increasing number an increasing proportion into this trap. And this is where I wanted to suggest that actually as a youth, it is the vacuum in the life that leads to such indulgences and such habits. So it is for you to see for yourself what are the objectives of your life, what is your vision and goal for the life.
Video # 21
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwifjZpNLQw
Topic: Challenges to SME Sector in Pakistan
Event: 1st National SME Conference
Event Date: May 25th, 2016
Audience: Representatives from Universities and National Delegates
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 14 Minutes and 51 Seconds
Summary:
She would have stolen my time so I thought I should protect my time here and anyway we started late so we need to catch up. GM Outreach Mr. Alamgir Chaudhary SMEDA, Chairman AMDIP and Rector Lahore School of Economics Dr Shahid Amjad Chaudhry, Dean University of Lahore Dr Ijaz, Issam-al-Qarara from UN Industrial Development Program, representatives from leading institutions related to SME sector, delegates who have come from all over the country, Assalamo O Alaykum. I believe that this is a new beginning and a belated start but I am very excited about the future of this platform. Today academia, business and government have come together to talk about SMEs. SME is one sector of the industry which is all-pervasive, which permeates all industrial sectors. It is represented in every district of Pakistan. It employs organizations around the world, they bring the world together, they are guarantor of peace and prosperity in the world, they are very innovative, they are facing challenges all around and in order to grow, in order to develop they have to be responsive, they are adaptive, they think faster and they act smarter. Young people in hundreds and thousands. It generates employment, it reduces poverty, it stabilizes our cities, our residential communities, it communities, SME sector forges linkages with others.
There are families associated with SME sector and the prosperity of family, the institution of family is also linked to the prosperity of SME sector. There are technologies which have practices, which have travelled from one generation to the other generation and they have applied those technologies and those practices on the basis of the strengths of their family and their core team. I believe that this is the sector which has been neglected so far and this is the sector which is very crucial to our existence and to our future. Today Dr Shahid Amjad Chaudhry is here, he is representing a leading institution as well as all the business schools of Pakistan, about 113 all. These business schools provide human resources to SME sector and I believe about 90% of the output of these business schools is consumed by SME sector. A good portion of these graduates become entrepreneurs at some point in time or they play and entrepreneurial role, they lead an entrepreneurial life even if they are working in the organizations for others. So this is very important and very good beginning.
It is highly significant for our future that today business schools and the leading body which is responsible to steer forward the SME sector have come together which is having the blessing of the Government of Pakistan and there are international owners and representatives also who are the stakeholders. I believe that if Pakistan has to prosper and grow, and if we want to increase the rate of growth of our GNP, if we want to bring prosperity to our cities and semi urban areas and rural areas, then we have to focus on this sector. I am very glad that chairman HEC has offered collaboration for the next conference and I hope to see a next conference being organized not just at a national level but also at international level. Because SMEs, the people who work here they are constantly engaged with the world outside, they are no more working within their own boundaries. Our SME leadership travels abroad, they sell abroad their products and services and they import from abroad. So they are at the forefront and they can enhance our global connections and global linkages.
They need guidance, they need advisory. Recently I was sitting with a restaurant owner, successful restaurant running in at MM Alam Road and he was telling me that in the last 10 years he could count more than 40 projects of restaurants, openings of a restaurants at MM Alam Road failed miserably. Each one of them has lost at least 50 million rupees, some maybe hundred million rupees, if they prolong with their decline or even if they are not successful. So that’s loss of capital, that’s loss of vigor in our entrepreneurial talent, there is no advisory for them so that lessons learned by one are circulated and others are saved from the same background. So this is what we have to do that all these ventures which have failed at MM Alam Road if had they been successful, we would have now 50 more projects maybe, 50 more running successful companies generating employment, generating resources for the National Exchequer and moving forward to the next threshold. Unfortunately some of them were so disappointed and frustrated that they migrated with whatever they had left over to outside world Canada or Australia. So this is what I think we need to do.
I can recall that when you know information highways were establish and ISPs were given license, there were at least hundred failures. People got the license, they invested 20, 30, 40, 50 million rupees, family equity. They sold their possessions and they wanted to start a project, young people. But they failed because their ideas or their ventures were not good enough for the market and market was moving at its own pace and you know showing its own dynamics. So I think what academia can do is bring stability to this market, increase the chances of success of the new startups and new starters. Ensure them positive outcome and guide them as the move from one step to the other. I’ve seen SMEs dying when the person who started it is aging. I’ve seen SMEs not being able to handle the growth and incorporate middle management and diversify themselves at the right time and they fade away, they become weaker and they were not able to manage the transition from one family, one generation to the other generation or one set of challenges to the other set of challenges. So we see all of these things happening. So I believe the link between academia and the SME sector is very crucial, is very important. For us as business schools, it is I think where we breathe, it is where we survive, it is the sector to which we are responsible morally and functionally.
So I am really pleased to see this beginning, I would like to give credit to SMEDA for opening up and establishing this linkage with the private sector and engaging the private sector because SME is private sector, all of it. And we together can offer credible values, we can offer advisors. Recently, the chairman of Accenture of Japan, who was chairman of Accenture for 35 years in Japan visited us as a guest speaker and when I asked him about his experience in Japan, he said that when he started his career as a consultant after education in United States, he felt that there are so many successful organizations within Japan electronics, automobile, in other areas textiles, which were facing a deadlock and his art was to guide them to become global organizations. And he could count at least 40 organizations which were limited to Japan, successful in Japan but they were properly guided and nurtured to become global and those 40 organizations have become global now bringing foreign exchange to Japan and strengthening the Japanese economy. Allowing Japan to move to the next industries. And his recipe was very successful, was very simple.
He raised three questions with each organization and worked with them, that what’s your value proposition in terms of goods and services, what would be your supply chain and what your risk is and return relationship. So if you manage, if SME is able to manage and respond to these three questions every year and develop metrics and strategies to face these three challenges, they would continuously move on from one step to the other step. I would like to welcome all delegates who have come from outside Lahore and in Lahore. Lahore wasn’t really pleasant in terms of whether just two three years back but yesterday and today, I think it’s getting better. It is hospitable, it understood that there are some guests coming from outside and I need to moderate the heat. So I am really pleased, I hope you will enjoy. I know one day is very short for what we want to do but today we have shown our determination, today we have shown that we are inspired by the imagination and InshAllah we will continue to work forward and make it a very big large event next year.
I am really grateful to all who have done research. The research papers have been you know referred to the blind review and they have passed through those review. Only a selective number of paper are being presented and this is very important signal that now research in academia is also being driven by the challenges in the SME sector. I am very pleased that the President of South Asia Triple Helix Association, Mr. Abid Sherwani is also here because Triple Helix is the same idea to bring together business, academia and government. And together if we build bridges, if we develop meaningful partnerships, we will be able to offer value to the stakeholders. Thank you very much.
Video # 22
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K6e7vzvHjs
Topic: CPEC – Universities and Economy
Event: 2nd Supply Chain Conference
Event Date: Not Available
Audience: Students, Faculty and Alumni
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail, Music in background
Total Time of Video: 8 Minutes and 52 Seconds
Summary:
Pakistan CPEC comes at a point when there are again doubts about just survival, its sustenance, its continuity, its cohesiveness as a nation in future and its chances of becoming a global player were very dim. You know that exports from Pakistan are on decline, they reached to the point of twenty eight billion dollar or thirty billion dollar few years back but they are back to like twenty five billion dollar. Our volume is increasing but our rates are coming down. Pakistan every five year ten years suffers from the pressure of being an isolated country, a country known more for the terrorism or more for the problems that ensues from borders to all over the world and less for the excellent goods and services and people. So for Pakistan I believe this connectivity can be a driver to change to make this country a global player in the world economy. Because now Gawadar is going to be just as important a city as Venice or Athens or Calcutta or Pusan and China or Singapore.
So Gawadar is going to be a global city having global prominence and eminence and connectivity through Gawadar to all over the world through maritime routes would be possible. So for us it’s again in terms of economy, in terms of political economy, in terms of our security, solidarity, in terms of our growth and a balanced growth because CPEC runs through the western part of the country. It is creating a new vein for circulation of goods, transportation of goods. New cities will come up and those cities in those region especially the northern part of Pakistan, which would never receive sufficient budget for development, a basic essential development like connectivity and telecommunication and urbanization, would now receive attention and funding and would be now paved, their chances for growth are very high. So especially the northern part will get connected with the southern part and there will be East and West both corridors within Pakistan, would also be horizontally connected and the western side of Pakistan will light up, will be inhibited, will be populated and there will be industrial growth because it will be now the interest of the business and industry to set up their plants and their manufacturing facilities, their storage houses closer to CPEC to reduce the transportation charges. So I feel that this logistic, what seems to be a largest network for logistics and transportation connectivity is providing us a backbone for our increasing economic activity and generation of economic activity. The GDP of Pakistan can rise, employment can increase and Pakistan will receive foreign direct investments, Pakistan will have a chance to try to arrange for transfer of technologies so that Pakistan can set up its own industry.
At UMT we have been aware of the importance of supply chain. Ijaz has just given you brief of our historical progress towards developing our capability to provide and develop human resources and human capital for this essential field. We saw its importance and its potential about 10 years back and I am glad that faculty traditionally and Department of Operation Research reconfigured itself, and re-imagined themselves as supply chain developers and supply chain researchers, supply chain teachers right on time and then we started courses and programs. So we have programs in BBA and MBA courses like MS and PhD. We have a very good, reasonable, critical mass of alumni already working within the industry. I would like to inform you that recently we have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Turkish Aviation Institute based in Istanbul, set up by Turkish airline which is right now the leading airline of Europe.
They have a much elaborated high quality program known as MSC in Air Transport Management. It’s a two year program. The faculty for this program comes from Boeing, directly from Boeing and MIT. All of these faculty members are from MIT or Boeing and the cost of this program is $35,000 but for UMT alumni, faculty and students the cost we have negotiated a cost of about $20,000 for two years. So it’s about $10,000 a year and this does not include boarding and lodging. So this program I’ve seen the courses, this program captures the dynamics of supply chain, the cutting edge concept and I have seen the faculty, the courses you know all of them are from MIT which is world leader. So I would invite your attention towards it. This is an investment in your career. UMT has no commission and has no take in this arrangement. All we are doing is we are providing you a privileged entry into a program where you will not go through any other competition or something. So I think it’s a very good program. Their intake is in November and then another intake is in January.
I would especially request and I would try that one of at least our faculty member joins the program in January so that the faculty member gets trained for two years and then come back here. We have also taken steps to set up at Walton an academy to focus upon research in CPEC, supply chain, logistics and transportation. So we have just acquired a space there, about five canals, eight canals is outside the Walton Airport an about four canals inside. Space inside is devoted to aviation and we are bringing the latest equipment of simulation and other air traffic control so that this is again something which is going to increase a new profession. Professionals would be required in this region in this area. But then it is about of course planning the connectivity, transportation and logistics, so we will have a lounge there, we will have hub for the professionals, we will have training facilities over there and this will be in the context of aviation which is very good and very nice location. So this is again something that we have already planned and we have taken steps and we are starting the construction there very soon. It’s going through the design phase right now.
Video # 23
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50MhfWHA1kQ
Topic: Dr Hasan’s Journey at UMT
Event: UMT Internal Event
Event Date: Not Available
Audience: Faculty and Staff
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 34 Minutes and 51 Seconds
Summary:
Let me begin by invoking mercy and compassion of our Lard and beseeching him for his continued blessings and favors in time to come. And let me also affirm our deepest loyalty and regard to the one who declared that he has been sent down as the teacher. Ladies and gentlemen, here I stand at a very important juncture in my life as well as in the history of UMT. I am indeed delighted to pass through this moment and I feel truly very lighted since this morning. I have spent 27 years in this job and it pretty much defined what I did, what I said, where I went, whom I met, what I wrote and what I decided for myself as well as others. It is for me actually a dream come true because I recall that it was perhaps in 1968 that we came to Lahore as family and our Phupi Jan was living here and it was the home of actually Dr Ansar and I went to another home of my aunt, maternal aunt and we were sitting in the garden on the staircase and she asked me and my brother that who do you want to be in future and I don’t know at that point I never you know how it could come but I said I want to be Vice Chancellor.
But before that I recall when I was in class 3 and we were sitting together with my father, all of us sitting in bed with him and my mother, and he asked me Hasan what do you want to be and I said I want to be Imam, because I would go with him to mosque and I would see this saintly figure coming out of the quarters, leading the prayers and then silently going back to home. So I thought that this is the life I want, peaceful. How did it struck me this position of Vice Chancellor, I don’t know. But when I scratched my mind, it was one summer you know at our home that vice principal of NED college, where my father studied as well as taught, he and his wife both Parsees, they visited us and they spend a day with us, and he was such a charming figure and he talked to us at length and you know it was very informal and I liked his demeanor and I liked his composure. So I thought that this is the position, this is the type of person maybe I would like to be. So ladies and gentlemen, I would like to bow my head today in front of my Lord, Who permitted me to fulfill my dream, Who wrote those dreams for me and turned them into reality. I know it doesn’t happen with everyone.
I was lucky, I was fortunate that what I thought what I saw for myself and what I dreamt perhaps and these perhaps are the only two positions that I ever could think of in my infancy and in my you know teenage, and He wrote those things for me and it has been then my distinguished honor, my privilege and my extreme privilege to serve University of Management and Technology, and to do whatever I can to the best of my ability to build this institution. I truly enjoyed every moment of it and I truly remained thrilled by each passing day looking at the unfolding challenges, newer and newer problems and seizing emerging opportunities, dealing with risks and threats, and also meeting people all the time, faculty, students, staff and everyone that came my way. So I remained truly excited and thrilled and I enjoyed every moment of it and I always believed that the time that I spent here is equivalent of the time that one could spend in the worship of Allah SWT. So I took it as a cause, as a mission and I never restricted or resisted in any in shedding or investing any ounce of energy or any second of my moments I remain awake to spend for the cause of UMT.
So once again I feel that today I should thank my Allah SWT for bestowing upon me this trust and alloying need to function and to walk out with some degree of respect and with some degree of recognition in the eyes of my fellows. So much so that I actually, physically also Campton myself by the sight of the walls of UMT so that my days as well as my nights could be spent in the shadow of the UMT. Ladies and gentlemen I am also grateful to the chairman of the board of governors, I am also extremely grateful to my chairman, Professor Khurshid Ahmad and members of the Board of Governors, who firmly, consistently and wholeheartedly reinforced me, guided me, and backed me and every point of my stay as Rector of UMT. Governance at UMT has not been like governance in any other private sector institution. From day one it was solid, it was purposeful and they had only one agenda, they were selfless and they wanted to make this institution an incredible institution and they lent their names and expertise in order to lay down the foundation of a respectable institution in future. So I benefited from that selfless governance and took advantage of that and the governance supported me all the way.
As a founder, like any other founder I faced two dilemmas. Number one, founders usually like to have their authority continue till their end, till death denies them the continuation of it. And then secondly foundations tend to personalize everything and this is the dilemma of founders which I studied when I was studying management and entrepreneurship. I make sure that I avoid the second while I stay and I think you would have noticed that unless I was invited to a conference or seminar I kept quiet and I retained my silence and I always refused any media, you know request for an interview. I didn’t write in newspaper and I think apart from the photographs of convocation, I made sure that my photos don’t get published in newspapers or in the billboards etc. Because I learned that in order to make a good institution, all we need is good work and if good work takes place, that work speaks for itself and that work then draws the attention of those who want to and they can reach the institution. So I avoided that kind of personalization during my stay and I think I am escaping the first dilemma today by voluntarily handing over the charge to the next Rector.
This was my greatest of the wishes that I see for myself an orderly transition, from myself to a new Rector and hence confirm the unique strengths of UMT as having the forward capacity to proactively deal with the major issues. So I believe we have courageously taken up that task. I tried to withdraw myself in fact five years back but then chairman and board talked me out of it and they promise that you continue for five years and then the next five years I really worked my heart out and five years we saw a lot of progress within UMT and maybe they were right at that point and it was rather early for me. So when I saw in my third tenure coming to the end, I started lobbing and I was successful in making them agree to my proposal that it’s time that we appoint a new rector. And I also emphasize that the appointment should be purely on basis of merit. There should be nationwide announcement and let people apply from all over the country those who are interested, and then we set up a Rector’s search committee and that search committee gone through the candidates and selected for us the best one, the most suitable in their eye.
So I believe that the governance of UMT has fulfilled that challenge, has achieved what they wanted to and today this institution has a new rector in the form of Dr Muhammad Aslam. I think from now on UMT will benefit from his 12 years of experience as a rector of one of the leading, most superior engineering institution in Pakistan, ranked number one consistently. So he brings with himself his education and his experience in science and technology and also his exposure running at number one institution in Pakistan. And we have created a depth in our leadership that I would continue as chairman of ILM trust and board of governors and would extend to him my full support, wholehearted support at all times just like the way I received it from my chairman which emboldened me and which allowed me to take courageous actions to experiment and to meet you know successes as well as failures.
So I think that Dr Muhammad Aslam should also be granted the same kind of position where he can have unification of command and he can work out his way by looking at the horizon in front of him and see what’s in the best interest of UMT and then pick up the pace so that this institution grows from here to the next level. I haven’t had the opportunity to meet with him in any HEC or other meetings, maybe casually I really don’t recall. So the first time I met him was when he walked into the committee for interview and that was the first handshake. So here is again tremendous strength of UMT that you can recognize that this university is for merit and is for outstanding merit and if a person is willing to leave from the top position, this university agrees to it and opens its door for the person and let the person lead itself the whole institution in future years. So this is the sign of a good institution and I hope that this will continue in future. Dr Aslam, I enjoyed working with these people, being Deans and Directors of the Schools and Institutions, chairpersons of the academic departments, directors of centers, program heads, heads of different projects, people who are looking after the services as university management offices and they make my life full of pleasure and enjoyable and with consultation and collaboration, and your vision I believe that you will be even able to get better out of them and lead them to great successes.
And reciprocally I also hope that the tremendous amount of trust and cooperation that I received from you, the love and affection that I always remain overwhelmed, I believe that you would extend the same in fact in greater proportion to Dr Aslam. I remain most amazed by the regard and love affection that I have received from our participants and our students have been the most important asset of UMT. It is them who have built this institution and it is them who are now working as alumni and our vocal supporters of UMT, advocates of UMT and we take care of them by providing for excellence in their upbringing development and education and they in turn extend their wholehearted you know support for the development of the institution. So I hope that this relationship between rector and the students, rector and the participants, rector and alumni, rector and faculty would also continue in the same manner. I wish I could have reciprocated the personal attachment that I received many times when people invited me to their marriage or people told me about death of someone and wanted me to be with them or on other occasions from our staff, from faculty or from students. But due to my various engagements I never found time enough at my disposal to be with them informally. So I really when I look back, things that I miss now, that I feel I miss doing is being part of them informally as a family.
Let me at this point recount the role played by my late father Khurram Murad, in guiding me and in preparing me and in boosting my confidence. He never wanted me to do a job and he always pushed me forward to take up some challenge, take up some risks and he then extended his support and it was always pleasure to talk to him and get his good advice on the basis of this experience. Since he left, I missed talking to him, I missed receiving any further guidance from him but he remained kind of shadow at the time when I needed a shadow or a beam of light when I needed something to show my way in the darkness. I would like to pay regards to my mother, who once again was always part of me and whose prayers I think provided me, enabled me and provided me the strength to discharge my obligations. She was always full of love and affection and I couldn’t have done what I’ve done without her support behind me. I have especially requested my wife to be here this morning. I never probably insisted her. She was actually going to Karachi this week but I requested her to delay her visit to Karachi and I especially invited her to tell her that I owe all of this to her.
I could never find time to visit with her anywhere, family or dinner or what not and she silently bore that loneliness at home and she paid the price and she sacrificed with her time and everything and at home she did everything for me that possibly I could expect, in fact more. I never had any problem from my home which could hamper my performance outside here at UMT. I would like to pay my regard to my beloved daughter Mariam as well as my beloved son Ibrahim. Both of them have been part of our existence and I am glad that both without any inspiration both agreed and both willingly adopted this field of training and education and development as their lifelong pursuit.
I would fail my duty if I do not mention specifically one person’s name, Mr. Abid HK Sherwani. We all know about him. I met him when I started when I came back from America and I started teaching in Punjab University and he was in my class and since then the two of us have remained inseparable. And he has been I would say the rock on which I could stand. Because I moved to Lahore, I knew people in Lahore of course, I had a lot of friends in Lahore but when I started work I didn’t know much and it was him and he opened himself and he devoted himself. I never saw a person so loyal, so faithful and so sincere and friend as a person as him. So I again I owe it to him and may Allah SWT reward him.
I know I have taken more time than I was allowed to but let it be, let me complete my job. As a parting thought for all of you who are here, very briefly let me quickly run down some of the fundamentals that I want all of us to remain reminded of. Number one, we remain too much engrossed in our of course scheduling of courses, assignment, of courses programs and whatnot but it is important to take overall picture of what this higher education is all about. To me it is about transformation of society, by advancement of knowledge and development of people. So whatever you do, whatever job you have, whatever course you are teaching, whatever position you hold and whatever you contribute, just tag it and try to see how it is contributing to the transformation of society by advancement of knowledge and development of people. Because we are here to do number of things but at the end of the day all of it should convert in this one equation and we need to see whether we are making this equation more powerful, that is UMT is contributing and directly proportional to transformation of society by advancement of knowledge and development of people. I need all of us to be reminded of that.
I would also like to alert you with the link between knowledge and justice. My own reading of Quran tells me that knowledge is linked with justice. And there is no sense of knowledge, there is no sanity in knowledge, there is no wisdom in knowledge if it leads to otherwise injustice exploitation so and so forth. So knowledge has to create a balance, knowledge has to contribute towards justice in a society. Third, we all are hungry of happiness and we crave for happiness in our life. A chance to smile, a chance to be kind and receive the kindness. I feel that happiness cannot be there unless there is enlightenment based upon knowledge and there is balance and justice. Only justice and balance can guarantee us the degree of happiness to which we confirm and we remain aligned to justice. Forth, knowledge is in many things and can have many different garbs and can have many different directions and dimensions but the knowledge that is gained by seeking the truth and knowledge that comes out of the pursuit of truth, unbiased, unprejudiced, based upon crystalline reasoning and logical understanding and rational thinking is the one that we care for and we should value. So knowledge is only classified, can be classified as knowledge if it is actually consisting of truth and nothing but truth.
Fifth, if it is about justice, if it is about development of people, if it is about happiness based upon truth and if it is about based upon logical reason and thinking then there has to be some importance laid out in the scheme of things for the development of character. Because if there is no character, if the person is wayward and if the person is astray then I believe that person cannot recognize truth, cannot lead himself or herself to truth and cannot gain it, cannot hold on to it. So I think somewhere, the things the way we lay out our mechanisms and our approach for a higher education, there has to be an emphasis for the development of character, for the development of moral character, moral fiber of the community and then only a character based, a character led person can become a host and a recipient of knowledge based upon truth. And I’m missing my account but let’s say the next one, we are living in a society which all requires renewal and revival on consistent basis.
We have a community here of faculty-student, this requires revival and renewal on consistent basis, a relentless you know pursuit of continuous improvement, that is the requirement. And this needs that we try to identify the sources of mediocrity, these sources our comfort with familiarity and sameness and we try to do things creatively, critically and innovatively. So I believe that revival and renewal comes when we become creative, critical, innovative and we beat, we try to defeat mediocrity and the curse of familiarity and we fail to accept what is new and what is better that is coming forward.
Lastly, I would like to suggest that we as human beings in our community will be good to each other only if we generously listen to each other and we make it a habit of showing our trust upon each other. We may earn in trust and trust can lead to success or failure but I believe that in human working and in human operation and in human relationship, trust is the only way which can develop the goodness and can help us you know can follow the path of virtue and can help us develop the good self among the people.
When I feel that my parents have a great deal of trust in me, when I feel that my friends have a trust, are showing so much trust upon me, that becomes my inspiration, my motivation and my stimulation to hold on to that trust. Because then I use that trust and that trust makes my life better, it helps me doing things in my life.
So trust is something that comes free, so bestow this trust upon your fellows, upon your students and this trust will also contribute to the enhancement of the self-esteem of our people who are working with us, self-esteem of our fellow colleagues, self-esteem of our students and once they realize that this teacher, this administrator and this person in authority is showing so much trust and is placing my esteem so high, I believe that the natural human ability to show its goodness and to align itself to its north, which is good, will come out at their best and you will be able to get the best from seemingly very ordinary people. That has been partly my recipe and I feel that there is a great potential and further enhancing and continuing that everywhere. This will not meet the eye of an accountant or someone who is doing calculations but I think it works in the real life and it makes our living and our working together a better in many ways. I would also like to suggest that UMT was never meant to be a copy of some other institution, to be just a small iota in the things and to be just an imitation of something that has just come out.
We have always taken, we have spent a lot of time in thinking that what is the best that we can achieve, what is it that is needed to be done, what is next and whatever our mind guided us and whatever we came up with together, we followed that path and we never felt that any stereotype or any you know model or brand or any other leading you know institution is the one that we should follow. Yes we always identified good practices wherever we could find them, but then we tried to make UMT a new crystal, a new beam, a new beacon, a new fountain and a new initiative having its own flavor, having its own color, having its own identity developed, thought out by the people who are actually part of it.
This brings me to the closure of my comment. I once again from the depth of my heart. Thank you all and I wish you all the very best in times to come.
Video # 24
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhmSnWGUPms
Topic: Leadership, Nation and Economy
Event: UMT Conference on Pakistan-India Relations
Event Date: May 9th, 2016
Audience: Faculty and Students
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail and Voice Quality is very poor.
Total Time of Video: 6 Minutes and 14 Seconds
Summary:
Thank you very much Khurshid Kasuri Sb for accepting our invitation and making yourself available for this very interesting session. I have always been impressed by your personality. You are a thorough professional, a lawyer and you are one of those public representatives who are worthy of respect and who deserve dignity, and who have serve the nation selflessly and who have been empowered, and who are in politics to engage the nation, to direct the nation and to serve the nation, and not to be served. So I think your record as public servant is worthy of the emulation and this is the kind of political leadership that this nation needs. Our founder, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a lawyer and he served the nation, he worked for the cause of the nation. And he was a competent, an exceptional lawyer and he brought in all of his experience and his abilities as lawyer to lead the nation.
So this a kind of career guidance, that if you want to serve the nation then first become something for the nation and make yourself worthy of the leadership of the nation. Your caliber, your knowledge, your thinking, your mindset and above all your character must fit into that class. And once you will achieve that class, whether you have money or you don’t, you will be the leader. We have seen in the third world recently that people who come from very poor class became very popular leaders because there was character and character always attracts people, brings people around. So that is one thought that came to my mind given your presence here with us.
Secondly, I am as optimistic as Kasuri Sb and I would suggest that yes Pakistan has a one to six ratio on many different grounds but given the dynamics of economy today, Pakistan can be a greater nation and Pakistan can be a greater economy. There is nothing which restricts us and it is up to you. Because knowledge today, economy of today is knowledge based. And knowledge is the critical factor. So even 10 people sitting here can generate more than what Government of Pakistan generates from its tax revenues and through all of that you know FBR that I consumed in the budget. Just 10 of you, a dozen of you can create enterprises, can launch innovative products. And this is what is required.
If you want a fair deal, and if you want an advantage, a position of advantage when you face India, then you need to have strong nation, you need to have a strong economy, you need to have a resilient nation. We have done that through our arms and emulations and missiles and nuclear technology but that is one part of it. The other part is economy, the industry, society as a whole, our solidarity, our cities, our business. So this is your challenge and there is nothing that is in your way not going. You can be Tata and you can be greater than Tatas and other business persons like Ambani. So this is the challenge that we have to face as a youth and this is what is required of you if you want Pakistan to be stronger and greater, and if you want Pakistan to be healthier and prosperous. Then you have to respond to those challenges and you have to prepare yourself accordingly and you have to achieve something which is breakthrough. And this will make Pakistan stronger and this will then equip and give the confidence to the representatives of Pakistan like Kasuri Sb. that when they will deal with India they will be on a stronger foot. So thank you very much for inspiring us today.
Video # 25
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-w_ricUTwc
Topic: Khuram Murad’s Personality
Event: Khuram Murad Memorial Lecture 2015
Event Date: Year 2015
Audience: Faculty & Students
Issues in Video: Noise in Audio
Total Time of Video: 21 Minutes and 56 Seconds
Summary:
Dr Salman Syed, our distinguished speaker for Khurram Murad lecture series, Professor Ijaz Akram, very esteemed faculty members from UMT and other academic institutions, our dear students, ladies and gentlemen, Assalamo o Alaykum. I am delighted that this is now sixth lecture and the space between lectures is reducing, being reduced every time, so we hope we can have next one after six months instead of a year so that we can make up for the loss in the past. It has been almost twenty years that Khurram Murad passed away. He was very frankly my father, he was also my mentor, my coach, my teacher, my inspiration, my role model, my hero and every moment that I spent with him has added value to my intellect. It has helped me sharpen my thoughts, has illuminated some aspects of dialogue and debates that were going on between us all the time.
This evening is in that spirit of creative and critical thinking for which I hold him to very high pedestal. He was a scientist by his mind, by his originality. He had the mind of a scientist, he was very objective, very rational, he was ruthless in his evaluation of facts, in discriminating facts of values and in filtering out all the layers of social reality to find out what is truth. He engaged himself into it to inquiry about what Islam is, what Islam means today, what Islam represents today, where do Muslims stand and how can Muslims be better today. These were soul-searching questions that engaged his mind. He could have accepted what was told by others. He was impressed by the thoughts of Syed Abul A’la Maudoodi but many times I’ve seen him openly disagreeing with even Syed Maudoodi or finding alternate ways. It was very hard to convince him by quoting someone big that this is the person who said this. It would carry no weight in his eyes.
He would evaluate everything under his close scrutiny and unless it holds itself, it is able to hold itself under his close scrutiny that he would accept it and then take it forward for its further evaluation. So that was something which was really impressive and he was very open, he had a very open mind without any bias or prejudice. He would enter into dialogue and discussion without any predetermined solution or predetermined responses for answers.
He would meditate, he would contemplate, he would reflect, he would applies critical reflective faculties and he would engage his mind to find out what’s best, what’s the ideal and what’s optimum. He possessed some really amazing qualities. He was very ordinary man just like us but he built himself and made himself into a very amazing persona. He was at once very good in terms of quantitative analysis. He would use slide rule himself and in all his geographical and maps. He was engineer in the field of water resources, management of water resources and his most favorite professional task was to design dams with multiple outlets, outcomes such as irrigation, power, community development, agriculture, water management and environment all put together. Almost all water resources projects in Bangladesh from 1960 to 1970 had his design, his inputs.
So he was very deep, he will do all the calculations in the night by himself, he would not trust any engineer doing it and there were no computer in those days, he would be using slide rules and not one slide rule, he would be using two three slide rules at once. I was admiring all the time that slide rule and although when I took up engineering and I took up civil engineering just because my father was a civil engineer, so I for the sake of imitation bought one slide rule and got it imported from Germany actually because that was the time of calculator now. So he was very good with numbers and calculations, and I’ve seen his exam copies from University of Minnesota where he did his MS in 1959, that he would get numbers from professors in Math’s like hundred and ten out of hundred, hundred and fifteen out of hundred, hundred and twenty out of hundred, ninety five out of hundred, so he stood first class first and he was also the first class first position in NED University in civil engineering as well as in matriculation and intermediate, he was so first class first. He was so really good with numbers. On the other hand he was very good on qualitative grounds.
A person having both left and right brain. This was really unique to me. He was good with numbers and good with qualitative facts, assessing them, qualifying them, understanding abstract realities and figuring out what is ambiguous, what is very uncertain, unpredictable, what is hard to see. He was very good in those terms as well. Secondary, he was idealist and he would take lot of pain to bring something at mark, meeting the quality, exceeding the mediocrity and that really hurt him a lot. Because I would see people not performing, people not able to match to what he had expected and that put him to lot of pain but he would not compromise, he would not budge that okay this is me all right, this is you all right, I take it okay, dismiss lets go home now. He would just try to make sure again and again to achieve a quality which surpasses what has already been achieved. So this was his idealism with everything. On the other hand he was very pragmatic, how it works, how to be, what are the resources, what are the objectives, what can be done today, this hour and this moment, this minute and how to get forward, how to move forward. So he was a balance between idealism and pragmatism. These two qualities gave him the playground, a chance where he would then able to make progress while having lofty goals and very high standards before him. Thirdly, he was deep into theory and I didn’t see him much reading.
He always had his own library and would read whenever he would get time. But he was also an activist, so while he would find time to get new knowledge but he would not waste time in just getting knowledge and he would not busy himself with books, flouting around books. So he would read very focused what is most important, what is relevant to the extent it is useful and get on with the activity, with the work. So it was again I felt there was a balance and what he wrote did not come out of his readings. I think most of it came out of his thinking. Readings made a ground but he was an engineer so he had lot of time devoted to his profession and he would spend a lot of time reading Quran and he knew Arabic, Persian, English, Urdu, Bengali all these languages. So this was again a balance.
I see people, we academics, our job is to read then speak, right and then tell. All right, we are not activists and it’s not required. All we need to make progress and get promotion is to fly, go to the conferences, read papers and we get promotion and that’s the end of it. But for a person who is ideal, who is deep into theory to also remain in touch with the ground realities and to be able to turn around things, to be able to make a difference was a great challenge. So when you get out of the ground, you have to plunge yourself into the currents of time and you have to be very realistic, your feet is on ground, your mind is high on the skies looking in the horizon. So this was again I found that he was activist, he didn’t miss any appointment, he was never lazy, he was never lounging for nothing, he was always active and very active, very swift and quick movements, very brisk in his walk and very brief in his talk, not unlikely.
So he was in that respect again someone I would always try to emulate. His grip on theory, on knowledge and new knowledge, current cutting-edge knowledge and this ability to move around. So he was a good organizer, he was a very good organizer, very good manager. He had his own diary, his own system. He was very responsible. Before he died, would you imagine I saw an accounting book in which 40 years of accounts were written, every penny that he received and every penny that he spent was written on that, in that accounting book. So he held himself accountable to very high standards. So this was very you know surprising for me. I could never imagine that every penny that he received from anywhere in the world and every penny that he spent for anything is written in his book. So again speaks of a man who pays attention to details and who feels that he’s accountable and responsible and who has something in mind. Lastly, I would also point out that yes he was in this material world of time and the space and engagements and obsessions and possessions and everything, but he was also very spiritual.
In my life I never saw a night when we did not wake up to be his Lord. In my life time I never saw it. Sometimes he’s travelling, something it is very short night, sometimes very long night, sometimes he is ill, nothing could deviate him out of this schedule. This is and I heard someone from who was with him when he was studying and he said this was same when he was student. That person told me that he was with him for weeks and he never saw him you know getting away from this you know glorying or by passing. So this is such a commitment, a strong commitment and four hours I would see that he would be silent, he would be just his eyes closed, sitting, reading Quran and nothing obviously. So it is a deep meditation.
He was very spiritual, very transcendental in his thoughts and on the other hand while he was spiritual, he had tremendous warmth for even strangers. I would see strangers coming up to meet him and he would embrace them like they are friends for ages or relatives for ages. I saw one man who really converted and became his great disciple because he said that I was just a student and I went and he was standing there, I said this is me, my name is this and he suddenly embraced me, hug me and so warmly and such you know emotions and sentiments transferred in him that he said that I don’t need anyone else, he is the one that I’ve been looking for who can give me hope and faith. So this was his personal touch, a very strong spark that he would leave in people whom he would meet. So a very short life but very impactful.
Coming to this topic, when Junaid proposed this topic I immediately found it very relevant to him because he spent good ten years at a stretch in United Kingdom and his objective to be in United Kingdom was to find ways to communicate with the West and before that he was in United States for about a year and half to do his master’s and then again about a year or two year to work in Colorado. So he was always interested that how this universal message of Islam can be presented and can be made acceptable in the language and the form, in a manner and in a way that it would find its natural relevance, acceptance. He would see that yes there is a need for, there is a vacuum, Islam has the answers, Islam has the solution but the gherkin, the overall language, the metaphor, its presentation and it’s everything was so much you know lacking communication which was very disturbing for him and the reason that he went there was to contribute to that bridge making.
And I think he did something, he worked during his stay there, he started writing in English and each time he would write and publish something, it would beat his own previous writing. He discovered his own class and his own style in writing that I found really interesting, in fact very impressive, very tasteful, very good pros and that is his contribution to it and someone from New York University wrote an article on his contribution of communicating Islam to the west. So I felt that this, Euro Centrism is the topic of today, the only image that comes to my mind now as I stand as far as Euro Centrism is concerned that people from the northern Africa who have everything, oil, the tribes, their environment and everything, when I see them loaded in ships and when I see them mocking the shores of Europe, those who have all the wealth in the world and their wealth is in the grounds, oil wealth, those who never thought of leaving the heat and the Sun that they can enjoy the middle of the desert, when I see their generations being drowned on the shores of Europe, I feel there is something terribly wrong and this is about Euro Centrism. Thank You.
Video # 27
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AZTpFjsbQc
Topic: Former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani
Event: Jinnah Forum, UMT
Event Date: Not Available
Audience: Faculty and Students
Issues in Video: Music in background
Total Time of Video: 07 Minutes and 25 Seconds
Summary:
Thank you very much Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani for your very insightful talk on a very crucial topic of our times, Democracy, Peace and World Powers. You have been the Prime Minister of our country who completed the full term and you were elected unanimous. You have been a recognized reputed political leader throughout your life and you have served long sentence in jail and paid a heavy price due to your political commitments. You refuse to bargain and negotiate with the governments and you preferred to be jailed rather than bargain your exit and release from the jail. So I feel that in you we have a Prime Minister whom we can be really proud of because he has been the unanimously elected or nominated Prime Minister of Pakistan and I believe that he will be the only one in the history of Pakistan, I don’t foresee anyone else beating this record. So you have a record which is unbeatable for all times and this is a great stature that Allah SWT has graciously bestowed upon yourself and this is due to your service to the nation.
I also would like to commend and I’ve been discussing this and mentioning that throughout your tenure as well and even afterwards that it was your government which reinstated the Constitution of Pakistan in its original shape. This Constitution was first of all formulated and made by the first Government of Pakistan People Party when Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was the Prime Minister. It was the honor of Prime Ministers Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to give this nation a constitution and he, Abdul Hafeez Peerzada, the young Law Minister at that time and throughout the collaboration of all opposition parties, Pakistan made for itself a constitution and that gave birth to a new nation in 1973 when that constitution was approved. I feel that afterwards this constitution was distorted, it was deformed, it was I don’t want to say but it was raped and it was played and it was you know made to serve the desire of individuals who were dictators and it was the government of the again People Party who through the collaboration of all political leaders and all political parties once again refine the Constitution. I’ve gone through the document which was approved by the National Assembly under your leadership and I feel that the Constitution that we have now is even better than the Constitution which was approved in earlier during the time of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
This constitution we have matured ourselves, we have further reward ourselves and we have reshaped our future and this constitution guarantees the cohesion Pakistan, the Solidarity of Pakistan, it guarantees the togetherness of Pakistan, and it guarantees the integrity of Pakistan. You very rightly pointed out even if we have a dozen provinces; this constitution is going to keep all of them together under one flag, under one nation. This has the federal stature. This truly captures the imperatives of a federal government and it gives, it force the provinces the necessary autonomy that is needed in the Pakistani situation. So I think that the credit goes to your government that you gave this nation another constitution which is further refined and renewed for the security of our nation.
So with these two great historical achievements, your era as the Prime Minister will always be remembered as a service to our nation and our future. And very privately I would also like to say he was the only Prime Minister who invited me to the Prime Minister house, we had lunch there and believe me, twice or thrice I went there and I had almost six hours in his room. And there were federal ministers who had appointments, there was long queue and he shunted out everyone and we were there for long hour’s couple of times. It was a great blessing for all of us. Thank you very much Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani. Your visit to UMT was much awaited. It was delayed and you owed it to us to visit UMT but that visit still you owe to us. This visit will have not compensated the visit that we expected of you when you were Prime Minister of Pakistan. We hope that to visit again and to keep up your promise to visit UMT as Prime Minister. You will be the Prime Minister once again so that you can visit UMT and you can keep up your promise.
Video # 28
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8lbO1k-_dk
Topic: Motivational Talk
Event: Rector’s & Dean’s Merit Awards
Event Date: Not Available
Audience: Faculty and Students
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 17 Minutes and 8 Seconds
Summary:
My very distinguished members of the leadership of schools and Institutes, program directors, CODs, esteemed faculty members and my very dear and proud winners of Rector’s and Dean’s Awards, Assalamo Alaykum. This is one day which really makes me happy as I always share that I look at your profile, I look at your accomplishments, I look at the fruits of the hard work that has gone into your achievements and I look at the motivation, I look at enthusiasm, the excitement and all of it is for something which is admirable, which is worthy of the cause and which is highly distinguished and very distinctive and which is where you have to compete to excel. So this is the place where we have gathered, men and women who have exceptionally performed well, who have outstanding career and there are people who didn’t satisfy themselves with mediocrity, with the mediocre performance, with anything less than the best.
So you have prepared yourself to go extra mile, you have mustered your courage and you have developed an iron will and dissolved and you have sustained your determination to stand out and that’s why you are here. So that’s what has brought you here. So I am really pleased to meet the screen of the cream. You are the ones we look for to serve and you are the ones we want others to emulate and you are the ones we would like to project as the role model for the community. We have about 9,500 students and out of this 9,500 I guess we have about 6,500 to 7,000 undergraduate students and this is the top of the undergraduate programs and this is the cream of those 6,500.
So you are very chosen, very comparative, very selective and you have made the most of whatever was there in terms of teaching, in terms of learning environment, learning opportunities, you made the most, you made value out of it for yourself and it is not easy to be different because you were different from your peers, you worked little harder, you were not maybe as social and you didn’t waste your time here and there, and that was very difficult, that’s very challenging sometimes. But you made a decision, you were working for a goal and I could see many who returned repetitively here. If I were to ask now how many of you have earned more than three times, please raise your hands.
So thank you very much because you were here most of the time, more than three times and how many of you were here since you joined us, every semester for Rector or Dean. That’s really matter then I should say cream of the cream, top of the icing on the cream. So this is really wonderful and very pleasing and delightful for all of us. It is not easy to be on the top and to go to surmount all you know hurdles and to be on the top. But it is very difficult than to stay on the top. So you are the ones who really then once you reach there then you made it a point that you will stay. So there is a history and reason we shifted from just one type of commemoration which can only be used for once, reason we shifted to this session was to commemorate your history and I have asked controller to provide you the medals for your previous Dean’s or Rector’s, so that when you come next time you will have all of the previous ones as well. So we switch to this just last semester, for the last three semesters. The ones you received before were in the form of souvenirs, so I have asked controller to provide you for the past as well so that when you walk in next time you will have the history and that will make you more proud because that’s what we want.
And we want you to carry this when you will walk through the convocation because in convocation everyone will get the degree but you will come with all the commemorations that you would have received throughout the semester, throughout your stay here. Now what I want to say to you at this moment is that the life that Allah SWT has endowed us with comes to us only once and we are on this stage of this life only once and everyone who has walked through this stage will also get out of the stage at one time as the Steve Job has said in the convocation of Stanford’s that ‘you have only one life to live, make sure it is your life not somebody else’s life’. So you have one life to live and you have only one chance to be on the top, to be outstanding, to be exceptional.
There are no second chances in this life. Rarely you will get a second chance, it is impossible to get a third chance. So you have the chance to make the first impression only once, so that impression should be everlasting, that impression should be something that you would be proud of throughout your life. So you are good, you are outstanding, you have done it now and you have to plan your life in a way that we would see your traces throughout the rest of your life.
So once you are here, you are good in studies, make sure that you are also good in your career, make sure you are also outstanding in home, you are also exceptional in your neighborhood, you are also worthy to be emulated among your friends and make sure that you also contribute to the society better than the others.
So if you are good here, you should be good on every count, that is another challenge that I wanted to present to you that it should be in your habit and it should be in your makeup that wherever you are and whatever opportunities you will get, wherever you will be you know to do something in the arena, whatever kind, whatever time, if you are there and if you are participating then make sure that you stay on the top and nothing less than on the top should make you happy. Never satisfy yourself with something which is less than the top. So that is how you would really test yourself. It is hard work, it is a big challenge and it doesn’t come easy but once you are tuned to it, I am sure that you will find it easy.
It is difficult to try but once you are there it is easy then to maintain because you have tuned yourself accordingly in terms of your time and task management, in terms of your daily plans, in terms of your weekly plans, your monthly plans, your annual plans, your plans for 3 year, 2 year, 3 year, 5 year, 10 year. So once you get there then all what matters is what’s your plan and I have read a study where Harvard graduates were tracked in their life after graduation, after 5 year, 10 year and 15 year and they found out that the group which was on the top, what was the unique thing about them, they found out that it was that once they graduated they had a ready plan in their hands. They were clear about their goals, their objectives what they want to do in life and so they were planned.
Whatever came in their way, they knew what is relevant my plan and what is not relevant to my plan, what do I need, what is distraction for me and where should I concentrate. So it was easy for them to filter everything, they didn’t waste their energies, they didn’t allow their time to dissipate here and there, they were very focused and they concentrated where they wanted to excel. So that is one thing which made them successful and earn at least 30%, 40% more. Yes this is the era of disruption, this is the era of chaos, uncertainty, unpredictability, ambiguity and a random walk may also end up on certain great career bonanza and successes but that is rare. This world is for those who really plan for it and who really have a clear goal and then they make sure that they do what it’s necessary to achieve those goals. So this world I have seen is only for those people. So you are good.
I congratulate you on your goodness, on what you have achieved but I wish that there are more tests on your way and I wish that you don’t feel that now you are tired that yes you have achieved it, you have tested it, you have done it, you have said it and you have met the success and the happiness that comes with it, so that’s enough and now let me take it all easy. That would be retardation and that reversal would be a great loss to humanity. This humanity waiting for those, this country is waiting for those who are willing to take risks and who are willing to be lonely on the top, who are willing to undertake goals which are unachievable, goals which no one can take off and they are willing to explore and discover, and they are willing to employ their creative energies, they are willing to do hard work smarter and wiser, so that they can make this world a better place to live and contribute to humanity. So think of yourself as a contributor to the humanity, global humanity. Think of doing something which will create big change transformation.
When I was reading recently the biography of Steve Job, so when he achieved first billion-dollar mark in terms of sales, so he was always thinking in terms of what shall I produce, what shall I create in terms of products which would sell at least five billion dollar, ten billion dollar in the first year and that’s how today you see Apple is where it is.
So you changed the numbers for yourself, you change the parameters for yourself. You are sitting here today, tomorrow you maybe the earner of Nobel Prize, some great scholarships, some achievements which you would not think of now but because of your creativity and because of your consistency and because of your concentration, you will slowly drag yourself to a kind of celebration, commemoration and distinction that when you would look back you will see I never thought that I would be able to achieve that.
So this is a very serious game on the top. You are a winner now, stay like a winner throughout your life and make sure that you do something which is outstanding for this world at a global scale which will go around to 250 countries, which will impact the life of six billion, 8 billion people living in the world and which will change your country, which will change your society, which will bring goods to the people. So think at that level, at that scale and think of yourself being able to do something and feel yourself equipped, feel yourself empowered, feel yourself talented enough and feel yourself to have that potential and InshAllah you will see the world will be yours. So that is your goal and that is your ambition and that is the kind of imagination that you should have. This is a great success but it’s very small. Brave yourself and prepare yourself for a global success. Thank you.
Video # 29
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c2gDjxFo68
Topic: About ICEEES
Event: ICEEES Conference 2016
Event Date: Year 2016
Audience: N/A
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 3 Minutes and 24 Seconds
Summary:
University of Management and Technology is holding another yet one of the biggest events in the field of energy. This conference is on energy for environmental and economic sustainability. This is going to be held at hotel PC Lahore. This conference has attracted attention of practitioners and researchers from around the world. We have received hundreds of papers out of which 200 will be presented in the conference. In this respect this is one of the biggest event on energy in Pakistan. These researchers have spent their life in the field of energy and this is not just about energy it is about doing something for energy, adding energy while also remaining conscious of environmental and economic sustainability. So this is a unique dimension that this conference is going to highlight. We are very pleased that researchers from about a dozen countries are flying to Lahore to attend this conference.
This will be a platform for interaction and exchange of ideas among policymakers, business people from industry, and researchers from academia and journalists media professionals as well as in general the society. So this is the kind of interaction that is required within Pakistan to see how Pakistan can provide for its demand as well as keeping in mind the necessity to retain the competitive edge by also aligning our energy resources with the concerns for sustainability so that people, landscape, nature and the interest of our future generations is not compromised. So I think this conference is a great beginning. This is yet another mega event that UMT is bringing to the city of Lahore and we are very pleased that Chief Minister has also been informed and was invited and he has asked the Provincial Minister to open this conference. I look forward to the participation of all who are interested in this vital subject of our time to be there in the arena.
Video # 30
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxt5wlji6Rg
Topic: Issues Faced by Muslim Society
Event: International Conference on Contemporary Issues in Muslims
Event Date: Not Available
Audience: International Delegations, Faculty and Students
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail & Music in Background
Total Time of Video: 21 Minutes and 14 Seconds
Summary:
Dr Zahid Bukhari, Dr Ijaz Akram, Dr Abdul Hameed, Dr Hannan, Dr Salman, Dr Uzma, Dr Humaira, Dr Shoaib and Haseeb, Junaid and my honorable guests from Iran, Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries of the world, members of the faculty and my very dear students, ladies and gentlemen, Assalamo Alaykum. It was a very pleasant morning. We had received dozens of high intellect; high wisdom and we have gone through a discussion in which we have taken an overview of Muslim societies and also of cultures as of now in the eyes of the speakers and presenters. The idea of holding a conference on the subject is very significant. I believe that we as part of the Muslim society, we should take the responsibility and we should consider it a challenge upon us to figure out and to understand our society, the Muslim Society, to see what are the dynamics of Muslim society, what is the history of Muslim society and how history is evolving from past to present and then onwards to future. And then also to assess what is being told to us by others that who we are, why we are and what are we doing and what we should be doing and where we stand and how are we falling apart or what do we ought to do, and not only this but also prescribing us various surgical solutions, various solutions of modifications, reengineering and re-conceptualizing and reconstructing ourselves.
So I think in the past decades specially after the world have seen that Muslims have achieved independence and they have come out of colonial shells, and they are at least nominally independent within their own countries, and when the world realize that these Muslims, now that they are in their own geographical borders, they are also looking back and they are getting inspired by their own ideas about how to live in this world. And they want it and they have developed ambitions to pursue those Ideas at their own level, at their personal level, at their level of their community and now also trying for their states, for their governance to be transformed accordingly. So it is the milestone that Muslim societies have achieved in over the past few decades. And then it’s not just that they have developed ambitions and they have developed ideas, it is also compounded by the fact that they are restless and they are dissatisfied with what is being offered to them by the other alternatives outside of them and they are disenchanted with the outcomes and results that they see that how those ideologies, those philosophies and those mega narratives have worked out and there is probably a possibility and a likelihood that they may have some value which can also hold wisdom for even themselves, the others those who are outside the Muslim faith. So it is, we have reached a point where there is a great momentum of researchers and scholars, institutions, centers, academic departments, policy research institutions, individuals, media Institutions who have focused their attention on Muslim civilization, Muslim cultures and Muslim societies. And the voice of Muslims in understanding, developing the understanding about Muslims is a minority voice.
That’s my perception, it is not the main stream voice, that voice comes as a rejection or as an acceptance in response to what is being done and what is being told and what is being said. So this conference is a very humble effort, is very small effort in the city of Lahore where someone lived about 70 years back you know, and who called for revival and reconstruction of Islamic thought. Who looked at the Muslim societies and did deep diagnosis of what’s wrong, what’s good and also who inspired the young, inspired the scholars, inspired the teachers, inspired the rulers, inspired the political leaders and tried to mobilize them for the men emancipation of Muslims. So I feel that this conference is just a continuation of that trend and it is a humble effort to direct once again the attention and energies towards it and I hope that this will continue to be regular event every year. I am also very happy to see the program. When I saw the program I was really impressed by the diversity of topics.
The way the topics have been tweak, have been presented, have been tuned according to the contemporary times, I am very happy to see a new breed of research scholars who have committed themselves to think about Muslims in a single way of describing that who the Muslims are and what kind of Muslim society is. It is being entrusted upon us that we should take it that this is what we are, this is not the way the Muslim society would lend itself to be defined or explained or projected. Secondly, there is a lot that is going on which is just a perception and perception projected having some intention, having some malafide intention. So what we lack is research. We have not gone into the masses, we haven’t talk to people, we haven’t conducted extensive surveys and research, we haven’t deployed methodologies and people, we haven’t gone through the discourse, we haven’t done enough of analysis and reflection and we haven’t refined our approach as to what would suit to understand really Muslim society and capture all of its dynamics. So we have to distinguish from perceptions, from inside gains by research.
So if we are talking in academia and if we want to build the understanding and the knowledge base about Muslim society, then it’s got to be research base. It should not be taken from the media, it should not be what is coming even from the mumber or mehrab, it should be based upon objective, rational, reasoned analysis and then onwards progress of that thought in academic environment. So I believe this is what we lack and this is what we need and I’m really glad to see young minds now drifted towards it, directed towards it, incline towards it and I hope that they will have a great future working with the understanding about Muslim society, civilization and culture.
Third question is that there is something which we know, Islam as a set of principles, as a set of guidance, as a revealed knowledge base and there is something that we know about the history, the implementation of that in our history over a period of time and there is something that exist now that is in the mind of people who carries this faith as of now. I think we need to distinguish what is prescribed, how it is defined theoretically and how it exists practically and there is a gap in that. And we have to see that we do not mix the two. When we intend to understand Muslim societies and Muslim culture then we are dealing with how Muslims live, how Muslims interact, how Muslims had developed their normative and value base, how character of Muslims evolve, how they conduct their affairs in family, how they run their education, how they interact and meet socially and what is their political way of life. So it is about the real world, it is about the practical world. We are not discussing fikha or Hadith or interpretations of Quran as such here, we will have and we can have other for us to deal with that.
Here we are discussing and we’re trying to understand and we are trying to mirror the Muslim way of life as it exist now and then we can see that what is it, how is it and how beneficial it is and what’s good and what’s bad in it. Fourthly, I would say that Muslim civilization and culture does not lend itself to easy categorization. The way West would do it and has always attempted to do it for them that this is liberal, this is conservative, this is the orthodox and this is free minded, something like that. So Muslim culture, it would be wrong to use the same lenses and apply in the Muslim society, talking about any Muslim intellectual or scholar that this is liberal, this is conservative. This is wrong. We have to develop our own ranges, our own continuums, our own scales and we have to have our own way of looking at our own people, our own schools of thoughts, our own ways of understanding ourselves. So we have to detach ourselves from the existing paradigms of categorization, of bracketing, of branding and of you know naming them and blaming them and with a free mind, with an open mind we have to see and develop our own understanding about ourselves and our people. Now this is happening at a time also when we are focused, we are told that there are people out there who fear us and there is an institutional phobia running in the veins, in the Institutions and in the public sphere of many countries, in many other societies who are predominantly non-Muslims.
So we can be very defensive, we can be defensively aggressive about it and we can be rejectionist about it. So I think to have our cool and calm maintained and retained in our understanding about ourselves is also very important, that we are not be set by all those phobias and fears created about us and we are not deflected in our approach by that, we maintain our freedom in our autonomy and we pursue our interest and passion as we should, as an independent researcher, only then we will be able to find some value and wisdom and we will be able to enhance our own understanding about Muslim society. So I believe that now that we are target of many laws and rules, we understand that there are many laws and rules be enforced in many countries specifically targeting us. We are also known as people who are disadvantaged, who are underprivileged, who cannot handle themselves in this modern contemporary society, we are also known to be people who are maybe incompatible to the ways of governance and enlightenment and to the ways of the modern society which is dominant. And we are also told that may be we have so many ills and such sickness that has perpetuated in our whole body because of colonization and because of our past, because of maybe our current leadership and because of our specific teachings of our religion that we are not good enough to even live with others and coexist with others, the way others deserve to. We are not good enough to have same rights, same opportunities, we are not good enough to have the same privileges as others in the advanced countries have. So this is the framework, this is the kind of psychological influence that a researcher can get influenced by. And our job is to rid ourselves of all of these shackles and chains and adverse influences, and develop our own understanding with competence, confidence and commitment. And this is perhaps the call of the conference. I was really amazed to see the cry that was shown by Dr Salman, who wants us to be free and not just free, totally free and not just totally free, but actually totally and freshly free and I don’t have other words that comes out of his sense of freedom, and he wants us to actually start from like day zero now today, so that we can be free from the past that is so bad and that is continuing with us in our present time. And I was also very happy to see here, the language and the thoughts of Dr Ijaz Akram.
So again another effort, another initiative and another attempt to enforce upon ourselves and to induce in our mind that let us not be afraid of anything, we don’t have to detach ourselves with anything, we should not compare ourselves with anyone and we maintain our existence and solve our problems within our own self and to the extent we would do that, we will be attaching ourselves, affiliating ourselves, we would be only undermining ourselves. So again a very good call and Dr Zahid Bukhari also, of course it was very interesting to see that how different zones of culture, different shades of the ways of living have come about naturally. Since Islam is free of any notion of rays or language, any idea. This religion is free of any linkage or any roots in any race or religion. So we have a global view, a truly global view and in this global view so far 6 zones emerged as documented, he has identified 7 zones within the western countries and maybe other zones will also spring cup in future times and different zones will relate with each other, will work together and develop various kinds of blends and thinking. So Islam is a very dynamic religion and Muslims are supposed to be very dynamic society and it has been like that.
I hope that this conference will develop itself as a platform which will take forward this thinking and which will provide an opportunity to young Minds to share their views, their research and also promote innovative, original, creative and critical thinking about Muslim societies. If anyone wants to know about Muslim society and understand Muslim societies, we would like them to find the address within the Muslim world which would be sufficient for them rather than going to anywhere else, which the knowledge generated where would not be as objective, pure as what we can develop. Thank you very much. I would like to specifically express my gratitude to Dr Humera, Dr Uzma who coordinated all the efforts and lead this conference to this day. I hope that this will provide a very interesting and exciting platform to all of you. Thank you very much.
Video # 31
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYE_lAe3DY8
Topic: Internalization & Innovation
Event: Innovation and Internationalization in Pakistani Higher Education
Event Date: Not Available
Audience: International Delegation, Faculty and Students
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail, Video stuck at 01:59
Total Time of Video: 15 Minutes and 18 Seconds
Summary:
US Consul General Yuri Fidko, Dr Rebecca Fox, Dr Anna of Manoa, Mr. Waqar Ahmad, Ms. Sadia Asif, my very distinguished faculty members, very dear students, guests from outside UMT and Karen and Mary from GMU, ladies and gentlemen, Assalamo O Alaykum. It is really a pleasure for me to see this, to witness this event which is a culmination of what has been going on for the last two years rather three years. We started three years back with some guesswork, with some ideas as to what is possible and we didn’t know each other at all. There was no prior acquaintance or interaction between GMU and UMT. I met leading American delegation from intersections and US Pick and there was a doctoral student from GMU, Kelly Dalton and we briefly talked about some possibilities of training and some post possibilities in exchange and whatever, and then Waqar went to GMU and he went to United States for a conference and he went to GMU and he met Dr Rebecca Fox, and slowly the ideas took a shape and they were refined and then we had long you know Skype sessions between Dr Rebecca Fox and our team. And we arrived at a framework that what is possible. We wanted to keep the costs low and we wanted to make sure that we do something which will be sustainable and which will help not just the ones who would be directly exposed to it but also those who will be around them and would be also vying for a placement in this program but because of the limited size of the program would not be able to. So we wanted to do something which would be individual, which would have an individual track but also which will have a very important institutional track. We discussed among ourselves the range of activities, the type of interactions and whatnot and I have been also involved in that. But this scheme is really a brainchild of Dr Rebecca Fox and her team at GMU. The way they have elaborated it, the way they designed it and they the way they actually programmed it step by step is very impressive and has been quite impactful. So I would like to give credit to the team GMU for making it happen, for believing in us, and for venturing out with us and for taking it as a possibility and I would like to convey to them that it has been a big, it has been a phenomenal contribution to the quality of education at UMT and thank you very much and let’s give them a very big hand. I really didn’t expect that this scheme will be so intensive, so extensive, and so exhaustive and it will have so much within it in terms of its potential. So right now we are meeting which is the culmination of the research that has been done.
Since this is the collaboration for faculty excellence in teaching and research, so our faculty members, 40 faculty members went to GMU, they spent time there in class and training, they came back and last year we organized training workshops for the remaining faculty members and the workshop was undertaken by the GMU fellows and all 400 the remaining faculty members went through that two day three day workshop and the program of the workshop was also overseen by Dr Rebecca fox and these workshops were conducted last time. This year we are into research excellence, so the focus here now is research excellence. These 40 faculty members who were given help, support, directions and they also had an opportunity to partner with others and they have come up with a paper, they have come up with their original thoughts and I looked at the program, I looked at all the abstracts and I once again, I have to give credit to Dr Rebecca Fox for actually guiding the whole effort towards a conclusive goal.
Initially the topic, the theme of the conference came to me, it’s about internationalization and innovation so I thought okay many conferences do happen with these themes, these are two very important themes one cannot ignore them, so it’s once again an effort. And normally, Rebecca in Pakistan what happens is that the theme is on the one side, papers are on the other side. Because people say look okay this is your team and you go out funding for that theme but here is my paper and I will go with this paper, so we say okay. Theme is for instance marketing, paper is on management, alright whatever. But in this conference I was once again amazed to see that each and every paper is about internationalization and innovation. So they all beautifully highlight and converge on this theme and this is one very unique effort and I think a lot of hard work has gone prior to this to direct their distracted attention, to focus them no we don’t want what you have, we want this what you need to do for this theme, which is aligned to this theme, which is contextualized to this theme and then our faculty has I think they have worked something out, they have done their homework.
And you were really friendly to them but I am sure that you were only firm and focused on your agenda, so that is how it should be. So what we are seeing is a fruition of all that is gone and this is of course the springtime and in springtime we see, especially in the city of Lahore which is also known as the city of garden, we see that green is truly green, we see that flowers bloom and nature is irresistible and it shows its colors in full and it shine. It shows its beauty and it shows what it has and it’s only in the spring because then it changes the color.
So I think that in this spring our faculty members are showing their true colors, their potentials and we will have the benefit of their colors as well as the fragrance and the overall setting. Now how to go about it in future. As a rector, of course it is my job to make sure that things do not stop, the good things, good initiatives they do not stop and it was not about actually only the grant or the activities possible through the grant you know. We have a greater challenge within this university, as a growing University and we will take this whole thing as a seed work.
This is all a seminal work and we would build upon that in times ahead and I was already thinking that we already have in our flanks about 12 conferences and let us have this as the 13th conference to be regularly held under the auspices of Center for Teaching and Learning, and we hope we will continue to have faculty members from GMU and next time maybe we will invite you and these are the two very important enablers and drivers in higher education right now, internationalization and innovation. Since I also chair the Business Education Accreditation Council, I feel that many institutions are working in their box and they think that they are okay and they have got full enrollment, they have got faculty, they are doing reasonably good job and they are also getting the placements, so they are not bothered as to what else is required. So internationalization would bring higher education at par with international players.
Knowledge is universal, the world of work is universal, the good practices are universal and research is universal. Because you have to publish in foreign journals and you have to be evaluated by the third party you know referees. So researches and academia is also international and higher education has always been international for thousands challenges that we face. But I think things are changing and there is room, there is of years I guess. So internationalization, we lack internationalization because of the geopolitical you know now possibility, there are opportunities and we have to seize those opportunities first in higher education. Only then we will be able to help our industry. You see in industry, we are declining, our exports are declining. They have declined from 30 billion dollars to about 20 billion dollars, which means our managers, our product managers, our marketers they are not export oriented, they don’t have international exposure. So unless faculty and schools they are international, how can the other products would be international.
So we feel that this is very critical to us to see that here and in the outside world what are the possibilities of internationalization. We held about 12 conferences and you would be happy to know Yuri, that in all of these conferences there were at least two three faculty members from the United States who participated, who came to UMT and they also shared their research. So that’s one thing. I don’t know whether the group has arrived or not but today and for one week from now, there is an exchange student group from Northern Illinois University, about 10 or 12 of them, they are visiting UMT; they will be going around in Pakistan. So here is a group of American students now coming to UMT and going around in Pakistan, seeing what Pakistan is. I have heard that President Obama, President Clinton when they were studying, they also came to Pakistan as a student and they saw Pakistan.
So I think, I hope that one of these will also rise to become president so that we would have some equity in the White House next time down the road. So that’s one thing that we hope to do. We have other plans to add internationalization. So CTL would continue to work and in this summer, every summer we do some overhaul and some turnaround, so this summer let us do overhaul of our course and see how we can innovate and how we can bring international perspective and how we can bring international perspective not just in terms of content but also in terms of actual collaboration between students here and students outside across border, faculty here and faculty across border.
So a meaningful real time interaction within the ambit of the course, between us and others places. So this is what we want to do and this summer let’s do this exercise. We will continue to hold this conference once again you know, as a matter of regular conference every year. We hope that next time we will have the call for papers send out to all the universities in Pakistan. There is no other conference currently being held on this subject in Pakistan and I hope that this conference will fill that void and would divert the attention of higher education providers, higher education sponsors and higher education managers and administrators, to see what they can do for internationalization and also innovation. I thank you all once again. I am deeply indebted to the people of the United States, to the government of United States, to the State Department, to team GMU and for their willingness and for their support to us. You know Pakistan is one of the 200 plus countries and UMT is one of the 200 plus universities in Pakistan. So I think it was our good fortune and a good luck that we struck a court and we entered into a partnership and I hope that you will guide us further as to how we can develop on this. So thank you very much.
Video # 32
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1aWRIe5goU
Topic: Business School, Organizations & Students
Event: Conference
Event Date: Not Available
Audience: Students & Faculty
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail, Incomplete Start, Poor Audio Quality
Total Time of Video: 4 Minutes and 59 Seconds
Summary:
Opening words seems missing?
Integrated with the departments of human resource development for our expansions and our competitiveness in the export markets. So here is this mismatch and our business schools have to reorient themselves, they have to reengineer themselves, they have to realign themselves, they have to actually revamp themselves from their obsession with the business models and business organizations that were willing and that were upheld and that were need of the time of yester years. We have to see now what is future and how we can transfer the concepts of organizations and organizing to our youth and to our young who can exploit the export markets and right from their desktop, right from their position where they are estranged, they can find some market gap, they can arrange production and then see that the goods are transported and exported.
So I think we need to empower the youth here to enter into the export markets. We need to provide them training, we need to provide them the necessary information so that they play a role and this is how, this is what we see is happening around the world especially in the emerging markets that every individual looks across the corners, looks across the continents and then find markets and then see what our core competence and strengths are and then arrange for production and then send it. So I feel this is something that is lacking, this is something which is very challenging. We have a huge gap of foreign exchange. It is that we are indebted to those Pakistanis who work abroad and send back all their savings. It is because of them, because of the huge remittances that we are able to minimize the gap between the foreign exchange.
We get 20-24 Billion Dollars from exports and another 18-20 Billion Dollar from the remittances and that’s how we are able to put up some figure of something like 40-45 Billion Dollar against the requirements of something like 60 Billion Dollar. So I believe that we can make a great progress here, there is a gap that needs to be addressed and I think this invention to innovation once again can be avenue where we can find the opportunities to add value to whatever we are doing, whatever production capacities we have, whatever plants and industries we have already in place for which our industrialists have paid for and they are already maybe at the leverage. So this put them all, make them all functional.
Let’s try to see that how they can capitalize and leverage their strengths and their productivity or production capacity and they can then confidently go broad and then sell goods and services. Because this is what we need to do, this is what we need to do to become a transitional economy, this is what we need to do to bring prosperity to our country and this is what we need to do to provide employment opportunities to our youth in this huge, infinite you know market of international business and exports. So with this humble submission I would like to leave and I wish once again, congratulate all the players who had organized this event.
The consistency and tradition is remarkable, and we must appreciate that and the fact that it is now going out and it is not just limited to Lahore but is all over the country, that’s again a very remarkable progress and we need to see more of these conferences so that we are able to enact an ecosystem which will take care of the youth with creative potential and then huge energy that is in them and then provide them the direction and the support that is needed so that they are not just on job, but they are also in business. Thank you.
Video # 34
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bov_lr6YkA
Topic: Drug Abuse Awareness
Event: Drugs Awareness Conference
Event Date: Not Available
Audience: Guests, Faculty, Students and Press
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 15 Minutes and 51 Seconds
Summary:
Dr Zafar Iqbal, President Global NGO and Rehabilitation Center, Brigadier Khalid Mehmood Goriah, Force Commander Anti-narcotic Force Punjab, Professor and Dr Zahid Mahmood, Director of institute of Clinical Psychology UMT, my distinguished guests, members of faculty, dear students and press, Assalamo O Alaykum, warahmatullah. It is indeed a topic of extreme urgency for all of us. I’m glad that Institute of Clinical Psychology has taken a step in this direction. Already we have a society dedicated to this cause made by the students and sponsored by Office of Participant Affairs and I have been to their events in the past few years. I believe that in the realm of higher education and university, it is a serious problem that we need to watch out and we need to take appropriate actions to minimize it and to eradicate it. I have been told that there are about 8 to 9 million affectees in the age group of 18 to 35. So if let’s say a population in that age group is about 40 50 million, so that means that this is a proportion which is very high, 20 percent 15 percent proportion in that age group of where population would be around 50 60 million people. It is especially prevalent in the in areas which are slumps, maybe areas where there are only young people living together and in areas where there is less of civic structure, less of monitoring and evaluation. This is the problem that we have been trying to deal with for a long time but since as Brigadier Sb. has mentioned the supply is regularly pumped from our neighboring country. And it is very interesting to see that how Afghanistan which was a poppy free country once again transformed very quickly and swiftly into a world leader as a poppy growing country and exporting country. While there are were hundreds and thousands of troops and there was a strong vigilance and poppy is not grown inside the rooms or in the covered areas, poppy is grown outside in fields and it can be seen that it is being grown, it is being nourished, it is being nurtured, it is being cultivated, it is being supervised, it is packed and it is exported. So it really you know shocks my mind that how it happens there when it is causing menace, it is a great source of deterioration of society when a young person succumbs to it and whole family for instance depending upon the future of this young person also suffer from the consequences of this young person falling into that trap. I really can’t forget one of our young student who once was driving in Canal Road with about four or five of his friends and they met a fatal accident. Two students died and this person was saved and I saw him in crutches walking in campus and I asked him and he told me the story and he was saved, so I said that now you please thank Allah SWT for saving your life. Two of your friends who were sitting in the same car have met their death in that incidence. So you should now be grateful to Allah and make best use of the life, make value out of it. And very soon let’s say just a couple of months afterwards I found out that he died and reason was that there was a party you know in a friend’s home, parents had left for Dubai and it was free for everyone so they got together and they started experimenting with shisha, they started blending different kinds of things and they were enjoying and suddenly this guy felt short of breath and in no time he expired. So a person who met a fatal accident was then suffered death on his own hands, at his own will and meeting his desires you know in a friend’s home. So this is really sad story and there are many other cases you know maybe not of this nature but of other you know meetings, other consequences within the campus that I perhaps don’t know.
What I feel is that we need to have an integrated model, a holistic model to attack this problem. It is very good that Institute of Clinical Psychology has come to the forefront because we need guidance, we need monitoring, we need coaching, we need studies, we need to do research as to why people falls into this trap and what makes them continue. Anyone can play or experiment for once or twice you know they can try, but what makes them really then continue with it and making it a part of their life. So we need to find out what kind of contextual factors, what kind of family pressures, what kind of societal pressures, peer pressure’s lead to this addiction. There might be many studies but let us do something which is maybe UMT specific. Then we need to see that how to really address this issue. I’ve seen young people performing low, getting C after C and short attendance and F grade and reason is sometimes the depression.
Depression happens when their goals are displaced, when they have distractions, when they end up in dating and much more than what even dating is and then suffer shocks and surprises and they are not emotionally able to handle all of that. And then they some maybe even end up into drinking. So all of these D’s that I call, all of D’s they support each other, it’s a vicious cycle and first it distracts person from studies, from a straight line approach and then it step-by-step you know multiplies and it really entangles them and it destroys their life. And there are cases when I see students coming really bright faces, healthy bodies, shining eyes and ready to take up the challenges of the life and I sometimes see that in 2 year 3 year 4 year 5 year they are really like a dying plant you know, with no life, no shine, no brightness you know, no hope.
So we need to have a model whereby we can really lead them and as speaker was mentioning here, lead them towards good life, tell them what good life means, what good life holds for them and if they are out of that good life, if they are not responsible citizen of that good life with good manners, good morals, good ethics, good ambitions, good dreams and good work and self-respect and self-esteem, then what will be the result. This is one life and each minute, each hour and day and week and month is precious for all of us. And destruction in one life naturally means disturbance and eventually destruction in the lives of others who are near and about.
So every life is important and we need to really commit, have their commitment to good life, to good society, to the wellness, to the goodness of their natural being so that they are saved from this or any other destruction or any other addiction which may then destroy them and which will not help them become sure and demonstrate the best among them. So we need to take up that cause. I am really very pleased to see Institute of Clinical Psychology now as a force to support it, to rise to the occasion as a force to support it. We need anti-narcotics force, they are important, they do the job, we take pride in what they do, and they shed that life and blood when they are asked to achieve some goals. So it’s good to have them around and also share the responsibility. But as a citizen and as a person, as a human being actually it is our responsibility.
Uniform and arms and ammunitions cannot do much, they can help build infrastructure and securitized infrastructure, isolate infrastructure, insulate it and fend off the intervening and factors and the forces that are on to it and they can reverse the onslaught of externally but internally we have to defend ourselves from this, identify those who are addicted or who are seen to be indulging into it and then take some actions personally in group wise institutionally in every way possible. I have a proposal that if you also enact a helpline whereby anyone needing to help at university and also through ANF for the citizens of Pakistan, so that anyone who has a lead that this is the supplier or this is the person who is victim of this, then the reports can be made. So there is a helpline. Helpline should have three different kinds information. If they want to give information about a supplier dial 1, if they want to give information about a person who is victim dial 2, if they want to give information about something else you know 3.
So this data would go into your record and this will help us. You can pass on the information, track the person, pass information to family to institution, to other places and also then you will know more about supplier. We caught one case here when a person tried to bring it inside the gate, our guards caught the person, we went after, we asked the person who’s the supplier, we went to the home of that person, he gave us another name, we went to that place and we really tried to track the whole route and it was very hard and very tough for us. But for one I just wanted to find out that how it all happens. So we take special care. Normally in universities and schools the waiters in the cafeteria are the source, you know drivers, rickshaw drivers and those who are in pick and drop they are the source. Those who have secured passes to enter but they are externally, but they have secured passes to enter into campus for one reason or the other as a contractor or whatever, so we find them to be suppliers. So we scrutinize our waiters for this and we have taken other measures as well to see that inside the gate there is zero presence of it. Smoking is banned here and so we try to do as best as we can in order to protect the very precious resource of youth, upon whom the future of the country is critically dependent.
Thank you very much.
Video # 35
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUcnQONFfHQ
Topic: Textile Industry in Pakistan
Event: 5th International Conference on Textile and Clothing
Event Date: Not Available
Audience: Guests, Faculty and Students
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 14 Minutes and 46 Seconds
Summary:
Janab Almas Haider Sb., my very dear guests, ladies and gentlemen, students, faculty members, Assalamo O Alaykum. It is indeed a pleasure to see International Conference of Textiles and Clothing back in the arena. We missed few years but I’m glad that under the leadership of Dr Mumtaz It has come again and we will try to continue to hold it every year from now on in future. The relationship of UMT or ILM with the world of textile in Pakistan is not new. We started in this field in 1993. It was something surprising for the private sector to start programs in textiles and so far I believe out of all the institutions in private sector in the city of Lahore, UMT is the only institution having faculty as well as school in the field of textiles. In 1993 we went to textile industry, we discussed with textile professionals, textiles owners and we found that they need people who have blended expertise because by that time they were having foreman, they were having spinning managers, they were having waving managers, dyeing managers but they were not professionally trained. They rose from the ranks, they acquired the specialty and the proficiency of their skills and they were handling the affairs on the shop floor. So they needed a new breed because they were by that time getting only textiles engineers, focusing only on textile engineering from NTU.
So they needed some multidisciplinary orientation where students would have enough of the exposure and knowledge about technology, what’s going on, how to run the factory and being able to you know understand the process of textiles and also having managerial expertise, capability to develop feasibility studies, capability to develop and understand the projects and evaluate projects, run the marketing campaign, develop brands, develop wholesale and retail operations and capable of doing marketing surveys outside Pakistan. So these were the requirements of the industry, so we came up with a new program known as Bachelors in Textiles Technology Management, BTTM. So this was in contrast to Bachelors in Textile Engineering offered by Textiles University Faisalabad, at that time it was perhaps the college and then later on another college that was established in Karachi, in the area of textiles I guess.
So we received initially some resistance when our students went out because those who were not multi-disciplinary and those who were graduates of NTU, they didn’t let our graduates get jobs, you know they didn’t really welcome them although they needed them but they thought that they will outpace us, they would out place us so there was initial resistance. But our students got into the jobs and they were placed and then they did good job and I still meet those people and I find them being appreciated, being regarded, being acknowledged for their good work, for their orientation. I believe that the person who had roll number 1 is now back to us after 20 years and is doing now taking up MBA because he wants to start his own textile industry. We would meet them very often in planes and other areas where they would be traveling or working for the project. So that was our initial starting point, we started with in program innovation and we started with something that was needed by the industry and then we went on and on.
And we also developed diploma programs, focused diploma programs. Diploma in spinning, diploma in weaving, diploma in merchandising, diploma in garment production and so on so forth. And all of these about half a dozen programs, diploma programs in textiles were very popular and courses were taught by people who were hands-on, who were hands-on in these industries. So they would come in the afternoon or in the evening and they will conduct classes and they will provide hands-on information to these students, who were actually looking for career as well as may be they were also hoping to start up a business in this area. So these were times of the 90s and early 2000s and so on and so forth. Then we became university and we established this department of textiles and then school of textiles. At one time we used to have five PhDs in textiles in our own department which was the highest concentration of PhD perhaps in all over the country and we were able to have five PhDs in textiles within our own department. So I think UMT, the commitment of UMT has been there.
The production of UMT in terms of human capital has also been there in the industry and the recognition has also been there but I do feel and here is we have you know representation from Lahore Chamber, I am really pleased to welcome Mr. Almas Haider, he is very active in relating industry with academia, in relating industry with industry and he is also aware of the dynamics of the growth and evolution of industry and also very well aware of what’s going on around the city of Lahore and where we stand, he is himself of course an industrialist. So we feel that textiles today is facing pressures, is under severe pressures. Yes we have very good production of cotton, bales again maybe about 15 million bales or something would come out, Punjab has been able to hold its shares, Sindh also had flat, it was down last year but this year maybe it is back. So cotton production is there which is the input needed by the spinners and then of course onwards to weavers and the value addition industry and we can enhance cotton production of course from 15 million onwards as well. Each bale is about 470 pounds, so we I think we have done a good job in maintaining the production of cotton in our areas, although there is a shift in some of the locales where cotton was grown but now they are moving to other areas, which should be studied and which should be critically seen as to what would be the impact.
There are a few places where there is no cotton production now although there was cotton production before. So we see cotton, we see the backbone which is the production of cotton is still there for us and it can be further enhanced in terms of productivity per acre and so on so forth. We also see that in the last 10 years our textile producers have tremendously added their capacity, their talent, their potential in terms of marketing and branding and setting up wholesale and retail operations and expanding and developing a very elaborate outreach program. So that’s fundamentally very good because you are now connected with the end consumers not just here but also outside the country. So fashion designing, fashion branding and retail operations and sales, so this was not there. Earlier our textiles were spinners and weavers and they would sell cotton yarn or gray cloths and would be very happy about it. But now they are developing their own brands, they are developing their own designs, they are developing their own you know putting their own ideas into practice and they’re getting good remarks and good response from Europe and other places. So that is fundamentally very good you know and good to learn.
However I do feel that industry needs restructuring. When I went to Sri Lanka, I found out that the population of Sri Lanka is about 20 million, their exports are touching about 25-30 billion dollars. Population of Pakistan is by that way 200, exports have come down from 30 to about 20 billion dollars. So this is a huge challenge for us and we need to actually sit together and raise alarms and do really critical study and see how we can arrest this trend. Maybe next year if we do not arrest, then in three four years we can come down from 28 billion dollar to 20, in the next three four years we can go down from 20 to 15 and 10. So what’s going to happen, our imports are about 45 billion dollars. So there is this widening gap between our exports and our imports. So we need a restructuring. Bangladesh again has restructured its whole industry. The population of about 150 million people, exporting 35 billion dollar, about 75 percent more than Pakistan.
So there is something wrong, there is something we are missing, there are some deficits and there are some shortcomings and there is some real you know overhaul that is needed, some transformation is needed, some redo is needed and some rethinking is needed and unless we do that, we are worlds three, forth or five largest growers, producers of yarn but we are missing out the markets, we are being shown the gate in many different markets, in many different products for example towels, bed sheets, clothing and upholstery in United States, in Spain and other areas. Figures are really very dismal and getting more and more dismal. So our youth, they need employment and our textile is about 60-70 percent of us in terms of our business, industry, exports and everything. And one thing that I do also consider important is that we need a change of players. Previous grandmasters of textiles have opted to become other things, they are now going into other areas, they started with textile but they are now known for other things, they migrated actually, their stakes are not in textile, textile is just an add-on or a handgun or a drag on industry for them.
So I do believe that a changeover is required and I do hope that you as the students would take up textiles, would see what the needs are, would see what the demands are in the world and would develop some new ideas and would become textile entrepreneur, and would not just go for the end market where you pick up something great and then you design it, you dye it, you make it, you stitch it and then you sell it. But you also shift your attention to the processes, to the prime processes, back processes for example Jennings, spinning, weaving and so on and so forth. So I do believe that there is great demand for that. We need new players, we need new ideas, we need new industry structures and I hope that this School of Textile and Design would take care of that, showing the path of career progression as well as offering solutions for businesses startups, for entrepreneurship, for setting up enterprises in Pakistan and abroad.
A few months back a textile student came to me, he did Bachelors Textiles Technology and Management with us and in his final year he developed a project of exporting something from Pakistan, I really can’t remember so that was his project. And after having done like six seven months or a year of job, he went back to his project and he started business. So he was telling me that in that a year ago, when he came to me a year ago, he had exported goods worth 40 million rupees to UAE. So you see a small project, that goes on any way, that you would do anyway and you know made him an entrepreneur and he exported something like 45 40 million rupees already in the first year and he came to me to ask for some cooperation and he was opening an office now in Dubai. So this is how you develop yourself. I really have very good hopes, high hopes from all of you and I hope that our schools will be able to cater to your upbringing, up-gradation and your welfare and well-being in future times. Thank you.
Video # 36
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HwbM8Dqdso
Topic: SME Sector of Pakistan
Event: 2nd International SME Conference 2017
Event Date: Year 2017
Audience: International & National Delegation
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 7 Minutes and 1 Second
Summary:
Sheikh Allauddin, Minister for Industries Commerce and Investments, Dr Rebecca Fox, Dean School of Educational Leadership at GMU (George Mason University, United States), Mr. Sardar Timmis, Consul General of Turkey, Mr. Sher Ayub Khan, CEO SMEDA, and distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, Assalamo Alaykum. This is second SME conference being held in the city of Lahore. The previous conference was very successful and I can see that this conference is even has raised the standards in terms of participation, research submissions and overall interest of the stakeholders. I think that this is also an illustration of what is possible through partnership between Public and Private sector. UMT has been known for its interest in SME. Our business school from day one has focused upon the needs of SMEs and family businesses. Our business schools draw its enrollment from about 100 plus districts in Pakistan and many of them come from families who have ownership of businesses or who are active in business.
So we understand the challenges facing SME sector and we have developed human capital for the leadership of SMEs. So I think it was a great opportunity for us to be called upon by SMEDA to partner with them for conducting this kind of conference and also for publishing a research journal, and this would help both SMEDA and UMT to address the needs of the sector which is very important for us. We cannot ignore the significance of SME sector in the economy of Pakistan. SME sector is responsible for about 40 percent of GDP of Pakistan. It provides increasing number of employment every year. It is also responsible for a sizable portion of exports in Pakistan. It is a thriving and dynamic sector and if you want to see further enhancement of employment generation and if you want to see our resources deployed and capitalized upon by our young, then I think we need to do something, we need to plan for SME sector in a more efficient manner.
We have a responsibility which is for the development of the country, which is important to make this country more competitive and of course there are multinational companies, there are national companies, there is micro industry and cottage industry but SME sector is the backbone of the industry, and it is it is providing the resources in terms of capital, in terms of exports, in terms of employment generation. I think that if we if we compare ourselves from Sri Lanka, if we compare ourselves with countries around Pakistan, we can see the enormous challenge that is before us in this field. I went to Sri Lanka a few days back, a few weeks back, and I found out that there population is 20 million, there exports are touching 30 billion dollar mark. So in Pakistan we have a population of 200 million and our exports are hovering around 20 billion dollars. So we can see that this growth of business in future will come from the SME sector and this growth will come if we lay out, if we are able to lay out a plan for SME sector.
SME sectors we can see that they face challenges in planning, they face challenges in securing finances, they face challenging in developing systems for them and they face challenges in their entry into export markets and they face challenges in evolving their businesses and organizations from stage one to stage 2 to stage 3 to stage 4. So we need to develop the capacity of SME sector and this University of Management and Technology in partnership SMEDA is there to see ahead of time what are the requirements and we would do our best to develop the courses, develop the programs and to offer consulting and advisory services to the SME sector. I wish this conference a success. I can see that there is a new breed of researchers who are now directing their attention towards the issues and challenges of SME sector.
The program book shows the promise of our researchers and I hope that this input from the researchers will back up the efforts of SME sector, will help them develop new strategies, will help them understand these challenges in the market and will help them respond to those challenges in a creative manner. So I thank all the guests who have come here from industry, from government, from abroad. I thank the team of George Mason University and I thank all the business leaders of business organizations as CEOs of SMEs and I thank all these faculty members from business schools in the city of Lahore who have joined us for two days of this research conference.
Thank you very much.
Video # 38
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKrtwz9NUN0
Topic: Closing Speech of the Event
Event: 1st UMT Leadership Program
Event Date: August 8th, 2018
Audience: Faculty and Students
Issues in Video: Incomplete Start & Incomplete Ending
Total Time of Video: 4 Minutes and 10 Seconds
Summary:
Intro remarks missing
And I attest to the fact for a long time. Dr Hafeez is sitting on the back, he is also a member and we have three votes, you know. So let me just conclude the session. It started off very well with the presentation by Dr Jawad and he gave us the core values, very succinct and in a very pointed and poignant manner and I think we can take that recipe. That recipe that he has shared, we can take that and simply and in a very stupid and blunt manner we can go ahead and implement it, it is guaranteed that it will work. So thank you for that recipe. Very rightfully Dr Gulzar referred to Farabi and then Nadler and brought the two ends together, the inner and the outer, and he gave us an understanding that how we can handle the various challenges and what can be the process, how we can handle the contradictions and paradoxes and how we can differentiate in the midst of those activities that we undertake and how we can develop a coherent mindset.
So I think we can refer to that model and we can find meanings, we can develop interpretations, for you Dr Shaban also. I think that was very useful that how we can work our way forward. So that was very brilliant and I am very sorry that we could not have the time to listen to you and to see your presentation but I think in during the lunch hour we will see, we can benefit from that. Jill Sb. has also added a lot of value by I think referring to the work, the commitment and the will of the individual. So the bottom line that I could find is that he emphasized the role of the individual and how that individual can become a change agent, a transformative agent and how that individual can become a leader and develop a mindset taking a stock of the past of the history of what has been gained and what has been lost and then develop a future and how that individual can walk towards that future and take others along with him. So I feel that he has given us, he has charged us with that notion that it’s we, it’s I that is most important.
Dr Aslam gave us the model that is available, that is quality model for quality assurance and excellence and what the essential pieces that have to be addressed are and that have to come together and that have to be aligned for the vision in the institutional context. So I think that was again a very good reminder of what is essential, what is fundamental and what is basic, and as an institutional leadership, as part of institutional leadership, as Dean and chairpersons, what are the building blocks that we need to put together. Let me close by now by taking you to the outset and the onset, you know.
Video # 39
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDoVBbfZBQU
Topic: Vision, Mission & Unique Value
Event: 1st UMT Leadership Program
Event Date: August 8th, 2018
Audience: Faculty and Students
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail, Incomplete Start & Incomplete Ending
Total Time of Video: 5 Minutes and 30 Seconds
Summary:
Intro Missing
Reputation management and alumni network, advisory boards, ranking and accreditations. So it’s about identity, it’s about perception, it’s about perceptual mapping and conception of the role of the institution and then it’s a projection to various important critical segments such as faculty and the alumni network and those who are directly engaged as in various forms in advisory capacity with the University and whatever ranking in accreditation means. So for now let’s leave ranking and accreditation because then it would be too mechanical and there is nothing to talk about because these are given and we don’t have much of leeway, much of capacity or opportunity to intervene right now. So let’s focus on vision, mission, unique value, reputation and how we can create and shape our identity and how we can infuse a spirit within our roles. Faculty routine is repetitive, it’s cyclical, it’s circular, it’s very linear and it’s it can become very boring.
You could just teach maybe in science or in many other areas, so you do one thing, you have one office and it’s a lifetime engagement, so there’s not much of change going around, you know coming to you. Unlike the role of other leaders like a leader of a political party or leader of any other popular any moment or social movement. So here we are trying to bring in leadership to the role of faculty and they are never seen as very proactive, dynamic, enterprising, fast forward or things like that. So the normal perception is that there is still and they are tuned to their own areas and they are bookish things like that.
So this is very important idea that we would like to touch upon today. Second is managing revenues cost and raising funds, so certainly everything boils down to resources and if you want to have good faculty, we need resources to have good faculty, if you want to retain good faculty then we need to have increments and promotions built into their roles and incentives and rewards also built into their you know roles and give them a trajectory for their onwards progress. So all of that is manageable only if we can have revenues, sufficient resources and we do things it means which have utility, things which have relevance, things which are in demand, things for which someone is ready to pay, things which are needed and things which are critical for which there is a portion or a fraction of scarce resources can be made available by a third party. So that’s also certainly, if we want to build reputation, if you want to have a spirit, if you want to have identity it’s not because we want to write some poems and we want to have others appreciate the prose, poem and otherwise good thoughts and ideas.
We want to do some meaningful business. We are here about business right. By business I mean there is a function, there is an institution, an institution has to sustain and there is existential challenge that we face as an individual, as well as an institution, as a department, as a program, as a faculty and as a custodian of the institution. So I think for that of course we need to see and evaluate how we can be the part of that meaningful transfer of resources from society to the institution and we build reputation and identity in a way that would convert that projection into engagement and interaction and the survival and growth of the institution. So I think it was very brilliantly thought off to bring that. It is a little bit crude but I’m glad that it has been pointed out here at the end. So I think there are two sides of the role and identity and I am very happy, delighted to see that we have some really outstanding panelists here with us.
Speech seems Incomplete from intro to end
Video # 40
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZLrJcSeROc
Topic: Role of Pak-Turk Center
Event: Pak-Turk Studies Center Establishment
Event Date: Not Available
Audience: International Delegation, Faculty and Students
Issues in Video: Incomplete Start & Poor Audio Quality
Total Time of Video: 1 Minute and 56 Seconds
Summary:
So this is not just one person. Whoever I met, wherever I went, whichever organization I visited, they have the same feelings. So we have a very strong bond, very strong relationship that goes back into history. So I met Ambassador Babar in Islamabad two three times and we had long discussions as to how the university can work with universities in Turkey and what we need to do. So we have a plan to engage you for this, through this center and arrange your visits to Turkey. We have plans to bring Turkish students here. Already Turkish students have spent summer here and many Turkish students are also enrolled here.
We have plans to have joint research projects with faculty and many other things. General Jawad Hassan has been living in Turkey, he has served in Turkey, he knows Turkey, he can speak Turkish language so otherwise for me I just suffice to say that ‘Zabaan-e yaar Turkie, wa mun Turkie nami daanum’. So for me that’s enough but he can really speak and establish communication. So I think this center has able command, command and control leadership. And I hope that you will all benefit and it will help to bring Pakistan and Turkey together InshAllah and as a brother and as a partner in this world. Thank you very much.
Video # 41
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s89SkAicVvk
Topic: Global Importance of Islamic Banking and Finance
Event: Islamic Banking and Finance Conference
Event Date: Not Available
Audience: Faculty and Students
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail, Incomplete Start, Poor Audio Quality
Total Time of Video: 19 Minutes and 7 Seconds
Summary:
Intro Missing
It was supposed to be, they were supposed to be living in foolish paradise and they were choked, they were mocked but it wasn’t wise being reinforced by the belief, reinforced by the deep knowledge and I have seen that since then how it has grown, how it has taken a shape. Those who were the stubborn marks, those who were the pioneers, those were the chief architect of this revolution of social justice, of Islamic economics and banking. And I could see their enthusiasm. I could see they were in mature years, they were experienced in the world of finance, world based on interest and they were crying for a change, they could see the crisis booming in the horizon. So ladies and gentleman my mind was back to it and I feel that there is a challenge still out there and yes we have taken small steps, yes there are success stories, yes now there are central banks regulating it, accepting it, acknowledging it, giving it a shape, the mechanics are being improved and refined, there are good amount of scholarly research going into it, there is research and feedback coming from the institutions to give to Islamic bank.
All of that has taken a moment and all of that has become a magnet because recent series of financial crisis, endless financial crisis of various forms is going to draw the attention of even secular minded, professional bankers towards Islamic banking. There is need of the hour, we are lacking behind, we haven’t done what was required to do, we are still shy of going all out for Islamic economics, our progress and our rate of improvement is very small. So I would like to draw attention of whoever is here, there are students doing research, there are teachers teaching about Islamic economics, there are bankers, there are scholars, that we all as stakeholders have to come together and build the movement and taking to 90% is rightly said by Dr Amjad Sb. So this is what we need to do. We need to marshal our resources, mobilize our talent and focus upon it heartedly not as an add-on, not as a window, not just as a patch in the landscape of finance and banking. If it is ceiling one something trillion dollar or two trillion dollar, or going to be five, the world of finance is about hundred plus trillion dollars. We would have to add more percent, what’s that. So it is time that we take aggressive steps forward.
Then I experienced that I have been talking to finance, to people in finance and banking and thinking about how to transform it. We haven’t yet transformed it, we have adopted, we have kind of this is a kind of adaptation that is going through, this is a kind of hybrid system, we are in mode of evolution yes, I value the steps that we have taken, I value the change of direction, I value the things that are positive and I’m optimist but still I will call it adaptation, I wouldn’t call it transformation, I wouldn’t call it whole hearted movement in the right direction. This is not what I feel and I could sense reading about Islamic economics. And this is what my one concern is within this Islamic finance, we need to focus again in the domain of Islamic economics. Islamic finance is based upon the philosophy, the ideology to deem the principles of Islamic economics. I mean to get back to Islamic economics and rehearse and refresh ourselves with the lessons. I feel and I said that I have been talking to people about it, I talked to SMA Ashraf who was first to introduce Islamic Finance instruments in national investment trust (NIT) in 1980s.
I talked to Ishrat Hussain who was the first when there was a stock of enlighten moderation, he was bold enough and courageous enough as the head of the bank to introduce and to propose to General Musharraf that why don’t we regulate it and why don’t we start it and that would be start of nationwide Islamic banking, full fledge Islamic banking. So we need to first, I would like to remind ourselves that how can we be successful. Number one, Islamic financial and banking is based upon God fearing attitude, God pleasing attitude, and God abiding attitude. If we miss that and if we are looking at bottom line and if we looking here and there, the things won’t work. So it is laden and it is latent that it is carved in God-fearing attitude that it is to please Allah first of all, it is to respond to the call and it is to align yourself with the power and sovereignty of Allah SWT. So this is the first, if we miss that nothing is going to happen. If we are summoned by the greed and if we are comparing the rates today of the commercial bank and Islamic bank and then we get the attitude that oh the Islamic bank sacrificed the 1% of the commercial bank and go to Islamic bank and put pressure on the officers of Islamic bank that look I am here to compromise. I’m sacrificing that one two percent that I could have got from the commercial bank.
So this kind of attitude and if the officers too are entrenched in their mind with realm of commercial banking and now opposing as an officer of Islamic banking, it won’t succeed unless there’s a drastic change in that attitude. So God fearing, God pleasing God abiding. So I found this is the key, this is the starting point. Second, as very rightly pointed out again by Dr Saqib and Mr. Khalil-ur-Rehman as well, Islamic Finance and Islamic Economics to my mind is about to society, the growth of society, the trust within society, collaborative actions, networks, sincerity, mutual kindness. So it is about mutual sincerity. So I find that the purpose of Islamic Banking as such is not to give low or take low, it is to help people achieve prosperity together, codetermination, co-prosperity, mutual sincerity and kindness, mutual support and help. This is what it is all about. So unless that philosophy is not there and this philosophy can intake a root, it is highly profitable to exercise mutual kindness in terms of the bottom line profit. It is highly profitable to be selfless and yet be there and achieve more. So it is something like that, it is business concerning, it is entity, enterprise, it is profit, it is survival, it is competition yes but then it is also collaboration, it is trust, it is sincerity and it is mutual kindness. Third, the first verse of Quran is “People who spend” that’s how we translate but watch out.
This “spend’ is guarded by number one advice in the Quran that indulgence is not right, Israab is not right, excessive indulgences is not right, excessive expenditure is not right. Second Tabseer, “God is not friendly with those who spend in wrong habits, it might be useful or it might be right, might not be haram but it is not very well liked or appreciated. So it is guarded by Israab on one hand and Tabseer on the other hand. If it is so, then what is left? It is about investment, I feel. Because otherwise expenditure to live by remains very little. So it is about investment, targeted growth and so I found the word ‘Yunfikoon” has special meaning and “Sadqaat” has a special meaning, “Zakaat” has a special meaning. So this is where Islamic Economics and Finance must evolve, must find new ways to grow. There is tremendous and far going on and there is all along you know people helping others. It has to be institutionalized that private activity and private work can be institutionalized that can offer better you know safer transactions. Fourth, my submission is that if it is about society then it will be framed from distracted growth, short-sighted distracted growth, GNP growth, Inflation growth, consumption growth, production growth, consumer growth, all of that modern day marketing and selling is all about. We have to guard ourself from that. So Islamic Banking and Finance is a responsible investment, is a responsible transaction, and is accountable so it will automatically safeguard us from that vein of distracted growth. Fifth, it will save us from financial crisis.
The total value of the world’ assets is about 200 trillion dollars, the total value of financial instruments playing around on the basis of those real assets is 2200 times that. So where it is heading is, you can judge yourself. So basic purpose of Islamic banking is to save us from that. Sixth is entrepreneurship. Islamic banking and finance is about entrepreneurship. The guy who walks out with clean hands, clean slate, with clear life so far with no background, no business profile is also a diamond, maybe a dynamite, is something not to be rejected not to be shown the gate but to be entered with, to be interact with. So entrepreneurship is something that requires Islamic Finance because here we have all the benefits that we can offer to those entrepreneurs.
Now lastly I would like to suggest that, there was a comment on the shariah thought. I would like to suggest that instead of having one shariah advisor being paid by the bank, we can have about hundreds shariah advisers recognized, certified and paid by the central bank. And central bank gets something from the banks and all. So that shariah advisors are there and banks whoever needs shariah advisors approaches to central bank and central bank can then find a person who can deal with them. Or we have instead of single person, we have shariah bureaus, we have shariah advocacy through in the form of bureaus, counselors, so that there is a practice, there is a collective memory and there is collective responsibility instead of having just one person. So that can improve the quality of shariah advisors and it can also help bridge between the management who is running it and conducting the affairs and shariah advisors who are reference and a source for the decision making. I would like to also draw the attention of the central bank on the intermediary and low-level Islamic finance because right now that is missing.
We have Islamic Finance leading banks. In order to set up a Islamic bank you need to have about 10 Billion Rupees capital. If you want to promote it in streets, in residential areas, in bazars, in mosques and in traders where markets are, I think we need to promote the mechanism where intermediary level of financial institutions working around the principles of Islamic finance, found a way to live to initiate their activity and survive without being robbed by the big players. We need to protect them. They don’t have the support of the lender of the last resource at the moment. Since I am also heading in Modarba, so I experienced that. That this is a tremendous institution, it is elasticity, it can scale up 100 million rupees, there’s nothing that stops it from going but it has no support of lender of large scale. So that is restricting it, narrowing it down and then is not helping it while the banks having the support of that earns the trust and gets the deposits and move on. So they are locked jam. They have no way to grow, progress because they are pretty much secure only to the extent that they actually sponsors have you know provided in the form of equity. So I believe that this thinking should go on.
It is very challenging area, very exciting. It is a highest form of worship that is to provide leadership to the world, the future leadership of the world will be in the hands of those who will introduce to the world a system based upon societal happiness, everlasting happiness, societal justice and reduce occurrence of this crisis and an endorsement of assets and whatever society has earned periodically. Thank you very much Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman for being with us. It is an honor to receive you at UMT. You have made a historical decision. I pray that our decision remains the guideline for the future juries, your name will forever be in the juries of Islam who have taken a bold step of not just making a decision but making that decision based upon exotic and expensive research. I thank you all the guests and I thank you all.
Video # 42
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtSmM_YhyC8
Topic: Linear and Nonlinear Causality
Event: IWNAAP 2016
Event Date: Year 2016
Audience: Chairperson PHEC, Faculty and Students
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 7 Minutes and 17 Seconds
Summary:
Intro Missing
Let me dwell upon this topic from my own perspective which is management perspective. We in management to deal with the affairs, with events and with happenings and how events unfold in human life and society, and we try to determine the causality and we found that causality is multi-level, multi-dimensional, multi-perspective and causality is not just direct but also indirect and causality may not be correlational but it can be randomly, very randomly relational. So normally in our thinking we arrive at the linear based correlational subjective notion of causality. We really fail to recognize the pattern of causality and the overall interlace of systems which increases the complexity of analysis and how systems at various levels are linked with each other, they are embedded into each other and they are induced by the actions and reactions happening all around. So that is the world of chaos and which let management practitioners to assume that we are living in the chaotic world and in this chaotic world there is no stability, there is no unidirectional linear you know causality. So we are dealing with all the time nonlinear causality and nonlinear patterns and nonlinear is a very simplistic notion.
Actually by nonlinear we mean that it’s an open-ended thing. But within this thinking there emerged recently something which is very interesting and is that ok this is nonlinear and it can be very complex, it can be chaotic but there are at various levels, from various levels and various points, you can determine some patterns over a period of time and you can just have to find your right coordinates from where you will see the chain of events and then you can see the patterns like climate. So what we found out and what is the current idea is that there is no linearity or non-linearity what not but actually deep down at the core and from the point where you can really capture the reality as it unfolds, there is a tendency to assume singularity. So there is an idea of singularity. We diverge, we dissipate, everything seems to be fractured and unrelated but then things do converge somewhere and there is some singularity and then there is some flow in a direction.
So this has become now a point of analysis and people are trying to find out how to find, how to deal with this chaos and to find out singularity so that we can really understand the causality and our computational mathematics, the tremendous power of computers that is available to us has allowed us this power to analyze things which we never used to have. So in social sciences Dr Nizam would agree that like you know history has been written by many in many different ways, histories have always been about wars and down, rise and fall of Empires and things like that but Karl Marx came up with the unique idea that this is how history marches on, there is this contest between two sections of the society and this is how there is action and reaction and this is how history progresses a deterministic model of a very complex phenomena which is in human history and that understanding of history has worked for some extent for many things and that has opened new vistas and analysis and understanding and provided us new frameworks to then go in deeper and we can get more enriched.
So with these thoughts I once again, I welcome once again with the depth of my heart, my very good friend, colleague and a man who now has assumed the leadership of higher education in Punjab Dr Nizam, who was previously Vice Chancellor of University of Gujrat. Sir I am deeply indebted to you that you consider UMT as your home and you are always here whenever we give you a call and I mean we really rely upon you and we feel that our invitation would never be missed by you, so we have taken it for granted somehow. And I really welcome my very distinguished guests from South Korea and South Africa both countries and I’m sure that there are guests from other universities from Lahore and outside Lahore.
Video # 43
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqUyTmF4Pn0
Topic: Lack of PhDs in Pakistan
Event: SACDOC 2016
Event Date: Year 2016
Audience: International Delegations
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail, Low Audio, Speech is Missing at 02:58
Total Time of Video: 20 Minutes and 6 Seconds
Summary:
Let me say first of all a heartiest welcome to all of you this morning. This event is first of its kind and it’s a unique setting. We have gathered here to discuss the doctoral programs and we are discussing it in Lahore so naturally there is more representation from Pakistan then other places. The idea was finalized in AMDISA two years back and I take responsibility for forwarding this idea and as the story goes in Urdu that there were three friends sleeping in a room and there was a knock on the door. So first knock, second knock, third knock, nobody responded but then eventually someone said look there’s a knock on the door, so the other two said since you have said it now you go and open the door. So I think I suffered because of it. There is another having told where someone was drawn, was thrown to see, to rescue a baby and he did rescue the baby so everybody congratulated that look you have done a wonderful job and risked your life to rescue a baby. He said tell me who threw me to the sea, first tell me.
I like to take a very brief you know break in my thoughts and would like to welcome our guests from abroad. This is the first time that we have someone from Russia you know coming to Lahore and participating from business schools. I believe in the history of business education this is the first link and there are many other similar links that we can see. So I would request our foreign guests who have come across the border to please rise and introduce yourself your name your institution and your country. Thank you very much, if I would start from the first row please.
There are 206 degree programs currently being offered under these 102 institutions. Total accredited institutions numbered about 35. What we might want to note is that the number of PhD faculties in these 102 institutions is in all just 450. So we have 4.5 PhD faculty members per institution and number of PhD programs as you know in our 35 business schools in Pakistan are currently offering PhD programs. Not all these 450 PhD degree holders are not concentrated among these 35, of course they are spread all over 102. So business schools are constrained by the availability of faculty and they lack faculty to teach MBA and BBA degrees and they lack even more if they were to take offering PhD programs. Yet motivated by the forces of, compelling forces of constraints, they took the bold initiative of offering PhD program because that is the only way out.
So they have started to offer PhD programs to make themselves more self-reliant. Yes they can wait that in the normal course of circumstances MBAs would graduate and then some of them would be motivated to go to academia, they would opt for PhD programs abroad, they would go, they would complete their doctoral studies and dutifully they would return back to their homelands and join the business schools. It happens but it doesn’t happen at a pace that is required of the schools. So business schools have no choice but to work with the limited resources they have and lay down the foundations of a PhD program. This beauty program certainly has no strengths as well as weaknesses. Pretty much the situation all over South Asia is quite the same. So there is realization that we need to come together, we need to share our experiences, exchange our thoughts and look into the state of doctoral studies, the current affairs of doctoral programs and see what can we do together to refine them, to improve what we have and to better respond to the stakeholders.
Now doctoral faculty is in short supply all over the world. AACSB reports that each doctoral successful graduate has at least six offers even within United States. If you add to that the requirements of doctoral faculty all over the world then the number increases to about 10 or 12. So doctoral faculty is in short supply and to have doctoral faculty to teach BBA, MBA and also to act as backbone of doctoral programs is certainly a tremendous challenge and expectations from that very limited short supply already under heavily stressed. So the expectations have to be met by doing something extraordinary and doing something out of the box and by taking some bold actions. So these 35 institutions have taken a step forward. They could have feared the risks and they could have shown reluctance and they could have shied away from taking this step to protect their repute and maybe not to embarrass themselves down the road but I believe that let’s take it positively that there is no other way out.
Business schools, the situation of the business schools will always remain the same. So we need to take advantage of these 35 programs in Pakistan. We need to build them and we need to give them confidence and we need to do something to build their capacity and we need to help them and support them and reinforce them so that they can do a better job. So this is the idea of this South Asian colloquium and when I put forward this idea at the AMDISA board, everybody immediately agreed upon it and the onus fell upon me to hold the first of this kind in Lahore. I’m sure the next one, next year would be in India and so on so forth. So when we will move into different countries, we would have more representation from within the country and we will have more sharing from within that country and that would add value again.
Now another very important dimension is that the job of business schools is to prepare business leaders. The job, the preoccupation of business schools is to develop human capital for business and industry. Now when the key members, their prime faculty is limited to PhD programs then the main primary preoccupation suffers. Because then those courses at undergrad level and grad level are taken up by simple MS MPhil and they don’t get to be taught by senior PhD faculty members. Now PhD faculty members we know what they receive in terms of compensation and benefits and what is the proportion of that compensation benefits in the overall scheme of budget of compensation and benefits. Now since the rollover effect of that investment would take time, if three four five PD members are spending their time and investing their energies and focusing upon just a few PhD students and their courses it would take like five to seven years to see them graduate and then taking on further the responsibility.
So there is this delay for five to seven years in this investment and business schools need patience and I can see that business schools are going forward that route. But when I talk to MBAs I see that they have a grievance. And that now these business schools are no more, they are looking like a professional education centers or professional education like law or medicine. So business schools now their faculty is also required to publish, so they have to lock themselves. They have to spend more time reading, more time writing and more time going to the conferences. So their detachment from their business, from their regular MBA programs and BBA programs, their detachment from business and industry is costing business schools their identity and partly also it is reducing the satisfaction of the primary stakeholders, employers and MBA degree seekers. So this is something that of course needs to be balanced and I’m sharing this as a kickoff question.
Now one advantage of this program is that job of academia and especially the universities is to create new knowledge. A new knowledge based upon their context and new knowledge about the problems, issues, challenging facing business and industry within the environment. So I think here is a benefit that can be drawn into the teaching of business courses that no more business schools would limit themselves to the leading test books taught in America or North America or Europe due to knowledge creation cycles running within MS, MPhil programs, their courses, PhD courses, PhD dissertation, MS MPhil thesis. This new knowledge is about within their own context and this is something within which business schools can create their own niche and uniqueness and they can get also published in foreign journals. So here is this great value that can be added through these doctoral programs and MS MPhil programs.
When business doctoral students and MS MPhil students would go around their business and industry and find out the problems and develop their papers accordingly, so this is something which is I believe that you know which is there, we can see some progress, we can see lots of conferences now going on, we can see young you know researchers coming up with papers you know focusing on themes within the local context. So there is this progress, this is perforce progress. There is no budget for that, almost no budget. And here is another challenge that corporate sector hasn’t yet shown its trust that research in business school would add to their outcomes. So this relationship between research and teaching within business schools and their business outcomes is not yet clear to them. So of course government will never fund this research within business schools, there is very limited scarce funding for them. It would be primarily private sector and private sector hasn’t come forward to the extent it is required.
So now poor students interacting with heavily stressed faculty, PhD faculty with no budget to develop innovative, creative, brilliant research ideas and pursue their papers and then in an attempt to achieve respect and repute by publishing in foreign journals and impact factor journals, indexed journals which is required by HEC. So this is the biggest challenge and Dr Shahid is very kind and generous that there is no fee for doctoral programs but in other places there is a fee also so poor students also pay for doctoral programs. Many of them are also on job because they are not in the midlife but pre midlife. They graduated like four five years six years back, they have family you know, increasing numbers within the family and they have got the burdens to shoulder within the broader family and yet there is this aspiration that I have to be PhD if I want to commit myself to academia. So I think the commitment is tremendous. I can see these students active from early morning to late at night. They are on job in morning within the institution or outside, they’re within the academia four courses, they’re doing work, they’re reading, they’re writing. But that commitment has to be properly backed up, supportive and channeled. And if we would be late it would not give us the results we want.
Now another two small issues that we need to keep in mind is that those who go for PhD programs have taken MBA, most of them have taken an MBA degree before or some kind of a MS or MPhil. Those who come to this from MBA, holding MBA degree, they have interest and enthusiasm to do PhD and they meet the requirement, eligibility requirement but they are not really good at research, they haven’t gone through any research based course within MBA. It was mostly theory or case studies. So they lack the exposure to research, they are not refined, they are not accustomed to reading you know articles from research journals. So it takes time to turn them into a pure, proper, full blown researcher. It takes time. It’s a challenge and there is a lot of work that needs to be done to develop foundation in them.
And same is true for most of the faculty members within business schools. Business schools’ faculty members have a lot. They have to teach number of courses and business schools are about business, business of the university, business of the institution, they are expected to generate resources so that universities and institutions can survive. Universities cannot raise as much revenue from other disciplines. So the burden is upon the business schools. Slowly I think because of NBEAC there is this change where Business School leadership is now not anymore so amiable to the dictates of the university you know leadership and they are wanting more share of the resources so that they can spend more within the business school to hire more faculty, to provide better resources. But this is a slow process and business schools have to develop a turnaround strategy for faculty to make them more productive in PhD program.
With these few words I would like to open this workshop. We have a whole day with us. It’s going to be very interesting, it’s first of its kind and we look forward to your frank opinions, your ideas. We didn’t want it to be like this, we wanted it to be a u-shape so that we can really crisscross and exchange our views freely and discuss. But I was told that this is only how it was possible. So we would try to overcome this gap that is within the audience and the people in the stage is there and feel free to say whatever you want to say. This is very important. We are reporting everything. The proceedings would be recorded and also shared and published. Thank you very much.
Video # 44
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5vOkfG-17Y
Topic: Convocation Speech
Event: 13th UMT Convocation
Event Date: Year 2016
Audience: Faculty, Students and Parents
Issues in Video: Incomplete Start,
Total Time of Video: 10 Minutes and 38 Seconds
Summary:
Intro Missing
Not just doing what is necessary but we are making in attempt, a collaborative attempt, a creative attempt, in an incessant attempt to do it in a better way, the way it should be done, the way it is ought to be done, the way it is being done by the best. So our journey now is towards excellence, our journey is now marked by our motivation to excel and to do it in a prominent manner so that we become happier and more fulfilled in doing what we are doing. In that attempt we have now with us a momentum, a great momentum of about 11,000 students who are currently enrolled in more than 160 degree programs at undergraduate, masters and doctoral level, and their search for new knowledge, their search to find their best and their endeavors to develop themselves is being supported, facilitated, enabled by about 602 members of teaching staff out of which about 450 are full-time faculty members here at UMT. If there is one thing that I always say and let me reiterate that if there is one thing that makes me really proud of UMT it is the company of those great members of faculty who are with us.
I’d be very happy, I feel delighted and I am glad and they always amaze me with their good work and that’s why not only number but their quality is also increasing day by day. So this critical mass of people is then organized around 11 schools, 13 schools, 4 Institutes, 11 centers and 26 academic departments. So this is a huge general University size of a large scale University. So we have the individuals on the one hand and enterprises and entities and structure on the other hand, and then the both of them interact with each other to disseminate the knowledge. Every semester we conduct teaching for more than 1,200 courses per semester and then our activity is not just limited to teaching but also research and our faculty members in the last year have produced 161 research papers and they have made 94 presentations in various conferences and then they join hands to produce six journals and they have also not just presented it in Pakistan or published in Pakistan but also in journals and conferences abroad. So this is what we are doing.
This is what that is happening and you can imagine the size and magnitude of this learning activity that goes on within the boundary of UMT. So we have taken care of a design that would be suitable for learning. So we spent time in the architecture of that learning process and we spent time in seeing through that it is customized, that it achieves its intended objectives and that it captures the best of the world, and we try to be innovative, creative and we always allude to the cutting edge learning processes, learning frameworks and learning styles that are adopted by the best in the world. So that is our constant focus to develop a new learning architecture which is unique, which is UMT specific and which is the best in the world and even better than that.
Next, we conceive UMT as a proactive hub and platform to integrate business and academia as well as the government, the non-governmental and social sector. We are not bound within our boundaries. We reach out and we extend our services to the world outside UMT, whether it is business, the world of business, the world of corporations, the world of SMEs, the world of mega corporations or whether it’s the world of government and governmental services or non-governmental organizations. We make an attempt to bring them to UMT and we outreach them. Our projects, our faculty are engaged outside UMT as well to deliver what is needed. So UMT is not something which is a boxed institution and which is limited to and confined to its box. It’s an institution which is spread all over and whatever good can come out of us to the world outside, we are always there to share it. And then UMT is not just local but it’s also global. We are a global connector, we are part of global organizations, we are part of global initiatives and our faculty at least about 100 faculty members travel outside Pakistan to present, to participate and to interact.
And lastly you would see that UMT is a responsible player. We are aware of our responsibilities. We can see that what is needed. We are not limited to the disciplines where there is demand but we also extend academics to the places, to the disciplines where it is needed. So we have recently spent huge amount to construct textile facility, building for textiles and we know that Pakistan is in problem in textile and Pakistan needs quality human capital. So we are spending in cut in the field of textiles. We are all aware of our decline in agriculture, so we have initiated a school in the field of Agriculture and Food Sciences and it will start offering its programs from next year. So we look at what is needed and we look at what is the demand of the country and how we can contribute to the economy of Pakistan and then we try our best to respond to those challenges. My dear graduates, I’ve taken sufficient time and at the end I would only wish you success in your career. I’ve already shared with you some of my suggestions and advices last night and I would like you to think of yourself as an entity, as autonomous entity.
I would like you to have a vision for yourself and I would like you to respond to your passions, your interests and I would like to see you continuously growing and marching forward and I would like UMT graduates to be truthful, to be just, to be collaborative, to be creative, to be critical and I would like UMT graduates to be open to the world, to be a global citizen, to be futuristic and I hope that with what you know, with what you have and where you stand now, the world is yours and you will do well in the time to come. I congratulate parents, I congratulate faculty and I congratulate all of those who made it happen and who did everything. I would like to be thankful to all, to everyone who did everything that was needed to see this convocation being convened successfully. Thank you very much.
Video # 45
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpOY1Sctnz0
Topic: UMT Achievements
Event: 12th UMT Convocation
Event Date: Year 2016
Audience: Faculty, Students and Parents
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail, Incomplete Start
Total Time of Video: 14 Minute and 31 Seconds
Summary:
Intro Missing
We felt so good with you, with all of you in your company but yes you have a challenge. You were here to receive your education and then to go back to the work and go back to your careers. So once again I would like to say with the gratitude to Allah SWT that UMT has grown over the last couple of years. Today we have 10,000 students who are seeking knowledge in it’s about 75 classrooms. We have a sub campus in Sialkot and we have maintained faculty-student ratio of about one to 20. We have 453 full-time faculty members with us now, among whom there are 125 who holds PhDs. There are 10 schools, 4institutions, 6 centers, about 27 departments and we offer a wide range of programs from Social Sciences to Engineering and Technology, to Sciences, to Business Administration, to Law and to Advanced Studies with textiles and design. So we have about 57 BS degrees, 21 master degrees, 57 MS MPhil degrees and about 17 PhD programs. Our student body is representative of the country. This is city of Lahore and Lahore attracts young minds from all over the country.
We are blessed with people who come to us from interior Sindh from as far as even Turbat and other remote areas of Baluchistan. We have people from KPK, from Gilgit and Baltistan, from interior Punjab and yes also from Lahore, which is about sixty percent. And we get enrollment from expatriate Pakistanis. They come to us from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Muscat and other countries in the Gulf. So we hope that this nationwide representation makes it a very cohesive community and people share with each other, they get exposure to varieties of culture and languages, and this is all part of learning. We hope that University in future years would consolidate as its position. We have achieved our formation of disciplines and now we are focusing with great deal on quality of education. We are consistently pursuing our vision and mission which is leading and learning. And in order to do that we have laid down a methodology of assessment which is based upon the principles of transformative learning. There is a work that is done in class, there is a work that is done by the participants at home and there is a work that they do in groups, there is a work that they do when they meet with those who are in the real world and there is a work that they do when they go to libraries. So we try to connect the self of our participants with the needs of our society.
We try to create opportunities for engagement interaction and we try to create a whole person. Our objective is not just to limit ourselves to transferring the bookish knowledge but we try to create a person who is developed holistically and when walks out, walks away with their whole persona which is developed. Our academic structure, our processes and purpose all are aligned to these objectives. Our faculty play a leadership role. We have 453 of them and they are complemented by about 50 to 10 part-time who join us every semester. We have been blessed by very good faculty. They are very devoted to their work and they are here for a long time and they are fully committed to excellence. We have also provided the infrastructure which is as best as possible and we are continuously expanding. The new building of schools of textile and design is already half way and we hope that it will be completed late this year or early next year. We are soon going to start separate buildings for Schools of Health Sciences and School of Business and Economics and School of Social Sciences and Humanities. Architects are working on drawings for these buildings. We have focused upon generating new knowledge and advancing the current knowledge.
Today we have developed a research ecosystem which includes 10 journals out of which 5 have already been published and 5 would be publishing their first issues this year. Our faculty received grants from working with other academia and also industries. We have to our credit in the last year 70 articles which are recognized by Higher Education Commission out of which 41 have impact factors. We have doubled our research output in one year. Our library is very well equipped with 17 databases offering 30,000 journals. Our library has received 11 collections from people who maintain their own libraries but then they handed over the libraries to UMT. Our alumni are a source of inspiration for us. When we go and meet them they are active all over the country in all major cities and they are active in multinationals and national companies and especially SMEs.
They are here in Pakistan and they are also spread out to about 200 countries outside Pakistan. We feel that they are all united by their vision. They all are committed to carry forward what they have learned and they remain highly connected, deeply in touch with what’s going on in UMT. Internationalization has been another focus. We have right now as I speak to you ladies and gentlemen, as of now there are 20 members of our faculty who are on board in here bound for Washington DC. They would be starting their training programs at George Mason University and another for two weeks, and another batch of about 20 faculty members would be following up in the month of September. We are grateful to the State Department of United States for providing funding for this faculty development and training.
We have established Institute of Knowledge and Leadership in Dubai and it is soon going to start its training programs. We have conducted a few programs in which faculty of UMT has offered courses and we have received very good feedback. There were you know in attendance, there were people from all nationalities from United States, from India, from the Arab world, from Iran, from Turkey, from Philippines, from Bangladesh and from North Africa. So we feel that IKL in Dubai will provide our faculty international exposure and we will connect with the corporate world in the region. UMT has also opened its office in Ankara.
We hope that based in Ankara we will be able to interact with European companies and we will be able to offer executive development programs in Istanbul and we hope that people from the Europe and United Kingdom would be able to join us and our faculty once again will also have European exposure. We also have started offering partnerships in teaching. About a dozen courses received foreign teachers at UMT and this month there is another new at UMT, the Dean of the School of Business and Economics has been appointed on the conclusion of the term of Dr Rukhsana, we have appointed Professor Bob wheeler from United States as Dean of the School of Business. He is very excited and going to join us in at the end of this month. We have also International Accreditation. I can very humbly put forward that UMT is among one of the three institutions in Pakistan which has received International Accreditation of its business program.
My dear graduates, you are going to be the ambassador of UMT. You came, you studied and now you’re leaving, you are entering the real world and you have our best of wishes for your life ahead. You have to remember that you are there to lead and you are there to learn. If you will keep these two principles ahead of you, I am sure that you will lead and you will continue to learn, and you will continue to improve and you will have your successes in due time. You are beacon of light to the society. You know now what you didn’t know and you have learned how to go about and how to do it and what to do and I am sure that you will become now the source of learning and knowledge for your fellows when you go to the real world. You are hope of your parents. Your parents brought you here. They are your anchors, they are your families and now they have come here to take you back and I hope that you will fulfill their dreams, you will meet their expectations and you will make them proud of you. You are also a strategic asset of your country. You belong to this great nation. Please never forget that Pakistan is your identity, and Pakistan is your destination. It has its own ills and perils but this is the best nation that you could belong to.
And you have your good 40 50 years ahead of you. Plan your future now, what are you going to be in the year 2020, in the year 2030, in the year 2040 and the year 2050. Once a student came to me and he said ‘sir what will be the future of Pakistan in 2050?’ I replied that what is your goal for the year 2050? Whatever your goal is and whatever will happen is with your all combined achievement, InshAllah that is going to be the destiny of Pakistan. So instead of looking here and there, up and down, see what your responsibility as a globally responsible citizen is and as a conscious citizen of this country, make sure that you have a plan for yourself, a long-range plan, innovative plan, creative plan and that will be also telling you about the destination of this country. I close my remarks here. I am once again grateful to all of you who have come here. I would like to thank the team who has arranged this convocation and under the leadership of Professor Mumtaz Malik and I hope that you will enjoy it. Thank you.
Video # 46
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j62-zv6qAY
Topic: Advertisement
Event: UMT Advertisement
Event Date: Year 2018
Audience: Viewers
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 22 Seconds
Summary:
Learning to learn, learning to know, learning to live, learning to lead, learning to be what you can be, learning to be what you should be and if you want to be what you can be, then UMT is the place where you should be.
Video # 47
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq6XRiRvOyE
Topic: Closing Ceremony Speech
Event: IBCE 2016
Event Date: Year 2016
Audience: Guests, Faculty & Students
Issues in Video: Audio Quality is Low and Poor
Total Time of Video: 13 Minutes and 10 Seconds
Summary:
His Excellency Stefano Pontecorvo and Madam Lidia Pontecorvo welcome to UMT. Serdar Deniz, Honorable Counsel General of Turkey in city of Lahore. The city of Lahore deserved a consul general from Turkey and I am glad that he is the first ever counsel general to the city of Lahore and this will strengthen the relationship between Pakistan and Turkey. I know Italy has an honorary counsel general and we look forward to having a counsel general in the city of Lahore. Dr Emanuela Todeva, Director Research Center for Clusters in UK, Ibrahim Qureshi, CEO Institute of Trade and Competitiveness and Mr. Abid HK Sherwani, DG UMT and actually the Chairman of IBCE, ladies and gentlemen, exhibitors, members from the corporate sector, media, faculties, Assalamo O Alaykum. Very briefly I would like to share that the last two days have been a learning experience for all of us. We met a lot of people, we met each other and we exchanged our thoughts and ideas. We had free time to share our views and we look forward to what can be, done what should be done and how it can be done and what needs to be done and what’s next. And it was a tremendous exercise for us already.
It was not easy to hold such kind of mega event and it opened quite well, remarkably well with the opening ceremony held in the other hall with about thousand people in attendance and then two days of exhibition went on. It was participated by 20,000 people as mentioned by Abid Sherwani. I am glad that you were able to hold it and I’m glad that this was, this is going to be a new beginning and this is going to be the tradition now in future. We would make it more meaningful, more purposeful, more interactive and more productive and result oriented. We will interact with all these stakeholders who participated from academia, from business world, from government and you will try to bring them all on board and develop this as a point of convergence for them, as I mentioned that we need the point of convergence, we need a platform where academia, business and industry all can join hands and cross their boundaries and leave their reservations and there institutional egos aside and shake hands and freely interact for the development of the country, for the progress of our country to steer the transition of our economy. And I’m glad that this is the beginning.
We have shown the way, the seed that has been sown in this first-ever exhibition here in this Lahore expo, I think it will become a huge tree with expanding branches and deep roots in years to come. I believe that our students have enjoyed it and they have seen, they’ve come out of the classrooms, we brought them here, and they came face to face with the industry. And our faculty also participated with their ideas and seminars and they were also here to interact with those who were visiting this place in the arena. And those who come from the industry they also tasted something different, they experienced something different. They went to trade to trade exhibitions, they go to only industry specific exhibitions but here when they came the saw a little bit of different crowd, a different kind of style, a different kind of program and content and I think they have understood the significance and the importance of such an event where there is knowledge to share, cutting-edge knowledge, latest knowledge and there are presentations on the subject matter and also where there were opportunities to meet others and share the thoughts.
It was not supposed to be a typical association or trade fair and it’s not going to be something like that, it is going to give value addition, it is going to be something different and this is going to be something which will attract more attention and more interest and which will deliver more fruits and more results and it will be more consequential to the business growth because business has very rightly mentioned by Emanuela Todeva that business needs an echo system of Triple Helix and our learning architecture at UMT supports that architecture, that provides that architecture, which leads to strengthening of the ecosystem for increase in trade, for increasing in imports, for increase in exports, for increase in foreign direct investments, for increase in employment, for eradication of poverty, for development of our city states, for development of our industry, for enhancement of the capability of our human beings, for development of the expertise of our business leadership of managers and executives. So that was the purpose and I believe that we have got that learning architecture inbuilt and ingrained within the design template and design of UMT which is going to contribute to that. There is no other university which acts like that, there is no other university which things like that, and there is no other university which takes such bold, courageous initials. So we have started with this. This is just one aspect and this is not new, this is not the first time. 20 years back we organized the first international business forum in the city of Lahore and in that forum about 233 delegates from 30 plus countries came. It was UMT organizing that form and it still continues.
This is going to meet twentieth time now. Right now as I speak that Business Forum is meeting in Istanbul with about as I came to know about 5,000 plus delegates from 100 plus countries. That was the contribution of UMT. That is what is possible through imagination, that is what is possible by taking initiatives and that is still on. But we felt that though we are participating in that, we are part of that, we are member of the board of governors of that but we were feeling that Pakistan is missing out because that has become to global it has become too much you know worldwide and Pakistanis are not able to go every year to that event. Still today about hundred plus Pakistani delegates are participating in that but we want to have something which is based in Pakistan, which is for Pakistani business people and which is for Pakistani business and industry and which focuses targets capacity-building of Pakistan.
That is why after a long thought while we want to continue our association with that, we want to continue strengthening that idea which has become global, which has become very successful, we want to start out something new which is for Pakistan. And we hope that if 20 years back we could start something which will become a huge global exercise help every year, so this that we are starting in the city of Lahore and this facility in Lahore Expo I believe that we can go on and we can carry it on and we can be more successful and more productive here in the city of Lahore because we want to do something for the business world in Pakistan.
Yes businesses have the muscle, they have the resources, they have to need and they know what to do and how to do but I think that they need to understand the new dynamics of business transformation, they need technology, they need human capital, they need new innovations, they need business ideas, they need on regular basis a connectivity with the academia, businesses grow not alone and in isolation in there both rooms, businesses grow when they reach out to their consumers, when they reach out to academia and they envelop the academia, when they reach out to the research centers and they build the technology to build their capacity economy. So we believe that this is going to be a forum which will develop, which will reduce that gap that exists between businesses and academia and government, and all three will come together, will join hands, will share each other’s and will meet, will work together for the transition of our economy towards knowledge-based economy. And I feel that though the differences were there especially in the opening session which we saw all the tops heads were there, they know now, they have come to know and I feel that the next year it is going to be a huge success and it is going to be better organized.
I would also like to suggest that we will continue our initiatives. We have developed this, this is one. I mentioned international business forum which is being held right now in Istanbul. This is the one international business conference and exhibition that we’ve started based in Lahore and you will see how we can take this forum to various clusters and various regions and hold smaller tours in Gujranwala, in Gujarat, in Sialkot, in Multan, in Hyderabad, in Bahawalpur, in Sukkar, in Peshawar and see and relate this forum to the specific businesses and their clusters and develop, open the possibility for partnerships and their interaction with the world players. We will try to help them become global. Our SME sector has great technology, has developed themselves but now it’s time to support them, so that they can they can become global, they can become part of the global supply chain and they can develop their revenue base, resource base and they can take advantage of the world markets.
So this is our idea. We will see how we will consult with all the stakeholders and together with their collaboration, we will see how we can make it more meaningful, more relevant and more result oriented, more interactive and more beneficial. I would also like to inform you that at UMT this is not the only thing as I mentioned. We also organize an annual event known as Invention to Innovation. Every year the innovation that has taken place within the academia is showcased in that exhibition. It has been going on for five years now in collaboration with Punjab University and Pakistan Science Foundation and HEC and it has become the event now to capture the human talent, innovation talent, the invention talents…
Video # 48
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti73U441AZ8
Topic: Welcome to the Guests
Event: IBCE 2016
Event Date: Year 2016
Audience: International Delegations, Guests & Faculty
Issues in Video: Poor and Low Audio
Total Time of Video: 3 Minutes and 11 Seconds
Summary:
Honorable Ahsan Iqbal, Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms, Mr. Ilnur Çevik, Chief Advisor President of Turkey Mr. Tayyip Erdogan, Chaudhary Muhammad Shaifq, Provisional Minister for Industries, Mr. S.M Munir, CEO TDAP and Chairman Din Group and a long lasting Patron of UMT and ILM, Mr. Basit, President Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Iftikhar Ali Malik, the spirit behind the business houses, business associations, chambers, federations, Sark and whatnot in Pakistan and once again a long lasting, long standing friend of UMT. He has seen us taking birth, he has seen us maturing and he has seen us rising to this point. Chairman Turbiaat, Mr. Yashar Erdog, Counsel General of Turkey Mr. Sardar Denis, His Excellency the Ambassador of Australia, High Commission of Australia, Margaret Adamson, ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, leaders and executives from the world of business and industry, Assalamo O Alaykum.
Let me once again welcome from the core of my heart to all who have traveled to Lahore, many may be for the first time and from abroad as well as from across the country to participate in this conference. When we took up this idea and approached the businesses and industries that we are thinking of organizing a fair or exhibition so they resounded with their skepticism that why the university would do? This is not your business, why you want to do that? We already have many going on within our trade and since Lahore Expo has come into being, it is frequented by exhibitions focused upon various trades and specializations. But then there was a need and I think…
Video # 49
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82-VgsTof_o
Topic: Opening ceremony speech
Event: IBCE 2016
Event Date: Year 2016
Audience: International Delegations, Guests & Faculty
Issues in Video: Poor and Low Audio
Total Time of Video: 12 Minutes and 47 Seconds
Summary:
Intro missing
When he was the federal minister back in the 90s and then again he reinforced that. And that is about developing the economy, transforming the economy and converting it from the economy absorbed with making and producing to a knowledge based economy based upon high technology and information sciences. So we need this transformation and this is a strategic transformation which cannot be actualized within the efforts of business and industry alone. It needs a convergence of all leading players within the nation. Convergence among the policy makers, governance shared by business and industry, reinforced by academia, supported by civil society and then together aligned with the priorities and preferences of young who are aspiring to have a successful career in their life and in the future. Sir what we are trying to do here is to ignite and inspire young minds for their success in future and we want to drive their imagination towards export led economy, information based economy, knowledge based economy. We believe that Pakistan has a tremendous potential and our these young minds, this young talent is no less than any in the world and we would like to help them launch themselves in a career where they are linked globally while they are acting globally, where they are exchanging goods and services at a global level and they define themselves, they define their businesses, they define their enterprises and they unleash their entrepreneurial careers at a global scale thinking of the globe as one world.
Australian High Commissioner Margaret, Madam I could not be wrong if I would say that at least 50 to 100 UMT graduate are right now in business and in work place in Australia. And same is for all over the world. We have 14,000 Alumni and out of these 14,000 at least 7,000 are abroad. They are working in Saudi Arabia, in Gulf, In New Zealand, in United States, in Europe, they are spread all over the world. That has led us to also think globally and recently we have setup an institution for human capital, to contribute towards human capital formation and to relate our self to the Manessa Region Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, so we have set up Institute of Knowledge Leadership in Dubai. We have setup an office in Ankara so that we can offer courses for human development to the Central Asia and Europe based in Turkey.
So UMT wants to gear itself to be partner in this revolution of business transformation. We would like to contribute towards the development of SME sector. They have successes, tremendous successes, producing something here and then selling it in Pakistan. Now we want to help them to rise and become global, become regional and it has engaged themselves into exports and imports. So that is the agenda and that has brought us to this task and we have mobilized. This is the academia organizing a business fair and exhibition to guide the young talent, to guide young mind, to electrify them and to amaze them with the possibilities that are present all over the world. This is especially true if we look at CPEC and we would be aware for more information and guidance to the youth as to how our youth should now turn their attention to the opportunities that they can seize because of CPEC. And there are many other initiatives that are out there and we believe that it is the job of academia to turn human resources into human capital. Human capital capable of seizing the opportunities, human capital capable of enhancing the exports of Pakistan.
We feel that Pakistan has tremendous untapped exports potential that is yet not been capitalized. The population of Pakistan is 200 million. Out GDP is 240 billion and our exports are hovering around 20 to 25 billion. If you compare this with Sri Lanka, the population of Sri Lanka is 20 million, its GDP is 60 billion and its exports with 20 million people are 20 billion plus. So you see how a country like Sri Lanka which has also faced many challenges similar to us, the same content, and the same region has turned itself into and export oriented country and 20 million people are capable of exporting about 20 billion dollar. And here we are 200 million, ten times bigger than Sri Lanka and yet our exports are limited to about 20 billion dollars. If we were to grow to 10 times, where this 180 billion dollar exports will come from. This 180 billion dollar exports will come from you, will come from the youth, will come from those who are students now, those who are taking up IT, Engineering and Social Sciences and those who are in Business and Administration. So you have a chance to become billionaire, you have a chance to become exporter, a leading exporter and there is this vacancy, there is this walk over it chances that you can exploit. You can take advantage of the unique position of Pakistan and you can become, you should think of yourself and imagine yourself as a leading exporter in future and thing I hope that this will bring prosperity to the country. This will enhance, this will help us eradicate poverty, and this will enhance the status of Pakistan as the sixth populous country of the world. We should also be the sixth leading exporter of the world. We should also be the sixth highest you know a country having the highest level of human capital in the world.
So we have human resources, we have tremendous possibilities now and the purpose and objective of this conference is to open up your mind and eyes to these possibilities so that our academia and whatever goes on in classrooms, in seminar rooms, in course outlines is aligned to this possibility. That is the single most important objective that we have in our mind. We are really pleased to welcome all those exhibitors who have come from abroad and also from Pakistan. We are very pleased to see the interest of diplomats, of ambassadors, of sponsors. We are very pleased to see the interest of all the institutions, we are very pleased to see the interest of the provincial government, Mian Shahbaz Sharif was invited and he sent the Minister for Industries. We invited the Federal Minister for Planning and development and he’s always there whenever we request him and he’s always been supported. And this is his vision that we can see coming true that young people, young mind are driven towards actualizing the vision that he has shared. I thank you all once again and I would like to invite at this point the Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reform, Mr. Ahsan Iqbal to share his vision with the faculty, students, exhibitors, business and industry in Pakistan.
Video # 51
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLFlKlkqq8E
Topic: Youth and Innovation
Event: 4th Invention to Innovation Summit 2015
Event Date: Year 2015
Audience: Guests, Researchers, Faculty & Students
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 15 Minutes and 50 Seconds
Summary:
Dr Mujahid Kamran, Vice Chancellor Punjab University, Dr Muhammad Ashraf, Chairman Pakistan Science Foundation, Dr Akram Sheikh, Dr Amir Ijaz, Mr Abid Sherwani, CEO IRP, respected members of faculty, researchers, academics from all over the country and my very dear students, Assalamo O Alaykum. It is my unique privilege to attend this conference every year called Invention to innovation. This itself is an innovative idea which has now taken ground and I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all those who initiated it, who sustained it and who have made good progress and brought it once again for the benefit of academia in Pakistan. It is being held in Punjab University, one of the leading University ranked very high in research and it has catered universities from all over the country are represented here. I hope this forum will progress in future and if we aim on popularity, it will become a platform for interaction between industry and academia, and between other institutions, research institutions, financial institutions as well as business and industry. Whatever we heard so far is a matter of great delight that something very good is happening in Pakistan.
Universities have always been at the forefront of advancement of knowledge. It has been realized that the difference between the University and any other Community College or a college is that colleges disseminate information, they certainly contribute to its development by disseminating it. But is the job of the university to engage into future oriented research and lead the frontiers of knowledge. And I believe that universities in Pakistan heading towards that goal, they are reorienting their processes, they are developing their infrastructure and they are developing human resources, the most critical and vital element in this process to play a role in advancing the frontiers of knowledge. Nothing in this world can be more exciting and more challenging then to contribute towards the advancement of knowledge, towards discovery of new knowledge, towards invention and innovation and the youth of Pakistan is talented, is competent. Youth of Pakistan possess the ingredients of critical and creative thinking and I’m sure that with this infrastructure that is also now coming about, they will have more opportunities to turn their dreams into reality.
This conference is about invention to innovation and I was trying to connect that what would it take to move forward and I came up with a few more linkages and connections that we must take into now. First is connection between individual to institutions. Creative thinking resides in the minds of individuals. Individual harbors the ideas, deferment and reflect upon their experiences and see the possibilities. Sparks happen and occurs inside the mind, powerful thinking and reflective person. So once there are, we have individuals who are competent, who are bent upon it, who are motivated to do it, then we have to connect them with the institutions, with the world which having an institutional framework to capitalize upon this thinking. There are universities, there are the laboratories, there are exhibitions, there are conferences, seminars, expositions where these individuals come together and they sharpen their mind, they discuss about their ideas, they raise questions, they seek answers and in the process they refine and in the process they learn and they develop ideas which are comparative and which are held valuable by these stakeholders.
So this is one connection that is very important otherwise there are individuals having ideas in their diaries, in their laptops, in their minds but not having any opportunity to discuss and such open ended platforms as the one in which we are participating now. We need to have these platforms available to school children, we need to have such platforms available to general society, to engineers who are at work in the professional world because they are having hands on experience with the reality and there are many ideas which come to their mind but within their corporate world, they are highly constraint and don’t have any chance to develop those ideas. So we need to draw upon the engineering mind, the mind of doctors, the mind of chemist, the mind of industrial workers, and the mind of labors and from labors to scientists. All of these individuals who are playing the role of a professional or who are engaged in teaching and research or learning as a student, all of these individuals should have an open ended connection with institutional world so that their ideas can be further capitalized.
Second is from discovery to development. If I have an idea that I need some time, I need bare minimum resources to develop it, to help it grow. There is a seed in my mind and I need a fertile ground to lay that seed and then to see and nurture that and see how it grows before I take it forward. So this is a time of experimentation, this is the time of looking at the idea how it turns out. So I believe that this is another connection which is very important from discovery to development.
The third is from development to diffusion, which means that once something is developed and found valuable then it should have an opportunity to be diffused through commercialization, though production, through its application and through its implementation. Because ideas if developed, there are many developed ideas, there are many ideas developed and refined but they couldn’t see the day of light, they were not diffused, there were no takers for those ideas and they remained in the journals, the remained in the shelves and they remained in the reports. But scientists would agree that there was no opportunity, there were no channels of communication where they can find productive resource, a taker, an investor and are commercialized.
Fourth is from, you know the world we are living in a world of incessant innovation. Creativity cannot be monopolized. Creativity is a natural talent and human nature is bound to be creative and critical. They are looking for opportunity. So we can see that in this world while a company like Microsoft has 200,000 outstanding computer scientists, software developers working in its campuses around the world with unlimited R&D, we see how within from that empire escaped the idea of Facebook, the idea of let’s say Google that there has to be some search engine. So you know this huge empire was laid, they were involved in something but there was some young guy in the campus, some young mind who thought of it and created a disruption. Microsoft was overtaking, was sidelined, was marginalized, a huge empire with 200,000 people with open ended research. So this is possible that you can approach something. So this is called disruption.
We need to have invention, we need to have innovation, development, discovery but then this is the world of disruption, where disruptions are taking place in garages, disruptions are taking place in cafes, disruptions are taking place in corridors, in classrooms and people are finding always the alternates, the better ways that how to go about it, how to do it, what’s missing, what’s needed, what’s not there and people find it, they trace it and they come up with an idea to how to get it forward. So this is the world of disruption and disruption then lead towards breakthrough. A disruptive idea can achieve a breakthrough.
If you look at the market capitalization of innovative companies, you will find that their market capitalization is more than the countries with tens of millions of people and resources and lands in their area, more than the total cumulative GNP of Pakistan which is just 200 billion dollar. There are companies having market capitalization of 500 billion dollar, 600 billion dollar, 800 billion dollar, why? Because they are purposeful, meaningful, productive, innovative, capable organizations. So we need to assess that how can we employ our talent, help our youth grow and harness their energy, the creative energies and thinking towards innovation. And this is the only way we can progress. Yes we can make good progress if we make highways, we can make good progress if we have good sky scrapers, we have good buildings, glass houses, if we have gardens, if we have you know good airports, everything is useful and contributes towards it but we will make progress today and in future times only if we are able to use our brilliant minds, if we are able to stimulate them, if you are able to trigger them and help them launch themselves into creative tasks, into creative project.
And we need to have an overall ecosystem which would then transform us and help us you know achieve transition. So this is then the process of transformation to transfusion and transformation to transition. So this is another area where the whole country then makes the progress. It is not just one person, one laboratory, one scientist. It is the whole ecosystem that comes about and there is a whole culture that is there ingrained in the people, in their mind the way they relate, the way we work, when the faculty members will meet they will not be wasting time in talking about their chairperson that how good or how bad he is, the dean or vice chancellor of the country, they will be talking about new ideas and discussing how to move forward, what’s latest in their discipline and how they can contribute to it. So they will be investing their time in their meeting not wasting their time. And so goes for our students, our engineers, our professionals and practitioners. So I believe this conference opens avenues for all and it is a breakthrough you know initiative. And I hope that this will be further encouraged and we will have larger conferences in future with wider participations and certainly higher and greater benefits. Thank you very much.
Video # 52
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMwjLbmKK9Q
Topic: Importance of Event
Event: Career Fair
Event Date: Not Available
Audience: Students and Faculty
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail, Audio Missing in Start
Total Time of Video: 10 Minutes and 58 Seconds
Summary:
Intro Missing
It is worth noting that this year I see it at least three times or two times in terms of size and there is a great turnout from the corporate sector. I believe that it is very important for the corporate sector to reach out to the university and establish a bridge of communication and interaction with the institutions in higher education. What we do is directly of concern and certainly of interest to you. We provide human capital to the corporate sector and we shape human capital to meet the needs of the corporate sector and whatever we know and whatever we could decipher from the environment, we try to do our best in terms of faculty orientation, curriculum development to ensure that what is needed tomorrow is provided to the prospective employees today. We try to embed our courses and curriculum in view of the issues and challenges and requirements faced by the corporate sector. This is not just something which is theoretical but we regularly go through extensive exercises to ensure that our curriculum is externally aligned. We believe that this interaction at this point in time although is very brief and our students are busy in their classes as well but it is a great opportunity that they get to have a glimpse of so many companies. For our students it’s a great benefit if they were to decide that they will go through, they would drive to the offices of each one of these companies, I’m sure it will take them at least two to three months. And even then there is a little chance that they would go beyond the reception and main door and they would have the access, attention and consideration that they would receive now.
So if each one of our students who meet people here would do that individually, it would be great hassle and hardship and at a great cost, and it would be quite frustrating to knock the doors and walked through the corridors and be able to meet someone who is part of decision making process. But here they have come to you at their own, they have sent their teams which is relevant and you have a chance to engage them. So for our students even if you don’t need a job now, you can go through these stalls, you can discuss with them as to what is it that they are looking for, what are their expectations and then you would have a clarity in your mind as to how you should groom yourself, how you should develop yourself, how you should refine yourself.
So I think for our students even if they don’t need a job today, this whole exercise is a great learning experience for them and they can simulate themselves they can go through mock interaction and they can assess their preparedness and their readiness, and they can have a value by having more interactions with the employers. So what we do in classroom, what we within the boundaries of our university is something that is a geared to meet the expectation of your interviewers and here you have the interviewers coming to you and ready to talk to you. So make use of this opportunity and interact with as many as possible so that you can find out for yourself that how you should develop and what are your strengths and what are your weaknesses and what is it that you are missing and what is it that you already have.
I would also suggest that those who are at the verge of completion of their programs, for them nothing could be better than this. Their employers, future employers are right here. So take it seriously, interact with them, get their attention, project yourself positively and convince them with your attitude not just with the knowledge that you have, with your attitude, with your confidence and with your self-assurance that you know who you are and you know what is it that you can do best and you know that if given a chance you can actually contribute to their organization results.
A lot of time I get CVs telling me that if given a chance it will help me to improve myself, to develop myself, whatever. That’s important and that’s needed and they would spend money for this, they would invest in you and that’s okay. But you know that’s your job, that’s your point of view, that’s your interest. If an organization would hire you and would give you a job, they would do so to have your inputs and your hard work, your dedication to enhance their results, to make their organization more competitive, more successful and to have it more prosperous. So I think your idea of yourself developing and improving is important but that is beside the point that is in the footnote. More important is that how can you be useful and how can you be productive and how can you be critically needed by them for their work, for their profits, for their survival, for their competition. So I believe that you need to change the orientation. What happens to you is important but actually by you joining to them, what happens to them is important.
Thirdly I would suggest that this is a brief interaction. Take it seriously, don’t take it lightly. It is very important and we are really grateful to all who have come here and it is certainly a costly affair because they have devoted their teams to walk, to work with us and spend a day with us here. So take it seriously, don’t take it lightly. And make sure that once it is over, you have an interest, once it is over you have a serious interest. Someone is really interested in you, some company is really going to be after you and some company is looking forward to having you with them, working with them and you have been successful in carving out an interest, a niche for yourself. So that’s your job and that’s your success. I would like to once again thank all the employers, all the companies. I see a lot many who came first time and I see the right companies, growing companies who are here with us.
Thank you very much for giving UMT a chance and showing up in this fair and I hope you would have a productive time here and I hope you would have some really good options discovered at this point and I hope that you will continue to support these activities for the sake of it. Because your presence here means a lot to us, your presence here is very crucial for our success and to provide the guidelines to human capital. Verbal interaction, face to face interaction is more important and more fruitful and result oriented than publishing an ad in the newspaper with the title ‘wanted’. So there are newspapers full of advertisements but here you will get the right people, you can recognize the talent and you can take them forward. So thank you very much once again for coming to us and we are indebted to you. I also thank the team Office of Career Services headed by Khalid Naqi and is very able cognates and colleagues who have made it a success, a great success. So thank you very much. And I wish our students, our participants a great future. Thank you.
Video # 53
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GSOnpcLs9c
Topic: Importance of Mathematics
Event: UICMAP 2018
Event Date: Year 2018
Audience: Institute Representatives and Other Guests
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 25 Minutes and 23 Seconds
Summary:
Dean school of science, Professor Muhammad Azhar Iqbal, Associate Dean and Director CMAP, Dr Shauqat Raheem Chaudhary, Dr Aziz Ur Rehman convener of this fourth International Conference on Applied and Pure Mathematics, Dr Sinathi from Texas Tech, Dr Shahid Siddiqui from UCP, Dr Zahid Raza and Dr Muhammad Imran from UAE, Dr Zakria Idress from South Africa, many other distinguished guests who have come abroad or out of Lahore and representing their institutions, ladies and gentlemen, Assalamo O Alaykum.
I am indeed very pleased to be here once again. This is the fourth conference. I can recall vividly the first one, the second one, the third one and I would like to give credit to the team in the Department of Mathematics and the leadership of Dr Shauqat Raheem Chaudhary who sustained this effort throughout the last four years. It’s not easy to convene a conference on a subject which is devoid of any glamor or any media interest which is very serious subject. But I am glad that he has been able to pull four great events and I hope that this event will continue to be held in future as well in its regular frequency.
At UMT we have taken deep interest in setting up the Department of Mathematics. I am once again delighted to see its current progress. There are about 200 students enrolled in its undergraduate programs. Now this is a great beginning, there is a great potential that there are 200 students who are willing to opt for mathematics as their prime subject of study during the course of undergraduate program and also consequently committed to meet a career and a life embedded in the Department of Mathematics. So this and within the ambit of a private sector University not a public sector university where there is some charges in terms of tuition and it is costly. Similarly at graduate level as of now we have about 50 students going through their MS programs and there are 20 who have gone through the proceedings of proposal submission and approval through board of advanced studies and research and are now pursuing their completion of the doctoral dissertation.
We have already four doctoral graduates, highest from any department perhaps at UMT so far. So I think the department has taken a shape. It has seen its formation and I hope that with the creative work, with commitment of faculty and students for excellence in undergraduate education and graduate research, I hope that this department will make a mark in future, it will achieve prominence and eminence because of its research and its contribution to strengthening the teaching of mathematics all over the country as well as abroad and application of mathematics in wide variety of fields. So I hope the Department of Mathematics will define its future on long term basis given the importance and the significance of mathematics and will guide its research students as well as those who are pursuing undergraduate programs as to what areas would be important in future and how they can make themselves valuable and productive and meaningful by acquiring the education of mathematics and then achieving something unique within themselves and then making a career through hard work in this very important and difficult field of mathematics.
I am aware of the importance of mathematics as a discipline. As a discipline which is not yet another discipline like many other disciplines but a discipline which I considered to be a core discipline, a discipline which is the root discipline, a discipline which is all pervasive and which penetrates into all other you know the boundaries and borders of all of the other disciplines and help them become a discipline. So I think mathematics just like philosophy is a very important root discipline, a core discipline. It is not just an isolated discipline like maybe astronomy or something else if I could come up with which has tangential bearing on others and which is in isolation, pretty much in isolation of others and doesn’t have much of implications all across. Over all the field of knowledge, over all the knowledge system is integrated and is interconnected and it has been not helpful in the last century when each discipline assumed its own domain and then let it adherence its followers and its learners, it’s practitioners into a tunnel vision without any regard to other disciplines that are equally important and also have relevance to what’s going on in this discipline.
So I believe that mathematics is a discipline which can help us come out of that tunnel vision and which can help us establish a common language of understanding, clarification, understand a common language of research, a common language of discussion, dialogue and discourse, which would be also in turn help us in defining the whole vision of what is knowledge and how it spreads out into various versified areas, how the spectrum of knowledge takes shape and how each various parts are important to others. So I think mathematics is a very important significant discipline and this kind of importance of mathematics should be promoted and should be conveyed to those who adopt it as a profession as well as a subject for pursuit of knowledge.
I am also aware that the attraction of merit towards a discipline is critically dependent upon the chances of jobs that are available within the field after graduation. Pursuit of Education incurs lot of investment of time and money, resources as well as opportunities. When once opt for a discipline the person also in a way negates other disciplines and then focuses on one. So if there are good chances to earn, if there are good chances to sustain, if there are good chances to find a career and a placement for self-sustenance then there is an increasing trend to up for that discipline.
So I think here is a challenge for those who are involved in the education of mathematics that the potential of career after pursuing education is not very clear. It is there, it is it is becoming more and more important and those who having good quantitative skills and a firm background in mathematics can find really very good opportunities now in the current arena of job, in world of work as far as I can see. But it’s not known, it is not yet in the knowledge of the young students who passed matric and intermediate or who see, who make choices like parents they’re not aware that how important is this and how it can now turn into good career opportunities and bring good resources and help them sustain their families in their own self. So I think there is a challenge here for those that there should be special seminars on career opportunities and how programs of studies should be tailored to make our students fit as a practitioner of the discipline and get to qualify for the jobs that are out there.
In terms of research, at UMT also we are promoting research. We are requiring our faculty members to publish an impact factor journals. HEC is giving lots of encouragement and we are also then involving in one way or the other our students to be engaged in research. A lot of success in research depends upon ability to deploy quantitative tools, to arrive at respectable, reasonable conclusions. I see weaknesses there because our prior education at the level of matriculation, intermediate doesn’t create proficient quantitative mindset. Their mathematics, those who offer mathematics they might be good but overall there is a weakness in the system and people fear whenever they see something quantitative, they want to opt out, they want to have sideways and they want to still do research.
So I feel that it should be known to all who pursue graduate studies that their grounding, deep grounding in quantitative tools is very crucial for them and it is very important for them. They cannot bypass it, they cannot escape it, they cannot sideline it and they cannot be good without it. So I think that here is another challenge for us that how can we develop the skill set among our graduate students and also faculty members so that they can be proficient and they can be consummate and good in understanding the tools in their applications, in differentiating the variety of tools and in finding the appropriate tools for the problem that is before them and then to conduct their research with the tools in mind and then coming up with the conclusion and doing all the all kinds of logic and analysis by those tools. So I think there is a there is a challenge here for developing the ability of researchers.
Next I would like to point out that we want our students to learn how to learn and mathematics is a very good learning tool that essentially means we want our students to be able to think and when we are trying to make them think and when we are trying to make them good at thinking, a lot depends upon how they analyze the facts, how they categorize the information, how they evaluate it, how they compare it, how they critically then infer from what they observe and how they observe it, how they describe it and how they value it, how they discriminate facts between values and how they then judge it and how they keep their data and keep themselves updated on data and information.
So it’s a very good learning tool. So as a learning tool it’s my view that we must inculcate mathematical training among our students at in the first year of undergraduate education, not just one by one course or two but maybe more because this is what they would need to be good in other disciplines. I can talk may be of my discipline Management, that if they are good in mathematics they will be good in business mathematics, if they are good in arithmetic and geometry they will be good in marketing and analysis for consumer behavior in marketing research and conducting surveys and they will be good in developing their plans and forecasts for their companies. So I think it’s a very good learning tool. Once again, we need as a culture in our nation, we need to make our nations friendly and conducive and amenable to mathematics and because this is what would help them stand on ground, this is what that is going to help them find the truth, the ultimate truth, this is what is going to help them figure out where they stand, what’s happening, what’s going on, this will help them define themselves correctly, authentically, appropriately, justifiably and reasonably.
So as a nation we have a challenge that how can we develop the generations as a prone and inclined to be driving their thinking from mathematical tools and having strong mathematical orientations. I found Singaporeans, South Koreans to be very good at it. I found Chinese to be very good at it, to be master of it. So these nations are doing well because as a nation they have a strong mathematical orientation and they have a strong feeling and they are at home and they are able to correctly arrive and conclude what’s going on and what’s happening in terms of economy, in terms of society, in terms of history. So there is this challenge for us that how can we apply quantitative tools to be better at prediction, to be better at making a view of everything, to be able to forecast, to be able to describe and we as a nation are lacking it and our strengths are being it’s my observation without any mathematical facts but when I see people it’s being reduced and it’s weakening.
Since my interest also overlaps within the bounds of social sciences, I found that a balanced approach to quantitative view is also equally important. I’ve seen people who are confined to mathematics and they project the omnipotence of mathematical view and they fail to then get into consideration the qualitative facts, they fail to understand that there is a qualitative context of mathematics of quantitative analysis. So that has led us to different kinds of philosophies, fallouts which we should be ashamed of for example deterministic protectionist view of human evolution, for example a regression view of the history of human society. So I feel that while we must respect and base ourselves, ground ourselves firmly on mathematics we should be equally adept and we should be equally you know we should be able to appraise a prize or we should be understanding that the importance and significance of qualitative context of mathematics, the beginning mathematics and after the conclusion once again the relevance of the qualitative aspects, only then we would be able to make an integrated and comprehensive and holistic view of humans and society and what’s going on within them.
So number means a lot but in addition to numbers the figures, the pictures and the graphics and the ambiguity and complexity that is there that we can only vaguely see, all of these factors should also come into play and should be part of our analysis.
Ladies and gentlemen I’ve tried to briefly share some of the thoughts that came to my mind when I started to drive for this event. I would like to call for developing a persona within our young generation, people of young generation whether they belong to mathematics or they belong to other areas for developing, for having a quantitative, strong quantitative mindset and we should impress upon them that this may look hard, this may look challenging, this may look difficult but if you don’t have the numbers right, if you cannot work out quantitatively, everything that you do and how you do and if numbers are not clear in their proportions and their impact and in their you know implications then you would fail in your job, then your thinking will be compromised and you will fail to understand the reality, you will lose the touch of what’s the truth.
So if we want to live purposeful life in this world and if you want to live a responsible life in this world, I think we need to have, we need to be in touch with mathematical orientation. We should have that, we should carry forward that, we should talk in mathematical language, mathematical grammar you know based on logics and only then we would be a better nation, we would be successful, our policy formulations would be realistic and they would see the outcomes that we have in our mind and we will have better present and a better future because we would be more enlightened about cause-effect relationships and we will work out our way logically into the future. So for foresight and forward movement mathematics is the key discipline that we need to promote.
I thank you all once again for listening to me. I thank all these worthy speakers who have come from abroad and from Pakistan who are part of this gathering and I wish you very enlightened stimulating and exciting discussions in future, in this conference, in the days and sessions that are coming ahead and I hope that you will develop the discipline of mathematics as per the requirements of our nation and as per the requirements of the disciplines that we have right now and take it forward and not just be confined to what has already proceeded and what you already read. The mathematics that is in text book needs to be further developed and evolved and taken forward and I look forward at the brilliant young minds who are here for taking up that challenge. You are no less from any other mathematician like Einstein or anyone else who was there. So make your way, take your chances, see the challenges and act upon your intuition and do your best. InshAllah by virtue of this discipline, InshAllah you will be able to contribute immensely and tremendously to the making of our nation. Thank you very much.
Video # 54
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cYLZh3d394
Topic: History and Purpose of Convocation
Event: 13th UMT Convocation
Event Date: Year 2016
Audience: Guests, Faculty, Parents and Students
Issues in Video: Ending is incomplete
Total Time of Video: 12 Minutes and 51 Seconds
Summary:
Honorable Patron Malik Muhammad Rafiq Rajwana, Governor Punjab, honorable chief guest Rana Mashood Ahmed Khan, Minister for Education Punjab, respected members board of governors and board of trustees, honorable Dr Rafiq Ahmed and Dr Nawaz, I am particularly delighted to see Dr Rafiq Ahmed who has made it and he has witnessed our progress since 1990, he was part of the board of governors of ILM in 1990, attended the meeting on 16th of June and then onwards he has been with us throughout the last 25 years, DG UMT Abid Sherwani, my other colleagues, deans and directors of schools and institutes, winners and meritorious achievers of our academic programs who are sitting on my left hand far left hand, members of faculty, my dear happy and proud parents and graduates who would be InshAllah leaders of the future and champions wherever they go, ladies and gentlemen Assalamo O Alaykum Wa Rahmatullah.
It is indeed a great pleasure for me to welcome all of you on behalf of UMT to this 13th convocation of UMT and if I add up the preceding convocations which were held under the auspices of Hamdard University when ILM was affiliated with Hamdard University, then it would be 20th convocation. So it’s a great day for us, a memorable day for us that we have crossed a milestone of 20 convocations. Each convocation was becoming bigger and bigger and we were not able to spend adequate time with each recipient of award and degrees so we thought we should now instead of having one per year let’s have two per year so that we can divide the graduates into two ceremonies. But still I can see, though we are holding now this is the second convocation of the year, but still I see its big, its large, its huge and its magnificent. So I congratulate all of you who are graduating today in this magnificent ceremony.
When I started to think in my mind as to when was it that the first convocation was held, first ever convocation in the history of humankind, so I was lost. I thought maybe when the universities came into being in 12th century or 11th century when Oxford and Cambridge opened the door or in seventh or eighth or ninth centuries, when universities came about in the cities of Cordova, Canada or maybe a little earlier when universities came about in Palestine or in at the time of Aristotle, Plato and Socrates in Athens when they opened Lyceums.
I then turned a few more pages of the history and I thought that first convocation first ever convocation of humankind was held not in this planet but in the Majestic surroundings beyond the scope of time and space, in the heavens when GOD Allah SWT taught Adam and then He examined him, He assessed him, He tested him and in the company of angels He found that Adam came up with all the right answers to all the questions and Adam graduated. So that was perhaps the first happening, that was perhaps the first convocation in which the first man was educated on the basis of not race or language or color or any other given thing but purely on the basis of knowledge procured and secured and of course produced.
So that was the first event in the history of humankind and that was nothing else but a convocation, the first ever convocation. And then we see a series of convocations been held all over the world. Whenever people got together and they gathered around people who know, people who have knowledge, people who have accumulated wisdom, so people would spend time and when they were attested and examined and found to be beholden of the same knowledge, they graduate and they were given some kind of testimonials and degrees.
To me the event of convocation it’s one of the supreme reflection of what humans can mean to other humans. The best thing that a human can do to other human beings is to share knowledge, is to disseminate wisdom, is to enlighten those who don’t know, show them the way forward, guide them to their destiny, coach them, train them and develop them so that they can achieve perfection. And I believe that there cannot be any other activity superior to this basic fundamental reflection of human essence and that’s why this convocation celebrates it holds certain degree of sanctity in the life of those who have taught and in the life of those who have received the knowledge.
So this convocation is awareness, it adds to new awareness, a new sense and a new consciousness of a new position and a new status and this convocation celebrates the personal attainment of physical, psychological, ethical, social and intellectual and academic accomplishments. We all gather here to celebrate that and we all have gathered here to witness that and honor that. It marks the process of knowledge advancement and the journey of individuals in that process. It captures the successes, achievements and accomplishments of those who were involved researchers, academics, faculty members, students, parents and all of their friends and people who are near about them. It also, let me add that it also symbolizes the aspirations for future, it also symbolizes the dreams that are right now contained in the hearts and minds of those who would receive the degrees. And it also reinforces, it reinforces the hopes that they have for the future and we are here to wish them well in their future journey.
Ladies and gentlemen, honorable patron, I do not have sufficient time to elaborate on the full year report of what we have done through the year that is just about to close. Too many people are engaged, too many initiatives and projects are ongoing and too many ideas are being turned into action and even at the moment I am not fully cognizant of what is done and what is being done by respective members of faculty. It has become so big that even I am not aware of the individual accomplishments of our graduates who would be walking today over this stage and I cannot assess truly gage the impact of what has gone before us. So I would simply present to you some fundamentals so that which will manifest where we stand and where we are heading. Our first 10 years have been years of emergence and our years of setting up, our years of formation and now we are moving from formation and emergence towards eminence and excellence. That is the key banner headline that I can vouch for, that I can promise and that you would be able to see down the road. So we are now working towards doing…
Seems Incomplete
Video # 55
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4z7KQbpGL8
Topic: Organizing Ourselves
Event: Organization Theory Center 2012
Event Date: Year 2012
Audience: Faculty and Students
Issues in Video: Poor Video Quality, Poor Audio Quality & Noise in Sound
Total Time of Video: 23 Minutes and 1 Second
Summary:
Intro Missing
For the last couple of hours I was reflecting upon this organizing activity and arrived at a few dilemmas, paradoxes and I just want to share them with you. We are here to witness the setting up of organization theory center which was a dream of collective body of students who were doing research on various topics related to organization theory. We are here to receive the manifestation and arrival of this center and we are here to provide a blueprint in terms of directions, ideas, enquiry, reservations, optimism and good word to this center. Thank you very much for being with us. It was certainly an irony for me to see my name as chief guest while I feel that I should have been mentioned as chief courtesy officer or chief host. It was again an irony for me, the irony of time that great minds and I’ve always be surprised by the attraction of great minds, top minds to the field of organization theory, and it was irony of time that we could not give them the time that was required to fully share the depth and breadth of their thoughts.
And we were constrained to limit ourselves to only those who were sitting upstairs here and not really engage those who are here for the last two hours. Your participation in silence is highly appreciated and it would not have been possible without your cooperation to sit here in silence and listening to whatever it came to you in the form of doses and points whether you agree or not, you are made to listen that. And this is again the irony of organizations that some people have the luxury of talking and telling while others have the necessity and the urge to just listen and follow. It was again an irony of space, we were bit crowded here and we have to sit in angles to give way to those who were going to the rostrum and those who were then coming back. And also the irony of agenda of what to talk about. I brought myself fine and I was bit apprehended about these sentiments that you would have in your eyes and you would see me walking to the rostrum with a file assuming that I have a hold on to talk about.
Another dilemma I was looking at, the center is named, is titled as Organization Theory Center. Organization theory is of course an accepted label of this hole and that’s how it is known as. As a subject in business schools in sociology departments, may be also it is taught in other departments like economics. Organization is not something which could be properly reflected in a noun form, it is a verb form. So we are dealing with organization here you know it is one of the most interesting area to reflect upon, to discuss, to talk about humans and the way humans organize themselves. But organizing is not limited to only humans, it is also common to all living things. And whatever is there whether it’s a dead mass, it is a living thing, we know now that all things are living things. So we are discussing, organizing, organizing of living. And to assume that ‘organization’ word would reflect that, I think it is improper.
And the first breakaway that we should have right after the birth of the center is may be to see whether we can change the name of the center because if we look at you know for the primitive conception about organization and brick these organizations, stage the organizations, formal organograms represents the organizations, hierarchies represent organization, order represent organizations, budget and control represent organizations, these organizations. In actuality there’s much more organization then what is afferent and interface at the face level. There is informal organizations, there’s influence process that goes within the hierarchy, there is network among the people, there is chaos, there is disorder, there is the other, there is culture, there are values, beliefs, shared mindset, stories, myths, rather than the circular or specific directions organ helping to organize.
So we are talking about organizing and we are talking about organizing of the living. We are talking about organizing of this galaxy of fossils, organizing of micro fossil within macro fossil, organizing of conflicts, organizing of different types of living species, organizing of continuous organizing because organizing is a changing phenomenon, we can have a snapshot view of the state of organizing at one time but it is actually a living form and it requires something which is more like a verb and something which can really encompass the totality of it, the holistic nature of it which can be addressed that once the formal as well as informal. The things which we can figure out apparently which are documented, which are known, which are declared and things which are locked. We see giant organizations, dinosaur organizations crumbling in a second overnight, so what was wrong with them? They had everything that you could ask for within an organization, they had good health, financial you know audit reports backing their existence, they had hierarchies, they had bank accounts, they had a hundred story buildings, and you see that those organizations crumbling in a second.
And you see an organization which was in Tehreer Square in Cairo which led a giant state, apprentice of state and almost a kingdom to crumble. Just this very soft organization which had no office, no water, no CEO, no hierarchy. So these are various, we are talking about organizing of living, organizing of living things or living norm. And this particular field has always interested me because I have always been you know interested in understanding who the humans are, what do they think, how do they think about themselves and how they organize themselves and what is it that is natural in organizing them and what is it that is very formal and I always tried to tear apart whatever is formal, whatever is documented, whatever is stored and seen to see beneath, to see what is there because I always felt that what is there on the face of it is not the whole story and there is much more interesting and challenging processes going on within.
So I feel that in order to vest this, with the whole field of this organizing we may have to may be change it to something around understanding organizing, thinking organizing, organizing thinking something like that. And then again center, center represents something which is a very specific, which is one form and which has you know control or something like that, and what we really want to have is a platform, is a hub, is an overlay of thoughts. We want this course, we want discussion, there is no predetermined agenda, your agenda is ours and together. And there is no hierarchy. It’s you who turns up and has ideas, has something interesting to talk about is there as leader, is there as you know as the moderator. So organizing about, thinking about, organizing and living is very interesting especially in the current times. The era is very rightly pointed out by the speakers, we have seen the era of armies, giant militaries supporting the kingdoms, the sultanates, the countries.
We have seen companies like East India Company and in their footprints follow up of thousands of transnational, multinational companies working all over the world having roots in over 100 countries that once having thousands of retail stores or hundreds of factories around the world. We see the era of those multinationals and we have seen then that how chaos and how uncertainty and unpredictability in the environment brought both transnational organizations to big knees and we have seen how very small companies with single person but one unique idea could really be thrown those transnationals and replace them. We have seen how the top 50 companies of New York Stock Exchange and the build of last century, were almost all gone away by the time century ended. So this trivia has decline and rise of companies and form people organize according to the time.
So I believe that we should not be hampered or we should not be carry forward by any prevalent mode of organizing, any prevalent structure of organizing. There is no mental model governing us or directing us. The first thing is, the first necessity is that we remain open-ended, that we address issues critically with very open mind and whether its dolma, its classics, it’s about tradition, it is about history, it’s about legacy or it’s about futuristic, it’s about postmodern, it is about current times, it’s about posterity, it’s about future, we have an open mind and we see critically that what is it that organizing form, what is it that form of organizing, that culture organizing, that view organizing that helps us best to understand to figure out the process structure and everything. So this is something that should be helpful to us in breaking new ground, in finding frameworks which would be helpful to us, to see these new emerging forms of organization, to evaluate them and to see how they are evolving. There are many different newer forms maybe we are not aware. Who was aware of occupy Wall Street form of organization, who was aware of Tea Party form of organization, who was aware of Tehreer Square form of organization, and things like that.
So I think we are in to new arena and this makes this topic very much more interesting to me as a student of organizing and that the first necessity that I talked about is that let’s shut, let’s make our-self independent and free of anything that any scholar has ever said in this field, and there are many good things, it’s not to demean them, it’s just a find for ourselves a new time in space, in the new horizon something where we can do justice with where we are and where we are headed. Secondly I believe that if organizing is about humans that how humans organize themselves, how they survive, how they bring themselves together, how they work themselves, how they live together, how they become together, how they lead each other and how they relate to each other. If this is about organizing then let us also focus on that very human being that who this persona is, who this living entity is.
And I feel when I studied management, when I studied organization, when I studied leadership, I failed to find, I searched mystery of Michigan database for the dissertation and I fail to find any thesis being done in the field of management about human beings. What an irony that managing is about managing humans and there is no thesis, no dissertation from any Department of Management about this management, about understanding the humans, the dynamics of human, this challenging you know the body of humans and what a human being consist of, how is human being is evolving and how is progressing over a period of millennium, over a period of centuries and from age to age, from continent to continent, from tribe to tribe, from community to community.
So one area where we need to focus and here I would like to say that there’s a difference between organization theory and organizational behavior. Organizational behavior is mostly concerned with the behavioral aspect of individual, of group and an organization. And it personally never entrusted me. I have taught organization, the first time that I taught organization theory was in perhaps 1994 or 1995, and I also have taught organization behavior I think twice but I soon left that field because I found it too narrow, the behavior is partially interlocked, the behavior is changing and the way the organization behavior would define mostly is rooted in the field of psychology and scientific psychology as to say. So I feel that is the human behavior, human conduct, human character, human potential, human as self, human being, human welfare, and human thought, that it should also be part of this organization, this theory center so that we can really be more intelligent, more appropriate and more closer to understanding the right spot about organizing and how it evolves in various times for various targets.
Thirdly, there is someone mentioned about the purpose, purpose of organization. I think this is something that is of interest to us that what is the purpose of organizing, the goal of organizing or what is it that drives it. Purpose again is a concept of hierarchical organization that look this is the club and the purpose is to play football. What is it that enables organizations, what is it that enables organizing, that sustains organizing, what is this that facilitates, what is it that drives it, what is it that is envisioned in this organizing. So purpose is again a very interesting topic and purpose of organizing and by with this queue I think we will be able to find something which is not yet being discovered, something which is not yet been properly addressed. Purpose, declared purpose in the annual reports, in the CEOs’ speeches and also the undeclared purpose something which we have to dig out. So I think the purpose and objective would be something really very helpful.
With these very initial thoughts, I personally welcome with the depth of my heart the luminaries, the scholars, the great minds who have come here to visit this inaugural ceremony of the Organization Theory Center. Since it is Organization Theory Center so I am saying that again. We really have and I was full of engagement and involvement with every word and every sentence said by every speaker. It was all great learning today, great enlightenment, very stimulating. I welcome all of you as well. Without you it would not have been possible and we would have the time InshAllah to hear from you as to what you think and what you have to offer to this center. As I said it is multidisciplinary, it is open-ended it’s about learning, it is learning about organizing, learning about organizing of living things and we stand here to benefit from people from all diverse disciplines.
We invited leading architect, we invited scientists, botanists, we invited those who are fully engrossed in organization theories, we invited economists, we invited philosophers, we invited businesses schools experts because of all of them, and if you look at the literature of organization theory you will have all disciplines coming around and contributing to it. And that is one beauty of our organization theory that it attracts top minds, great minds and it provides you a framework to discuss with generosity, with open-endedness and with full interest to scientists equally you know, to scientists as well as social scientists from physical science, natural science, social science and also engineering and technology. So thank you very much for being with us. Let us welcome the arrival of Organization Theory Center by showing our overwhelming emotions and sentiments, and hope that this center would contribute to the welfare and existence of human beings. Thank you.
Video # 56
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWehwpwh0_g
Topic: Students as Diamonds
Event: 14th UMT Convocation
Event Date: Year 2017
Audience: Guests, Faculty, Parents and Students
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 16 Minutes and 20 Seconds
Summary:
Honorable US Council General, Madam Elizabeth Kennedy, Esteemed Rector Dr Muhammad Aslam, members of board and the trust, winners of our merit rewards, privileged and proud graduates, my dear graduates, happy parents and guardians, Deans and Directors of the schools and Institutes, chairperson of the departments, respective members of faculty, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, Assalamo O Alaykum. I bow my head in gratitude to our Lord, Who provided sustenance and made us walk through the passage of knowledge. Who gave us the learning faculties and endowed us with innate curiosity to learn and ask new questions to unlock what is unknown. And I poured my salutations to our last prophet who claimed to be a teacher and all ho claimed in truth. Who unleashed great untapped energies and directed the culture and civilization, guilt to break new grounds in Science and Philosophy, Arts and Technology. Ladies and gentlemen, the occasion of convocation is a festive moment in the history of institution and in the life of graduates and their families. It marks joyous celebrations for the accomplishments of our graduates and faculty. It is not merely about GPA and the degree and courses. This also not only about assignments and tests, projects and presentations. It is about acquiring a new identity carved out during the course of interaction with faculty, peer groups, institutions and the outside world. It is about enhanced self-assurance and beginning of self-development and self-actualization in newer horizons. It is also about new ambitions and gaining new perspectives for potential contribution to the world. It is about what difference you can make individually and collectively onwards in the next 50 years. How this world will be different, how this planet would be better and how people would be living a better life due to your work. Humans are born with tremendous infinite potentials and can capture unlimited possibilities. This convocation is the bridge between your potentials and the possibilities out there. The perspective enriched will help them identify newer prospects and higher and higher peace. Dear graduates, soon you will receive your degrees. You stayed with us as a guest and a participant and you are going to walk out as our ambassador and as future leader of the society. If I have had the chance to speak in your orientation or for some of them may be I did, I must have asked you to look at your picture in your ID before and after my speech in the orientation. The idea was to help you, look at yourself differently and in that short speed to train you how to renew yourself and while are you carrying the same self, how to get inspired by new ideas. That was my gift when you entered UMT. It would not be right if I say goodbye to you today without a gift. A gift you can cherish all your life. I thought of something very precious but not too costly. Something having enduring value, something to add to your assets and thereby enhance your potential. Something which can guarantee you your great prospects and unlock for you your great possibilities.
Dear graduates I looked around, I looked at the catalogs online and offline and I went to markets and bazaars and I found something really you would like to have. I found some diamonds. The diamond I want to present to you consists of several facets, each corresponding to the letter used to spell the word ‘Diamond’. Diamond as a word can be seen as a construct, as a concept, as a model and as a platform and as a paradigm for human character, for human excellence and to mark the enduring value of human contribution. They are most conducive to conduct the energy and repose the power and all kinds of terrible activity. Diamonds are so powerful that they can tear apart hardest of the material when used as industrial knife. They show colors, they radiate exuberance generously and they are liked by artists who can work with them, shape them, refine them and bring to life the numerous facets with new angles and new likes. Human eye to be sure hasn’t seen something more marvelous and more fascinating, yet this show on the surface of the earth through volcanic eruptions.
It takes about 1 billion to 3.3 billion years to make a piece of diamond. Diamonds are icons representing attitudes of being proper, unbreakable and intolerable. They breathe light, the absorb light, they accentuate it and they store it and then radiate back. They indicate power and prestige, position and wealth when set in the crown and decorations. Dear graduates, my search continued for long till I was able to decipher the code of diamond and who in this world doesn’t like them. Many of you who are unmarried, will get married and hope you would have some diamonds to exchange. A diamond is the purest and hardest thing on the surface. It cannot be compromised and it cannot be contaminated. All of its atoms are unified in a crystal structure. It is formed in the earth’s mantle at the depth of what is equivalent to half way between Lahore and Islamabad. So let’s check out what this ‘Diamond’ spell out for you. Number one that the word diamond starts with D and D stands for discovery, D stands for your determination, D stands for your dreams, D stands for your continuous development and D stands for your decisions. Do if you want to have diamond, have these five qualities for you. The next letter is I. I stands for your intelligence, it stands for ideas you are able to generate, it stands for the information that you are able to access and it stands for interaction with yourself, with the people around you, with the organization’s you will be working with and with the society as a whole and the world at large. It stands for ideologies that you would have to succeed in this world and it also stands for your international outlook because this world is a global society and you cannot succeed if you can find yourself to the limits of your own locale.
The next letter is the letter A. This A is something really phenomenal. It stands for your absolute character, it stands for your adventures that you can experiment and think of, it stands for the advantages that you have, that you carry by virtue of your skills and it is stands for the accuracy of your predictions and your work. It stands for your achievements and milestones, it stands for your alertness and attentiveness, it stands for your assertiveness in the wave of challenges, and it stands for their actions. It stands for your activities, it stands for the art of well-being, it stands for your ambitions and it stands for an altruistic behavior and conduct in the society and it stands for your adaptiveness when change is constant. The next letter is M and what other letter could come at the center of the diamond. It stands for meaningfulness of your life, it stands for your motivation, it stands for your movement and your moving performance, it stands for your mutual ability, it stands for you making a difference, it stands for your modesty, it stands for your merit, it stands for the mercy that you would have for your fellow beings and it stands for your meditation when you would like to discover yourself. The next letter in this word diamond is O. The letter O stands for optimism, for your outstanding career, it stands for your continual open-endedness and open-mindedness, it stands for your originality for your innovation and it stands for finally your outcomes. It stands for the orientation that you have free of your prejudices and biases and it stands for your open heartedness and it stands for your onwards way in this life.
The word diamond also includes the letter N and this letter N stands for new, something new. In these times when we are walk down by standards and rules and policies, it is always difficult to stay in touch with something new, to call for something new. It stands for your nobility and it stands for your continuous nurture of yourself and it stands for your connection with the nature. The last letter D, it stands for your devotion, for your drive, for your delightfulness, for your daring actions, for your decency, for your dignity, for your dedication and for your appreciation of diversity. The last, if you are not content with one diamond then you can have several diamonds. So make it S, so add to this S and this S stands for your sincerity, for your soulfulness, for your simplicity, self-esteem, for your spellbound performance, for your serenity, for your spontaneity, for your style, for your sympathy, for your steadfastness and for your spectacularity.
Dear graduates, I could not afford to have bought diamonds for each of you, but I have given you the formula. I’ve given you the grammar and I have shared with you the makeup of the diamond. I empower you to make one diamond for yourself and make several and go on to make several of them and make as many as you want for yourself and for other human beings, for your office colleagues, for your friends, for your siblings and for your society. We will see many rough stones around there, so now you can understand and it is your call that you need to. I know you are happy that you came for the degree but here you are going out with diamonds. Degree are temporal and degree are for transitions, diamonds are forever and diamonds are meant to be transcendental. I thank you all and I wish those who are graduating in this convocation a great success in their life. I thank Dr Muhammad Aslam, his team, deans and directors of schools and institutes, the team who has organized this conference for organizing such a wonderful event. Thank you all.
Video # 57
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gpv4rwxYYa4
Topic: Change Required for Invention to Innovation
Event: 3rd Invention to Innovation Summit
Event Date: Not Available
Audience: Guests, Faculty and Students
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail, Poor Audio Quality
Total Time of Video: 21 Minutes and 06 Seconds
Summary:
Professor Dr Mujahid Kamran, Vice Chancellor Punjab University and a very distinguished scientist of Pakistan, Dr Manzoor Hussain, Chairman Pakistan Science Foundation who is trying to narrate and trying to expand the reach of science with education and training and research in Pakistan, Dr Amir Ijaz, Director ORIC Punjab University, distinguished members of faculty, visitors, ladies and gentlemen, my dear students, Assalamo O Alaykum.
Invention to Innovation Summit 2013 is a fresh wind in the sea of despair that we go through every day. It’s a fine morning and I’m glad that we are together here in the name of Invention to Innovation. It’s a unique privilege for all of us to celebrate in the spirit of invention and innovation. It is each invention or attempt to innovate is a milestone in the march of human thought. Human thought unstoppable, human thought is relentless, human thought knows no end, human thought has no beginning and no rest. It marches on and on. It evolves, it transforms, it overlaps, it builds one after another and it is led by incessant urge, human urge to be curious. It is driven by human urge to explore, to discover, to trace at the frontier and to lead afresh, to discover and make something new. And it is ultimately the march of invention and innovation which cultivates human thought, that adds value to how we live, adds value to how we work, how we behave, how we conduct ourselves and how societies evolve and progress over a period of time.
The pursuit of human thought coheres around human needs and wants, and it tries to determine choices and preferences of humans, groups of humans, segments of humans and attempts to relate itself with the wishes and desires of humans, their dreams, their ideas, their known wants as well as their unknown wants. Their desires that have already been expressed and their desires which even they have yet not been able to document or express. And this is the march of human thought that engineers the civilization, shapes the civilization, give itself an artifacts, its essential tools and builds various shapes and forms and kinds of civilization. It impacts human culture and enriches the beauty and essence of human life.
Ultimately what we get is things become easier, smarter, maybe smaller, very smaller, tiny, micro, nano or very bigger, voluminous, overwhelming like a building or Airbus A380 aircraft or maybe very lighter and lighter like mobiles or computers, faster, thinner, richer, adding features, features after features, blending, integrating, putting things together as much as possible, as many as possible, in as many ways as it is possible and cheaper and cheaper cost effective and looking prettier, looking more beautiful, making things feel better, giving its kind of sense of self fulfillment and reaching wider and wider market, discover new markets and conquering new sets of people and giving more and more to people, empowering them, taking less from them and giving more to them, and blending and mixing diverse features and options and unifying those things, converging those things into one. So this is the name of the game from invention to innovation. It’s all about insatiable urge, human urge to look at things as new, to find freshness. Humans get bored with things to which are stayed, human gets bored with one kind of things and they demand something new, something better. So this is insatiable need that then leads to and that triggers the invention and innovation.
In many ways invention and innovation also helps nations develop their national identity. We know Britain buy their steam engines, we know Japanese by this smart consumer appliances, we know Taiwan and China by the diffusion of Technology and their ability to produce massive level targeting the needs of the global human society. And we know Swedish, we know Finland for their glasses, for their technology, very sophisticated technology. We know the Germans for their precision, for their engineers, for their mastery in command over application of Technology. So invention and innovation is not something which is a smart thing to do. It is a part, it becomes part of national identity. It helps nations cultivate an image for themselves, an image of a nation is bent upon doing a constructive and positive contributions to human society. So this is something which is a part of the national agenda, this is something which should be a part of the priority list of the government of Pakistan.
We have tremendous human resource at our disposal in our Universities. There are 1 million students studying, having fresh minds, having the spirit. They have a life to lead. They have a mandate and then the charter, they are born in this age in this context they are made and geared to understand what is in present and what lies ahead in future. And it is then the youth who needs to be encouraged, stimulated, excited and who should be marching on the frontier, leading towards it. We have seen that innovation and invention today is being led by youth. Youth feels empowered because of the diffusion of technology. It is up to them, it is their choice, it is their thinking, it is their field that needs to be tapped as a national resource. This youth is the main harbor, main hub of any innovation and invention system.
At national level certainly we need to take care of a lot of things to make invention possible, to provide a conducive environment so that the creative part, creative zeal of youth can be harnessed for national productivity and progress. We must have good governance. Responsive and responsible governance, so that there is fairness, there is justice and youth feels at peace and launch themselves to the constructionist part of the life, to transforming the life rather than grappling with the unfairness, feeling victimized and solving the issues of peace and law and order and being all the time disturbed and disrupted by the overall environment. We need to provide peace through good governance. And then certainly there should be a long term policy for the development of human capital as such. Engineers at various levels, the hierarchy of Engineers, some really outstanding researchers in engineering, some outclass professionals in engineering, some technologists and then technicians and then technical workers. So all of those kinds, similarly in all of the fields like science, biology, life sciences, and telecommunication. We need to have a blueprint that how we are going to deploy these 120 million youth for the progress of this nation in the next 20 years. Each individual should find a space, should have a position, should have a value and we must tap the mindset, their innovative capability. We must develop in them the urge to contribute, the urge to employ their best skills, their creative mind so that they can become source to this nation, they can become asset to this nation and to the world as such.
Then certainly there is a lot that needs to be done at the level of industry. Currently industry and academia are working in isolation, in their silos. Industry and academia must join hands, mutually embedded, enriched in partnership so that whatever goes on in terms of thinking and advancing in knowledge and finds an avenue to translate theory to practice in the industry. And whatever industry requires becomes agenda of the academia, so that the research, investment in research is useful, is gainful, is productive. So industry and academia have to join hands. There should be very strong emphasis on real world exposure, on field work, on getting out of the classrooms into the industry, into the market, into the factories, into the society and then tuning and aligning the academic inputs accordingly.
We have certainly a great reservoir of human resources and mineral resources. We need to put all of it together, as a nation as well as institutions, and try to work simultaneously on all fronts. Essentially the culture of invention and innovation requires just one characteristic, which is in build and in grained in humans by Allah SWT, and that is to think, to reflect. It doesn’t need fuel, it doesn’t need power, it doesn’t need money, and it doesn’t need land. It needs self-confidence and ability to think. Unfortunately due to centuries of our mental slavery, we are no more or highly may be constrained to think independently, think freely, think creatively. We have to train our generations in just this one very basic essential skill. We must train them to think boldly, to think loudly, to think practically, to think contextually, to think productively, to think critically, to think reflectively, to think natively, to think futuristically, to think naturally, to think analytically, to think naturally, to think spontaneously, to think collaboratively, to think professionally and to think technologically.
Can we think, this is the question that I want to raise as the central challenge, prime and foremost challenge for us as a nation? Do we train our kids in classrooms to think? Our classrooms represents a cantonment like culture where teacher is boss, teacher is dominating, where students are told to shut their mouths, students are submissive, they’re asked to remain silent and the ones who are active, who are thriving, who are restless are being told, are being categorized as abnormal in classrooms. So our classrooms are designed to produce a nation of labors and workers, factory workers who can work, who can remain pacified, who would be untouched by whatever goes on, unmoved, who lose their thriving and spontaneous nature, who becomes silent, submitted, subordinated and then whatever goes on in the world, they feel that we are helpless, I just have to shut up, not move, not do anything. So that is the kind of culture that we promote in our schools.
I’ve been to schools in Finland, I’ve been to schools in Japan, I’ve been to schools in China and I’ve seen children playing in classroom, I’ve seen children talking, raising questions, I’ve seen classrooms with no subject to be taught, children teaching themselves, raising questions, free instructions, without any topic, without any scope, without any curriculum. So these are the people who are being trained to become leader, who are being trained to become thinker, who are being trained to become to meet innovation and invention. So this is something that we need to rest from right from the school level and then onwards, also at the family levels, also at the level of our homes with our future generations.
We need to make sure that the kids’ spirit remains alive even if we are in the middle age or if we are old. We remain in our minds just like a kid, who is fresh, who is there for new ideas, who is always encouraging and who is always looking at what is next, what’s next possible, rather than be complicit and compromising and satisficing with the status quo. So there is this requirement to change our school system so that we can think. And then there is also need to change our university, the way universities operate. Our examinations system is now outdated. Our textbook based curriculum also needs to be revamped so that we can really harness the talent that we have. Otherwise people come, they study, they pass, they qualify, they go out but yet not fully developed and this is the irony of our education system which we need to transform so that these universities become hot beds of invention and innovation and so that when we they go out, they don’t just have the knowledge of whatever has been achieved so far but they have the burning desire to act to that knowledge, to invent, to innovate and to think. Thank you very much.
Video # 59
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2ZwUTLj15E
Topic: Gratitude and Achievements
Event: 9th UMT Convocation
Event Date: Year 2013
Audience: Guests, Faculty, Parents and Students
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 27 Minutes and 6 Seconds
Summary:
Honorable Patron, Governor Punjab Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar, presiding over the 9th convocation of the University of Management and Technology. Chief Guest Minister for Education, Higher Education, Youth, Sports Rana Mashud Ahmed Khan, representing the Chief Minister of Punjab whom we have invited as chief guest but who have nominated Rana Mashud Ahmed Khan to represent him. Malik Shahid, who was the first Muslim minister in UK and who is with us in this convocation, members of Board of Trustees, members of Board of Governors, respected faculty members, winners of medals and prizes, distinguished position holders, my dear graduates who are successful and who are cheerful today, my dear parents who are happy and fortunate to witness the passing out of their graduates, ladies and gentlemen Assalamo O Alaykum warahmatullah.
All praises are devoted to none but the Allah SWT, Who has treated us and has made it possible to hold this convocation and reach this far. Who enabled us and Who I’m sure is much delighted to see this event and Who is certainly a key witness to all that we do here. Who unleashed whatever is there, whatever was there and whatever is going to be there by a very easy command that is ‘Kun’, ‘Kaaf’ ‘Noon’ Kun, which means ‘BE’. When He says BE, it becomes whatever He desires, whatever He aims at. He governs with the keyboard which has just one key and that is ‘Kun’. To Him we owe our gratitude because whatever we have has come from Him. To Him we owe our obedience because He governs and He rules.
Let us bring together ourselves in totality, our minds, our hearts and our souls with the consciousness of that one perfect man who decisively concluded a series of great men that started with Adam nor Solomon, David, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, who was the final prophet. Who took pride in being a teacher and who was mandated with a simple word that is ‘Iqra’, Read. His life has one title and that is ‘Read’. His accomplishments, his achievements, whatever he said, whatever he did, whatever is the outcome is only an explanation of that simple word ‘Read’, ‘Iqra’, and we have been mandated to read. And that is what we are representing here, that is what we are celebrating there.
This is the ninth convocation and we are celebrating the reading that we have done. We are celebrating the successes of our faculty and students, and I’m glad I cannot fail to notice that this is the first time that the Patron of UMT, the Governor Punjab has made it and he’s here presiding over. Thank you very much Mr. Patron. Mr. Patron has come from UK but he went to UK from Pakistan, and when he was there his existence continued in Pakistan. His heart was throbbing for Pakistan. I have known him for a long time. He was a frequent visitor to Pakistan and Pakistanis from all cities were frequent visitor to him. He was the voice of Pakistan in Europe and he is a very dynamic person, a very successful business professional. He is very successful political leader. He is highly talented and skillful. He has made a mark by winning the urban seat of House of Commons from the city of Glasgow and retaining it successively for three times. His son has now taken over that position. So I am glad that he represents the Government of Punjab and I am sure that during his stay, he will not be there to have breakfast and lunch and dinner only.
I sometimes receives his calls late night when I have gone to sleep at 11/11:30, yesterday I received a call at 11:30 pm. So he’s there working day and night. I’ve met him many times. He has planned to provide safe and clean water to the schools, to the children studying in school in rural areas because provision of safe water, clean water, we’re going to have tremendous impact in the health of our young generation. And he has already coordinated efforts with many NGOs and has started to make plans how to improve this social and civil infrastructure in Punjab. We wish him good will in this attempt and we are there with him at every step, providing him our full support and contribution.
I’m glad that Chief Minister has nominated none other but Rana Mashud as his representative here. He is not new to UMT. He has been with us many times and he has invited us many times to his house and in Punjab Assembly when he was there. He is Minister for Education and last time when he was there I suggested to him that next time he should take up this position and I am glad that he is now Minister for Education, responsible for schools, colleges and higher education, and I am sure that he will materialize the plans of the Chief Minister for upgrading and expanding the education in Punjab. People of Punjab know him by the number of records, numerous records that were broken and that were established in the Punjab Youth Festival. He has made a history in Guinness Book of World Records and I am sure that the provision of parks, sports facilities all around and holding of these youth festivals frequently and regularly would help the talent, the youth talent to come forward at a global level, InshAllah.
I’m glad that that this convocation is being held at a very momentous and historical time. The landscape of higher education is changing fast. We are not only expected to provide instruction of courses and teaching through power points, some experiments in laboratories. Higher education means much more to the society now. The government looks forward to, look up to higher education, institutions of higher education for guidance in policy formulation. People look forward to the professors in higher education for inspiration, for guidance, for direction, for debate and discourse to see and evaluate what is good for the society. Parents and families look forward to higher education to convert their assets, their children into meaningful and productive assets, and make them employable, useful for the society.
Nation expects higher education to connect itself with the future, to connect past with the present and build the roots and foundation of future in the present time. We understand how the expectations, how the horizons of higher education are undergoing a sea of change, and we will remain alert to it, we remain very much conscious of this, that UMT when it goes from, it transforms itself from the initial formative stage to a stage of growth and maturity, it will have the capability to address itself as an institution providing not just higher education but also making itself relevant, useful and meaningful in every possible way for the future of nation, for our government, for our families and societies, for the people who are working as faculty and staff and for the students would join us to earn their degrees and go through the programs.
It is always ladies and gentlemen, as a rector I have always asked to represent the report of UMT in in the convocation. I don’t think that it will be possible for me to summarize the report in the few moments that I have. I just wish to remind everyone that our vision is very simple, ‘lead’, ‘leading’, ‘leadership’ and our mission it is again very simple, ‘learn’, learning to learn, learning to do, learning to lead, learning to live, learning to be, learning to achieve, learning to support, learning to serve. Leading and Learning I believe they explain and they establish the crucial link that I just alluded to in my opening remarks, the word ‘Kun’ and the word ‘Iqra’. Learning is about ‘Iqra’ and leading is making things happen, leading is turning around, leading is making a difference and that is ‘Kun’.
So as a vegan servant of Allah, I think it is the best worship that is expected of us that we participate in this process of creativity, in this process of ‘Kun’. As Allama Iqbal has said, that word ‘Kun’ was not said or uttered only once. It is the continuous song, there’s a continuous rhythm that goes on, ‘Kun Kun Kun’. And in that ‘Kun’, through our leadership, through our creativity, through our advancement we would like to developed people so that they can participate in that creative process of the revolution of our nation and society. And learning, I believe that we cannot lead without learning. Learning is the essential ingredient of leadership. We cannot have good leaders unless they are good learners and we cannot have good learners unless they are also good leaders. So this, they complement both each other and also the complemented before as well ‘Kun’ and ‘Iqra’.
At UMT, we are inspired by that vision of ‘Kun’ and ‘Iqra’, and we have initiated about 150 diverse programs in fields, the latest count is perhaps 117 plus. We have 375 full time base of faculty members and 7,000 students. Recently we established a campus in Sialkot. This is Mr. Patron the first ever campus in the city of Sialkot, that was established by UMT and I am pleased to record that it has been the honor of UMT to open the gates of higher education for the citizen of Sialkot. In 65 years this was the first time and it is not that we went they’re just a year or two ago, we select Sialkot as our city for connecting with business and industry in 1995 and we have been working there with business and industry, providing them consulting. And our long standing footing in Sialkot then culminated in the form of opening of the campus. It’s our unique pride.
We are now planning to open another campus InshAllah in the city of Rahim Yar Khan and that will again be InshAllah the first ever campus, first ever institution offering higher education in Rahim Yar Khan and we select cities on the basis of the critical needs of the development of our nation. We selected Rahim Yar Khan because it is a point where we can draw traffic from a person from Baluchistan, from South Punjab. It’s a very strategic location. It’s the center of the resources of Pakistan and especially for agriculture and hydro resources. So I hope that we will have the patronage and support of the Governor of Punjab. Mr. Patron, we don’t need anything from you. We need your blessing, we need your support, we need your nod and that’s about it. The rest I’d leave to our students, our faculty, our alumni they’re all ready to provide for it and we hope that we will be able to start it very soon. I’m pleased to announce that we are in the process of acquiring another facility which is for about 200 canals very near to the expo. We have this 165 canals here and that campus spread over 200 canals will focus on life sciences, biological sciences, agricultural sciences and medical sciences. So InshAllah we hope to start our programs in three years times after building the infrastructure in that 200 canals.
That was I believe the summary of some of the important achievements that we have made. We are trying, we’re making an attempt to globalize our programs and we have seen visitors from outside, people who have joined us for internship and I’m pleased to report that now we have a faculty member from Spain, Aurora who is part of our faculty member and who has come from after graduating from Harvard Law School to teach with us at UMT. We have also focused upon assurance of learning through accreditation and I am pleased to note that this batch graduating in Business Administration have not only in national accreditation but also regional accreditation granted by South Asian Quality Systems based upon the AMDISA, Association of Management Development in South Asia. Mr. Patron, I can say that our business programs are right now the best accredited in Pakistan. It is the only program in Pakistan having regional as well as national accreditation, and now we are going forward to European and American accreditation. That was about that I wanted to share some glimpses of UMT. I cannot count the new courses, the efforts made by our faculty for research and development, the conferences we have gone through, the papers that have been submitted and that had been published, the mark that has been made by our faculty in mentoring and coaching our students, the investment that has gone through to strengthen the linkage between industry and academia and many other things that goes on in day and night in this very vibrant communities of leaders and learners.
Dear graduates, I turn to you now and I’ll come to you with a few shots. I want to apologize. I want to apologize and want to stand corrected. We told you a few things and we want to take it back now. The first thing that I want to correct is that we told you when you joined us in orientation that we want to prepare you for future. I want to tell you that there is no future for you. You have no future. What you have is now, right now, here and now. So your chance will not wait for you to rise up tomorrow or next week or next month. Whatever you want to do, do it now. There is no future, there is no second in future unless you do something and work and do something for yourself and do something very useful. So don’t wait for future, there is no future.
All you have is present and it’s here and it’s urgent. So you have to pick up the speed now. We told you that we want to prepare you for the real world, there is no real world. There is no real world where you will walk in, which will open doors and windows for you. All you have is your own world, your own sight, your own thinking. The way you do, the way you act and the way you create your own world, the way to enact yourself is what will count. There is no real world out there, it’s your world, it’s your call and it’s your implication. Third, we told you that learning goes on. Its lifelong learning, lifelong learning. There is no lifelong learning. All you have is experience and experiencing it now, experiencing with the time. So there is no comfort and convenience available to you for lifelong learning and lifelong learning. So you have to have learning with experience. Whatever you will experience is whatever you will do. So you have to have experience in order to have the lifelong learning.
And thank you very much Dr Khalil for starting this convocation with the word which talks about accountability that each one of us, each soul should see, should evaluate what he has sent forth for tomorrow. So that is experience, that is what you hold for tomorrow. Dear graduates, we loaded you with credit hours, with courses, with assignments, with quizzes, with textbooks, with presentations and everything. Let me admit, it was all useless. You wasted your time, you wasted your money. It will be of no use to you. Simple reason, everything is available on Google. Whatever you wanted to know, Google it, you will get it. Why did you come to us, why did you study with us, why did you spent some time with us? But dear graduates what you cannot Google is your ambition, is your dream, is your idea, is your innovation, the rest I believe everything can be Google’d or Yahoo’d or Bing’d or Safari’d but it is your ambition that counts. Why would you go to Google, why would you click Google, why would you ask Google if you do not have this idea, if you do not have a need, if you will not have the question mark? So make sure that you have the idea, you have the question mark, and you have the need.
And this brings me to the next step, we will give you degrees today but that those degrees dear graduates will be a piece of paper, type written and printed through laser. What’s important is your spark. Do you have this spark? Do you have the momentum? Do you have what it takes? So it is your spark, live by your spark and believe in yourself and hold on to yourself accountable for that. Your spark is the most important asset for yourself. And lastly, Facebook is important, Twitter is important but face to face relationship, face to face conversation is more important. I am seeing that we are sacrificing our relationships at the altar of Facebook and other things. It is face to face interaction that is most important. With these advice, I would like to conclude my remarks and we will proceed with our convocation, InshAllah. Thank you very much.
Video # 60
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puTbxSjaoXk
Topic: Understanding of Objectives in Life
Event: New Intake Welcome
Event Date: Year 2011
Audience: Faculty & Students
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail, Poor Graphics & Very Poor Voice Quality
Total Time of Video: 43 Minutes and 5 Seconds
Summary:
My dear respected members of the faculty, Deans, Chairpersons of the Departments, Heads of the support offices and my dear parents, my dear students, Assalamo O Alaykum.
It is indeed a pleasure for me this morning to welcome all of you at the corridors, classrooms and venue of University of Management and Technology. As Pro-Rector pointed out, this is not merely a welcome to a new place, this is also welcome to fulfillment of your dream, this is welcome to your ambitions, welcome to your plans, welcome to the challenges ahead, welcome to the life of learning, welcome to the life of leadership, welcome to the community of new friends, welcome to new thoughts, welcome to new discoveries, welcome to new research, welcome to new teachers and welcome to your own new world, new horizons. Welcome to New Life.
This day is just as usual another day in the history of this world, just as usual the sun rose and was able to shine all across. Sun blessed us with the light and energies, we could see our pathway and we could start the work. But for you, for whom this is the first day in the university, this is perhaps a remarkable day, historical day, and a memorable day. This is beginning of new beginnings, this is a startup of new you and no other day perhaps would match the significance of this day in your life. Let me request you if you have a picture of yourself in your pocket, if you carry your ID or any other thing, please take 30 seconds get that picture and look at that picture of you, just now please. I want you to look at your picture in your ID now please. So that you must have seen yourself in the mirror and mirror would also have once again glimpsed you the way you are and mirror also becomes habitual although they don’t have any memory but every day they see you and every day you see your ID, your picture of your own self. Which other picture should be or could be of more importance to you, of more interest to you than yours. So why don’t you have a look at that picture for 30 seconds. I’ll give you 30 seconds off now, so just look at the picture of yourself please. Because this is an exercise and I’ll come back to it later.
I can see many of you smiling, looking at your own face, many of you grinning, many of you bit reflective or pensive and some of you may be worried looking at your own picture, all right. So the most important being in your life to begin with is your own being, it is your own self. Reason I asked you to look at your picture is to throw your attention to your own self, because we forget ourselves, we lose touch of ourselves, we miss directing ourselves, we miss relating ourselves with our inner self, we are not as interested in ourselves as we should be, we are not as keen to shape it, to move it, to develop it. We often times feel bored looking at ourselves, as if I wish it were not me, I wish I were different, I wish I had a different face, my nose is bit like this, my lips need some but it should have been bit different, my color should have been something like this. So we have lot of comments about our face ok.
But the most important thing is you and the point I want to try home today is that please meet that you. This ‘YOU’ is Y O U, if you look at the spelling of this ‘YOU’ this is Y O U. And just for a minute look at this how beautifully it also provides you the sense of this ‘YOU’. The world ‘Y’, take it as ‘why’, W H Y, why. The first letter of the world ‘YOU’ is ‘Y’ take it as W H Y, why. And the middle letter is ‘O’, which means ‘Oh’ and then ‘U’, Y O U. So whenever you read the word ‘You’, read it as, Why Oh You. If you would make yourself habitual of raising this question again and again, of responding to it, of reflecting on it, ‘Why Oh You, Why Oh You, Why Oh You’, day and night before taking any initiative, before spending something, before focusing on something, at the start of day, at the close of day, at every opportunity, at every episode, at every event, if you will make this your habit of looking at it ‘You’, when someone says ‘You’, you should read it ‘Why Oh You’, and you will be guided to the right path, you will be guided to your senses, you will be guided to your rational being, you will be guided to the fulfillment of your existence, you will be guided to the understanding of yourself.
If you know what is Physics, if you know what is Chemistry, if you know what is Engineering, if you know what is Marketing but you don’t know ‘Why Oh You’, if you have little understanding of your own self, you’re not aware of your personality, you’re not aware of that human being that who is this human being and if you are not consciously living, if you don’t exist consciously, if you are not employing your full senses and consciousness to determine the direction of your existence, your worth to develop your self-image, then I am sorry that you will be lost. Because stones lying on the roads or these leaves falling from the trees, they all are worthless, they don’t have consciousness. Winds can blow them from east to west without them having any capability to resist. So if you have your consciousness then it will give you the self-image, it will give you the idea of objectives, it will give you a sense of your mission, it will give you a perception of how things are relevant to you and how you can be better, how you can improve upon yourself, how you can excel.
These degrees, these universities are only clues, they provide you the environment, and they help you if you are conscious about them, if you are willing to let them help you, if you have that learning capability. So if you want to learn, the first thing you need to do is take some interest in you and discover your ‘I’, what is your ‘I’, that ‘I’, man. This ‘I’ as a result of you meeting you, at yours, in you, within you, as a result of that reflection, as a result of that exercise, you will discover the world of ‘I’, who is me, ‘I’. And this ‘I’ will change every moment, this ‘I’ will change every week, every month because of your performance, because of your character, because of your refinement of your thinking, because of your eyes that would be able to see higher and higher and farther and farther, because of your maturity and because you have gone through already miles and you would be having a better shape, a better idea of ‘I’. If you are not aware of ‘I’, then what is this all about? This degree will not help you, these teachers, their exams, these books, these computers, they would not be of help to you at all.
So your target today is ‘I’, to discover ‘I’, to know this ‘I’, to figure out this ‘I’, so that you can shape it, you can mold it, you can build it, you can develop it, you can cast it, you can chisel it, you can construct it, you can renew it, you can it and you can launch it and you can be then confident about yourself because you would know your worth, you would know who you are and if you know who you are then people would also take you as what you think you are. If you are not aware of who you are then people would enforce their choices upon you and more often than not they will come back and tell you are a slave, that you are deformed, you are handicapped, you are weak, you are distorted and you have drawbacks, you have weaknesses and so on so forth. So if you want the world to see you the way you like them to see you then please first of all meet yourself, at yours, within you so that you will engage yourself and involve yourself to determine who is this ‘I’. This ‘I’ is different for everybody.
This ‘I’ for me is different than yours and yours is different from this person sitting at your back or in your front or left and right. Allah SWT has created this great heterogeneity diversity and to enrich, because this is the world which is for us to lead, which is for us to conquer, to command, to taskheer (victory), this is the challenge for us, this is the task that has been ordained to us and if you can configure your ‘I’ in view of this challenge, I’m sure you will be one of the greatest, one of the greatest human being that has walked on this planet. The one who sees all of this universe, all this galaxy in the mirror of this ‘I’. That was all that Allama Iqbal wanted to tell us through his falsafa of ‘Khudi’, that was all the Rumi told us, that’s all the Quran says, that’s all that our dear prophet Muhammad (SAW) told us, because when you will figure out ‘I’, then you will find your interest, what is your interest, you will find things which are of interest to you, you will expand the horizon of interest, what is of interest to you, and once you will have that interest then you will have ideas as to how I can meet those interests, pursue those interests.
So if you will discover ‘I’, you will determine your interest and you will be able to marshal ideas to pursue those interests and then you will not get stopped at only determining your interests and ideas because that is perhaps the job of a poet. You are not here to become a poet or just a writer, you are not stopping at only interest and ideas, you need then initiatives. You need to take bold initiatives to see something being done by you, something being achieved by you, actions. That is what is required. So once you have interests, then ideas, then initiatives, then you will have to implement them. You will have to implement all across your ideas.
Because people would not give you way, they would not take you seriously. If you have interests, all of us have interests, so what? If you have ideas, many people are burning with ideas, so what? If you have initiatives, yes, many people also come around to take some initiatives but most of them fail in implementation. So its implementation that is required and then comes, from this implementation will come the impact, the outcome. So this discovery of ‘I’ my dear, will take you to series of inquiries where you will be able to find out what is of interest to you, what ideas can help you pursue those interests, how you can then transform those ideas and formulate some initiatives and then how you can implement those initiatives and create an everlasting impact all across.
So this is you and I said that this is ‘I’ that you have to figure out, this is ‘I’ that we have to find out and this ‘I’ means interest, this ‘I’ means ideas, this ‘I’ means initiatives, this ‘I’ stands for implementation and this stands for impact. And not just that, there are lot of other words coming to my mind starting from this word ‘I’ which are of relevance to you when you try to develop a picture of ‘I’. Information, information is the name of the game today. We are facing explosion of information. So what is your take every minute, every hour on information? How fast you are and even the word fast is becoming slow, how flashy you are, can you just like the ‘I’, just like the way this ‘I’ works, you flash and you can get the whole impression, you can get the whole information. And then not just information, this is the world which is highly interconnected. You have to connect all the dots, all the ‘I’s. If I think of my ‘I’, if I think of myself and my ‘I’ and I don’t think of the ‘I’s of these people who are sitting before, sitting here in front of me then it would be great injustice.
That is dictatorial, that is authoritative, that is negation of my ‘I’ because ‘I’ don’t exist in isolation, ‘I’ exist with you, and ‘I’ work with you, for you. So when you discover your ‘I’, also discover interconnectedness. And your interconnectedness with the people around you, you’re interconnectedness with the city in which you live, your neighborhood, your country, your region, your Muslim Ummah and this whole global humanity. You have to interconnect with all of them. So this is information and interconnectivity.
And then this also brings to us the interpersonal skills. If you are good in ideas, you are fantastic in initiatives but you are not conducive, you are not collegial, you abuse relationships, you are nasty to others, you are coercive, you are unfair and unjust, then this will not take you any farther. Because we need good interpersonal skills as well. So information, interconnectivity, interpersonal skills. That is also very, very important. And then another ‘I’ that comes to my mind is integration. You have to integrate it all. If you are doing this here, doing that there, this morning this thing, that evening another thing and so on so forth, and you’re not integrating it all, your each step is wayward. Then you are fragmenting, you are dividing yourself, you are losing touch. So integration is very important. This is perhaps my ninth ‘I’.
And finally another ‘I’, which is very, very important, that ‘I’ is the ‘I’ which stands for Islam. Islam is the way of life for all of us. It sums up everything. It is the beautiful message that Allah SWT has given us.
A lot of us don’t feel as proud to be Muslims as we should because of the pressures and the onslaught that we face today but believe me Islam is the best religion, Islam is the way of life, Islam is our salvation, Islam is our success and I have my identity because of this Islam. I know where I’m lost, I’ll be ambiguous, I will deny my being if I deny this Islam.
So my dear young people, the batch, the class of 2015, the class of 2014 & 13, these are the 10 ‘I’s that I can give to you today. Please take that as a gift from your elder, as a head of this institution. You have come here for this place first time and it was my duty not to let you go without giving you a gift and I could not arrange a gift for all of you individually but this my suggestion that when you go home today, buy a notebook and meet yourself, make an appointment with yourself, meet yourself, find out your strengths and weaknesses, find out what is your identity in the eyes of your parents, find out what is your identity in the eyes of your brothers and sisters, in the eyes of your neighbors, in the eyes of your friends, find out what have you done so far, what have you achieved so far, what you could not do you wanted to do and what is it that you can do but others are not letting you do. So it is time for you.
You are serious, you got to be serious now. Your parents have done enough to bring you here and to provide you what is required to sustain yourself here. It is you who have to be successful now, it is you who have to honor the wish of your parents, it is you who is now obliged and obligated to discharge the duties as young person and we look forward to you. We look forward to the best in you, we look forward to nothing but hard work in you and this ‘I’ also stands for ingenuity. We look forward to your creativity, we look forward to your innovativeness, we look forward to your inventiveness, and we look forward to you invigorating. If you walk to this campus every day as a dull being just like furniture or pillars, if you are standing like loitering, if your eyes are not radiating, if you’re dressing and if your face is giving some impression that you are just not here, you are lost, it would be too bad, you will miss the opportunities. Because every class is important, every class provides the opportunities to raise new questions, inquiry, another ‘I’. Inquiry, you are here for Inquiry, you are here for ingenuity, and you are here for innovativeness.
This is the time when you are responsible, highly responsible learner. As Dr Rashid pointed out, our vision is leadership and our mission is learning. We require you to lead, we demand you to lead, we expect that you would lead and in order to lead, you will have to learn, and learn on your own, don’t be shy of yourself. Because when you copy something from another fellow, assignment or from text books, you are denying yourself the chance to study, you deny yourself the chance to take up the challenge and improve upon. It must look very smart thing to do that instead of spending three hours doing something on your own, why not get this copy from someone. But would you like to remain this way handicapped? What will happen to you when you will go to the corporate sector for interview? What will happen to you when the same task will be assigned to you and you will fail to do because you haven’t done it on your own? This cheating is like allowing other person to snatch from you your life.
Cheating and teaching are two opposite things. They have no resemblance, they have no connection. You know this is a great crime, serious crime that you want to learn and yet in the process of learning you are cheating, what to talk of the performance? You look at the country Pakistan, what is happening in our governance, what’s happening in our bureaucracy, what’s happening in business and industry. If ‘I’ stands for Islam then I stands for complete code of life, moral conduct, truthful, trusty, these are important variables.
If somebody stands here and nauzbillah tear apart a page of Quran, many of you will come and kill the person right now and will feel that it was the requirement of the faith and you will go straight to Jannah, right. If someone stands here and somehow says things which are indecent about our prophet, you will come and kill the person right now. What if we don’t follow what our prophet said, what Quran has said and you are tearing apart that page of Quran, you are disrespecting your prophet and you feel happy, so what should be your reaction to yourself? So it is easy to judge others, it is easy to punish others, it is easy to find fatwas for others, but it is very difficult to apply the same on own. It also for myself as much as anyone else.
So my dear, if whatever Allah has said is right, if whatever the prophet of Allah said is right, then respect those things, and you will be great, you will have a few numbers, few assignments with less number may be C or D, but you are C or D right now. How can you be A if you will not discover that you are C or D and then you can make progress? But if you think you are C and you are copying, then I can assure you that you will stay C. You will see yourself as C all the way because even if you copy something from a B grade or A grade, you won’t be able to get A or B. It is very difficult. We as teachers know what is what, okay. So if you are C then attack yourself upfront and if you have something that you don’t know then go to your faculty, ask them not once, twice thrice. Go to them anytime. Write to their emails, all right. Go to their chairpersons, their deans. If you cannot understand anything, then you are our focus, you are our agenda, and then you are a student we have to concentrate more.
But if you won’t let us know that you don’t know, how can we know? So my dear, be honest in this learning process, be truthful, be sincerely yourself, be fair to yourself and abide by the moral conduct, the ethical conduct. You can’t be false, you can’t fool around. This is the system. This is a whole elaborate very well laid out system. If you are in a four year program then you will have at least 40 courses taught by 40 faculties. How can you fool around all of them? Maybe one or two or three or some more, you will be exposed, you will be discovered. If you will not discover yourself and do something about it, we will eventually discover you. So be honest, be fair and be just and do your best. InshAllah you will be great.
This is the world you are living in and you have to not just learn, you have to learn what to learn, you have to learn to do, you have to learn to work, you have to learn to live, you have to learn to eat and you have to learn to be, to be a human being, to be what you want to be, to be what you should be, what you could be. So this is the learning process and if you will ignore that then I’m sorry that you will not be able to go farther and this whole degree will be a waste of time.
This world is waiting for you. This world is waiting for the engineers, for the managers, for the leaders. Those who know themselves. Others, they send the resumes but they don’t tell anything that what they are all about, what this person is all about. There’s a difference in quality. So you have to produce the quality. Look at the winners who are the owners of Google, billionaires who are the owners of Yahoo, billionaires who are the owner of Facebook, billionaires who are the owners of Dell computers and many, many more billionaires and millionaires who innovated while they were students. These people became billionaires while they were students. Look at Steve Jobs the owner of the Apple, look at Bill Gates the owner of Microsoft. They had that ingenuity, inventiveness, that innovation, that interest, that ideas, that initiative, implementation, impact, interpersonal skills, interconnectedness and they had that commitment that they would excel. So they became billionaire, why can’t you become billionaire?
The owner of Facebook, do you think it was like rocket science that you need PhD to make Facebook? To develop a new supply chain for computers and make computers or come up with Yahoo, a search engine? Very common sense thinking but they were ahead of their time. They were young, they were looking at the future, they were not having any big burden by victim psyche, oh I can’t do this, they were not discouraged, they were not shifting the burden on other, and they were ready to take charge of their ideas, of their interests, of their implementation and of their impact. You can also be a billionaire, you can also be millionaire if you are ready to discover your ‘I’.
I’ll close my speech here and will just also recommend to you two things. One is, it is very important for you to access information and I’m sure most of you have access to computers but if you don’t, please buy a computer. And better if you have a laptop because you can bring that laptop in the class, you can record the lessons. You can take pictures of the board through mobile, see through the laptop. Whatever is being discussed you can access through laptop right away and find out more information and surprise the teacher. So better if you have the laptop and we have arranged something with Acer Computers and they have the stall here on two year lease. So I am sure that it is like pen and notebook today. You can type straightaway to laptop whatever teacher is being said. So laptop is your book, laptop is your connectivity, access to information, and laptop is your bag, laptop is your backpack, laptop is your diary, everything is in laptop. So if you want to be smarter, then buy a laptop, this is a necessary investment that you have to do and you can buy it in two years.
Secondly, it’s very important for you to remain current. We are not current, we don’t have libraries in our residential areas. We have a very good library here at UMT and you can access it anytime you want. But let me suggest to you one thing and that is that since the whole world is converging and you have to develop your mindset, you have to be exposed to what is happening around the world. I would personally, I have no shares in this Tribune newspaper, and I would strongly suggest that you read any English newspaper every day. People come to us here and this is not just my complaint but also we share it when we meet as heads of institutions, that our ability to communicate is declining, is decreasing, and is not up to the mark.
If you have ideas, you have interests, you have ideas but if you don’t have communication who listen to your ideas, who you would communicate? You are silent. A silent person is nothing. It’s part of furniture, part of carpet as a silent mean. So you have to be communicating, you should know the language, you should know how it is being spoken, how it is being written and we have like four or five courses to take care of that in classroom but one thing which will have a tremendous effect in you is if you subscribe to like Daily Dawn, Business Recorder, but I would suggest Tribune. Because it has two newspapers at the cost of one. You know it costs you only like 15 rupees. For 15 rupees you can get Pakistani newspaper which is very good and gives you lot of information but you also get International Herald Tribune. Now this International Herald Tribune provides you the newspaper, the summary of the news that is printed by Washington Post, New York Times, things like that. So whatever President Obama is reading today in White House, all Senators, Congressmen reading, the heads of the world are reading and getting, you would read the same thing, you would be at par.
If you want to lead the world, you will not lead the world by wealth, you will not lead the world by muscles, you will lead the world by being ahead of others, by more skillful, better imagination, more knowledge, more information and if you read just Today’s newspaper, then you will feel, it adds to your communication, it adds to your knowledge, it adds to your writing, it adds to your speaking.
It is very important for you to spend at least half an hour with English. I can recommend other newspapers, other journals or periodicals as well but these are the two advices that I always give and I don’t leave without forwarding these two advices to the newcomers, and those who have done it, when they meet me after two three years, four years, they share the tremendous benefit that they have received. The advantage that this newspaper gives them when they go for interview. The knowledge that you get in classroom is static and also dynamic. The knowledge that you get here is something that happened just yesterday, something that happened just yesterday. So if you know what happened in two three years’ time back in the form of textbook, but you don’t know what happened yesterday, it will be too bad.
So I strongly recommend that you develop your mindset, your vocabulary, your knowledge and your language because you will be recognized by your language and if your language is poor, if your writing is poor, if your communication doesn’t speak of a confident being, then you are not a leader. You cannot be a leader, you will not be able to get a job, right it now. Don’t feel sorry after two three four five years. You will not have time to undo whatever you will be doing wrong during this time. Take advantage of that. Your parents are spending heavily on you and if you continue to waste time, not use it, not capitalize it, then it will be very unfair on your behalf with regard to the commitment that your parents have shown you.
Before I leave, I would like you to look at your picture once again please. For my sake look at your picture once again, don’t look at me look at your picture. I am just the same. But I am sure that if you would look at your picture again for a second, I’m sure you would feel there is a different picture. The picture is changing, you would see this picture is transforming, you would see that this picture is being disturbed, the outlines are changing, whatever in mind is changing, the forehead is the same but whatever is going on inside, it is changing. And if it is so, then welcome to the world of learning. Thank you.
Video # 61
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTELvrXWvVo
Topic: Business Schools and Conferences
Event: 2nd NBEAC Conference
Event Date: February 10th, 2015
Audience: Faculty and Management from Different Institutions
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 7 Minutes and 2 Seconds
Summary:
Intro missing
I have couple of speeches to make before breakfast. Number one, next conference is going to be held InshAllah in Lahore. The universities, business schools of Punjab will collaborate to make it better. I considered this conference to be sequel of the first one but the third one I hope we’ll go into more details. We will have a couple of pending sessions and then breakout sessions addressing issues, major issues in more detailed and exhausted manner. So next conference will be in Lahore. We also need to strengthen association of management development institutions in Pakistan and this theme of this conference was posturing collaboration and we have all understood it quite well that we need to converge, we need to collaborate, we need build bridges between the institutions, we need to work together at all levels. So AMDIP would bring faculty together. We have to provide an opportunity to faculty from all over the country, teaching in business schools to talk about teaching and learning, and from here we differentiate the two areas teaching and learning in business schools and managing the business schools. So this conference of AMDIP would be about teaching and learning in business schools and I am glad Dr Shahid, Rector of Lahore School of Economics have agreed to host it and we look forward to come together again in LSE InshAllah in the month of October or something around that. So these are the two areas.
We have also started a new initiative that would be to build Center of Excellence on different subject areas of teaching, so then we can have those centers take care of case studies, establishing teaching resource center, offering course outlines, collecting all the materials from all over the country as well as from the business schools around the world. So it is an open invitation to business schools. Dr Shahid again was appointed Chair of the Committee by the counsel to develop a framework so that we can identify the unique strengths of the business schools in different areas of teaching and then assign them the responsibility to become a Resource Center for other business schools in the country. So if we have an area of let’s say HR, entrepreneurship, supply chain, financial management, marketing research, so we would collect the data from business schools and they would be invited to present their credentials in the relevant areas and the committee would then identify the unique strengths and whichever institution would have the maximum strength would be given the task to become Resource Center for the business schools in the country. So this way you will be able to contribute towards the improvement of classroom and teaching and learning in the classroom providing quality learning to our students.
This would be centers on the basis of the competence and credentials of the business schools. The next thing which would be on geographical basis as we talked about and it has come again and again during various presentations, we need to gather on cluster basis so that we can take care of our common problems and capitalize upon the strengths. So I would like to once again invite the attention of all the business schools to form groups on cluster basis, we don’t want to impose anything from top but let’s say we can very easily build clusters in Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, Peshawar, Sukkar, Quetta and then have these clusters engage the business schools in an open-ended manner, on the basis of their voluntary participation. Look at the agenda, things can be done together and each cluster can then move forward and do things collectively. For example faculty training programs, research seminars things like that and then onwards we can have at least the doctoral programs organized with the clusters offering cross enrollments, cross teaching things like that which will be really very useful for our students.
So we look forward to cluster movement collaboration on the basis of the geographical clusters. We look forward to this initiative of signing various institutions the job of upcoming Resource Center for the business schools all over the country. So these are the things that we have InshAllah that we have before us and NBEAC would continue to address this agenda.
My second speech is, thank you very much to everyone, to business schools in Karachi, all of them have joined hands. Business schools from Sindh, Baluchistan has also come together and participated. I don’t have time to name each but they all have done a wonderful job taking the responsibility enthusiastically and with commitment. So thank you very much.
Video # 62
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5a7rMP5a9I
Topic: Closing Speech
Event: 1st UMT Leadership Program
Event Date: August 8th, 2018
Audience: Faculty and Students
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail & Video # 50 also included in start
Total Time of Video: 14 Minutes and 59 Seconds
Summary:
NOTE: This speech is missing a proper start. It starts as:
So let me just conclude the session. It started off very well with the presentation by Dr Jawad, and he gave us the core values very succinct and in a very pointed and poignant manner and I think we can take that recipe, that recipe that he has shared we can take that and simply and in a very stupid and blunt manner we can go ahead and implement it. It is guaranteed that it will work, so thank you for that recipe. Very rightfully Dr Gulzar referred to Farabi and then Nadler and brought the two ends together the inner and the outer and he gave us an understanding that how we can handle the various challenges and what can be the process, how we can handle the contradictions and paradoxes and how we can differentiate in the midst of those activities that we undertake and how we can develop a coherent mindset. So I think we can refer to that model and we can find meanings, we can develop interpretations. For you Dr Shaban also, I think that was very useful that how we can work our way forward. So that was very brilliant and I am very sorry that we could not have the time to listen to you and to see your presentation but I think that during the lunch hour we will see if we can benefit from that.
Jilil Sb. has also added a lot of value by I think referring to the work, the commitment and the will of the individual. So the bottom line that I could find is that he emphasized the role of the individual and how that individual can become a change agent, a transformative agent and how that individual can become a leader and develop a mindset, taking a stock of the past, of the history of what has been gained and what has been lost and then develop a future and how that individual can walk towards that future and take others along with him. So I feel that he has given us, he has charged us with that notion that it’s ‘we’, it’s ‘I’ that is more important.
Dr Aslam gave us the model that is available, that is quality model for quality assurance and excellence and what the essential pieces that have to be addressed are and that have to come together and that have to be aligned for the vision in the institutional context. So I think that was again a very good reminder of what is essential, what is fundamental and what is basic and as an institutional leadership, as part of institutional leadership as Dean and Chairpersons, what are the building blocks that we need to put together.
Let me close now by taking you to the outset and the onset. In many ways they represent a state. They have a state like institutional boundary, they have state like membership and citizenship and they have a state like leadership. So the universities are building blocks of the state and within them you know within the institution, the university they act and they work pretty much like a state. So they can be as meaningless, as ambiguous and as uncertain, as turbulent and as detached and remote as a state can be for a citizen. And yet they can be and having just bare minimum relevance of telling me that I’m a Pakistani and I hold a Pakistani ID and a Pakistani passport, and I have a residence within this state, that’s the minimum. But at a maximum I am motivated that being Pakistani is my identity and I have to work for my state, I have to help state perpetuate itself and to help this state to be growing and progressive and becoming respectable, dignified in future. Helping state solve its problems in the present times. So universities are pretty much like state and we as citizens are part of that state.
And universities have extraordinary significance the way they influence the life. The way they influence the world of work. The way they influence the functions of the state and the way they build the communities and they shape the state, they transform the state or they make the state fade away and become weaker and weaker. So I think that it is our good fortune that instead of being working in a corporate sector organization or just in any NGO or anywhere or running any business, we are part of a very dynamic institution which is the prototype of the state and which is the building block of the state, which has the DNA of a state and which is itself a cell of the state. And having tremendous, I would say universities would out compete all other institutions like media or others, having the capability to influence the life and work and business of the Society of people and institutions within the state. So that’s I think one thing and I can go on to the universities. Look at the influence that LUMS has been able to carry and mark in the world of business due to its successful leading MBA programs. Look at the influence of maybe PIEAS that how PIEAS has defined the technology and the knowledge and the application of the physics in Pakistan and so on and so forth. NDU, that how NDU has helped maybe the thinking and reflection on the defense of Pakistan. So universities means a lot for the state, university means a lot for the people. Not just the faculty and students who go to the university but society within which the university is having the life and within which the university is embedded. So it is indirectly also influencing the society overall and the state.
So here comes the challenge you know. Dr Gulzar talked about how to catch the cat which is just up there in the mountain. So I think one way is to land on the top of the mountain and then call the cat upwards, all right. Because if we start from below, cat will walk up and the distance will increase. So let’s go to the top and this is one thing that comes up to my mind and this defines then the role of faculty, role of students and expectations. So here is now open challenge, open spectrum and an open horizon for all of us to develop ourselves which is as a person who is then part of this kind of institution.
Secondly, the advancement and progress of nations in future depend upon university. Universities carry the nations to the future. So which means that I have to look to the future. We have to plunge ourselves into our current times. We have to of course make sense of what has gone before in the past. But we have to then be able to see long, take a long view of the future and do things now in this classroom, standing behind this rostrum, talking besides this board and showing the things on the slides, which will be futuristic, which will help them tomorrow, day after tomorrow. Because we are future builder and we are the architects of the future. So here is then the most exciting role of the faculty and that how we become someone who is from future and who is then developing this society, developing the people to be good at future time. So those who are here studying with us, they will have a career span of about 30 years, 40 years, starting from next 2, 3, 4 years. So let’s say from 2020 to 2060. So have we thought what’s going to happen 50 to 60, 40 to 50, 30 to 40, and do we talk about that? Do we have any ideas about that? Because if we have, I think we become a very good faculty member. So advancement and progress of nation, strength of nation depends upon the work of the faculty and this is the challenge for the faculty.
Third is, we are knowledge banks. We are knowledge capital houses and we are the custodians of knowledge and then we are the ones who would shape the knowledge and who would disseminate the knowledge, who would collect the knowledge and who would then advance the knowledge. So if we have left out something, if our command over knowledge, our mastery of knowledge is week, limited, confined and not to the full, not even up to the basics, then we are not faithful to the work of the university and we are ill-equipped to walk to the classroom. So mastery of the command and the command over the knowledge set that is required is the starting point, and that make us faculty. We become faculty because we are ahead in time that we have learned something, ahead of our students. We have learned something four, five, ten years before what we are teaching now and we are presumably better learner, smarter learner than them. So these are the two competitive edges otherwise our students today I think they are equally adept and smart with the help of the technology to find out what they need, without any recourse to any university or any textbook and they can develop their mindset and everything. So now we are in an arena where our students are empowered, equipped, they have access to knowledge. Their access to knowledge doesn’t depend upon the knowledge of the faculty, their access to knowledge is all pervasive and they can even know better and they are ahead of us maybe and more than us on any some issues.
So as a knowledge bank, if we are banking officer then we have to be trustworthy, we have to be ahead, we have to know about our role in that and if we just relate ourselves to the fact that universities are extraordinary institutions affecting the world of work and the lives of individuals and societies within the context of the state. Number two, that we are responsible for shaping and engineering our nation and society and its advancements and progress in future, and third that we are part of the knowledge bank and we are knowledge based teachers. I think these three things are enough to place us at the highest level where we should be and make our job in our life so interesting, so exciting, so over whelming that we would not have any second or any minute spent outside of it. Thank you very much.
Video # 63
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMJdLhnKDkg
Topic: Pak-Turkey Relations
Event: Conference
Event Date: Not Available
Audience: Turkish Delegation, Faculty and Students
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 11 Minutes and 28 Seconds
Summary:
His excellency, Ambassador Ehsan Mustafa Yurdukul, Rector UMT, Dr Mohammed Aslam, Director Center of Pakistan Turkish Studies, General Javed Hassan, respected guests from Turkey, from Pakistan, faculty members and my dear students, Assalamo O Alaykum.
It is once again a pleasure to host Ambassador Ehsan Mustafa. I am pleased to take note of the fact that perhaps he was able to schedule a visit to UMT in his first visit to Lahore. So we recognize the importance that he has given to us and we standby here to reciprocate his gesture InshAllah. Ladies and gentlemen, Pakistan and Turkey carry tremendous goodwill, legacy and history between the two nations. Pakistan and Turkey are two different countries but actually interpreted by one nation. Our colors are different but our spirit is same. At this moment I feel that Pakistan and Turkey both have a great challenge before then to lead the Muslim world, to lead the third world and to lead the humanity overall. Pakistan and Turkey share enthusiasm, zeal and converges of minds and values.
With respect to Pakistan, I would like to suggest that Turkey is in many ways ahead of Pakistan and Turkey is willing to facilitate progress and development of Pakistan. Population of Turkey is one third of the population of Pakistan but its exports are five time and even I believe seven eight times more the Pakistan. So imagine what can be learned from Turkey. GNP of Turkey is about again four times the GNP of Pakistan. So once again you can see that Turkey is at least one generation at of Pakistan if not two. So we can learn from Turkey, we can draw lessons from the progress of Turkey and we have such a friendship with Turkish people that there will be no reservation, there will be no restrictions, there will be no resistance on behalf of Turkey, on behalf of the people of Turkey to share the fruits of their progress and development in Pakistan and to lent a supporting hand to Pakistan so that Pakistan can also develop and pace up, Pakistan can also raise up to meet the gap. I feel that this is time we make serious efforts to translate our emotional bond to convert our goodwill and our linkage expanding over millenniums in the history and to be futuristic about this relationship now and to also assess how can we leverage this relationship to further progress and to accelerate our development.
I have been to Turkey as a nation more than perhaps any other country in the world and each time I go there, I feel delighted to see how Turkey is catching up, how Turkey is moving forward, how the dialogue and discourse within the nation is refining and maturing and how their envisioning their future among the community of the nations of the world, and how they are boldly, uncourageously willing to take up the responsibilities even beyond their limitations and sides, and how they are willing to respond to the challenges around the world to lead the nations of the world. Turkey has provided moral leadership to the world today. Turkey has raised voices where ever there is injustice. Turkey has protested and Turkey has been critical of any place or any event where the interest of the common people Muslims are non-Muslims has suffered. So Turkey has gotten up and Turkey has raised itself as the moral and ethical leader of the nations of the world. So I feel that Turkey is progressive, Turkey is becoming advance and more advance day by day. Turkey has found space to produce and manufacture what is needed in Europe, in Asia, in United States. It has developed differences on the basis of its national interest, on the basis of is ideology but on the other hand it has developed such businesses and industry and it has retained its competiveness in a manner and at a rank and in a position where countries of the world whether they like it or not, they are ready to establish mutually beneficial business linkages, there are ready to import and export to Turkey.
So I think Pakistan as a nation has a great deal to learn with the experiment of Turkey, especially sense the last AK Party has come to the power. I feel that Turkey has found its destiny and Turkey has been able to show rapid progress. There was time when their per capita income was just $2,000 or less than that. Services to its nation, has delivered health services, educational services, municipality services, and has given a confidence and an identity to the people of Turkey. So if youth of Pakistan and younger generation of Pakistan choose to learn and get higher education from Turkey, I think they will learn a lot because of the commonality of our faith and the commonality of challenges that we face. I think there is a learning that can take place and once our students come back to Pakistan they will be able to implement that in Pakistan.
So my opinion today at this point is that let’s be now practical and futuristic about our relationship. Let us convert this reservoir of good feelings of our born and of our affection and our love and let us convert that into enhancing and increasing the development, the pace of development in Pakistan and to solve the issues and challenges that we are facing. Turkey has solved many issues and Turkey has addressed all of the challenges that we face here in our country and there is a blueprint now available. We don’t have to go to R&D and work out how to do this, how to do that. Turkey has already done that, it has already achieved its goals and together I think we can then provide Pakistan in the center of the South Asia and Turkey which is in the center of your Europe and Asia, both countries can join hands and can offer a great deal of values and benefits to the nations around them.
So once again I am grateful to the Ambassador who found time to be here with us and who with his visit relations between both countries has strengthened and refreshed our in particular. UMT has been in the forefront of Pakistan Turkey relationship as an academic center, as a center for higher education. And we would like to declare here that our commitment with Turkey will remain our preference, Turkey will remain our priority and we will remain focused on Turkey and we will see and explore how can we further strengthen this relationship in whatever way it is possible. And I would like to especially draw the attention of youth, students, young minds that look up to Turkey. You can go to UK, you can go to United States, you can go to Japan and China and other places, but I would strongly recommend and I can assure you that you will not regret to look up to Turkey, visit Turkey, go to Turkey for business, go to Turkey for education, go to Turkey to make it your home and you will earn and reap lifelong rewards. Thank you very much.
Video # 64
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw2L0WnuOfI
Topic: Convocation Speech
Event: 15th UMT Convocation
Event Date: Year 2017
Audience: Faculty, Parents and Students
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 18 Minutes and 49 Seconds
Summary:
Rector UMT, Dr Muhammad Aslam, Dr Ansar Pervez, the guest of honor, Abid Sherwani, Director General, my very dear graduates, happy parents, respected members of the faculty, winners of meritorious Awards, students, Assalamo O Alaykum.
It is indeed a pleasure for all of us to meet once again on this solemn occasion of the 15th convocation of UMT. I think it’s a commendable idea that we meet twice in convocations because of the number of students graduating every year. Last time in the fall convocation, there were about 1500 graduates and it was becoming difficult to manage the function with this large number. So I am glad that the tradition of holding a spring convocation is back. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m particularly delighted today to welcome Dr Ansar Pervez. He is my brother and cousin, but above all he’s one of the foremost and pioneering scientist of this country. He has served this country with passion and contributed towards the advancement of technology in our homeland. People talk about Pakistan and they complain about so many things which they see are not going in the right direction. But this country has survived till date and InshAllah is going to survive because of the patriotic, devoted work of high caliber and highly motivated people like Dr Ansar Pervez. He joined the Atomic Energy Commission after graduation and he then served this country at various capacities and roles in that very critical and strategic place.
We cannot enumerate and count, and mention all that he may have done for the betterment of this country, for the supply of energy to this country and for the security of this country. I cannot fail to also take note of his loving parents, his father and mother who were elders in our family and who were the source of love and affection for all of us who were young and for our family at least. We received their attention and their affection at the time when it was needed most, when we shifted from Dhaka. So ladies and gentlemen, when people say, when people mention about Pakistan, they want to see the high peaks of Pakistan, the rivers of Pakistan, the highways of Pakistan and many other things which consist of Pakistan. But to me Pakistan consists of people like Ansar Pervez who have made this country where it stands today. So may I request you to kindly serve a standing ovation to the hero of Pakistan Dr Ansar Pervez.
I’m also particularly delighted to take note of the presence of our dear brothers from Turkey, members of Muradiya foundation with whom we are engaged to set up educational institutions. I would like to mention the presence of Mr. Atif Obyzy who is director of our UMT Ankara Bureau and along with him the members of Muradiya foundation, Mr. Mahmut Karakus, Mr. Serkin Wyndhamus and Mr. Typhoon Ameer ud din. So thank you very much for coming over to our convocation and we look forward to our collaboration in future. Pakistan and Turkey are the two closest of the countries in this world. We share common ideals, we share common faith and we share common destiny, and InshAllah we will be together on our way.
Ladies and gentlemen, let me take this opportunity to welcome our parents. Parents who are sitting behind, parents who are sitting at the back, parents who sent forth you to this institution, parents who took care of you, parents who sacrificed their life and their resources to see this day. So I would like our graduates to pay tribute to their parents. Please rise, turn to them, say thank you and bow down. Parents represent the past of the society, parents represents the legacy and the inheritance of the society, they symbolize the hopes and dreams for the next generation and they are the anchor for the present and the future times, and at all times, and at no times we can be free of our reliance upon them. We need their attention, we need their affection, and we need their love, we need their prayers and good wishes all the way till our last. We pray for their long life, for their health and for their fulfillment of their prayers and hopes in times to come.
Graduates, this is indeed your day and it would be very hard for me to add to what Dr Ansar Pervez has already said to you in a very brief and effective and scientific language. He has given you a grammar for the success of life. He has shared with you a recipe for your onward journey. I hope you have paid attention to that and I hope that this will continue to be a resource for you in the challenging times, days and night of your future. Let me add to that briefly that when we see graduates walking up to this stage and then receiving the degrees and going out, we are happy. We are happy that there is a gift to this nation now. We are happy that there is a successful person who will now go to the world of work, who will now go to the real world and will discharge his or her obligations and responsibilities. Here is one more to the resources that this country may leverage. Here is a value addition to the human capital, reservoir of human capital that this country needs for the success. So we are happy, we are glad, we are delighted. We will indeed miss their presence in our campuses and we will continue to pray for their roles outside.
The real world is indeed waiting for those who have the will and the courage to call the shots, who have the ability to dream high and think back as mentioned by Dr Ansar Pervez. So this world has open gates for those individuals who know who they are, where they stand and what they would like to do, what are their ideas. The world of work, the real world is increasingly becoming the world of ideas. If you are able to apply your mind, if you are able to cultivate innovative, creative and critical thinking then this world is yours. Then you can get premium salary, you can get fast promotions, you can create ventures and enterprises which would be valued in multi billions of dollars. If you have the idea, if you have the capacity to think ahead, if you have new ideas and if you are bold enough to share your ideas and to walk through your talk, and if you have the steadfastness to supplement your ideas with hard work, believe me this world is yours.
This world is waiting for those who are willing to take charge of this world and you can take charge of this world only if you are ready to take charge of your own self. If you miss your own self, if you ignore your own self and you look ahead and beyond yourself and talk about others and cast your eyes on others, it would not going to help you. The first forte that you have to conquer, the first forte that you have to lead is your own self and that is probably the message that I would like to leave with you. It is your own self, it is your own mind, your own heart, your own body, your own soul, your own spirit that needs your attention and you need to cultivate the basic value and essence of a human being. You are going into the world which is immersed into computers and machines and virtual machines, clouds, artificial intelligence and series of middleware and hardware. Within that realm, it is very easy to forget your own self. So my call is to draw your attention to your own self. You have a degree, you have fulfilled a program of study, and you have a license to get a job in your field.
But what is most important for you to continue to sharpen your skills. You continue to cultivate yourself and renew yourself, refresh yourself. Those who think that with this completion of degree they have had enough of education and they can now go and take work and be successful, they are wrong. What you’ve got is access to some knowledge that is important but what you would need is going to be new knowledge that you will discover, that you that will emerge with your work, with your experience, with your practice. So what most important is your ability as Dr Ansar said to learn. So in that willingness to learn and learning incessantly, relentlessly, continuously, you will be creating a new you within yourself. And if you are able to create a new you, a new persona, new sets of strengths, new sets of qualities within yourself, every day will be a new day, will be a new chapter in your life. Every week, every month and every year will open a new chapter, will open new avenues and will lead you to newer and newer and higher and higher thresholds.
So my dear my dear graduates, this is the beginning of learning, this is the beginning of work and this is the beginning of humility. This is the beginning of taking adventure, this is the beginning of the best within yourself, this is the beginning of your sacrifices, this is the beginning of your steadfastness and this is the beginning of your own imprint in the world of work. So when you feel discouraged by something that has happened to you when you didn’t get a chance that you were hoping for or you were not able to seize an opportunity that you were looking at, find your falls, look inside and critically analyze what was it that was wrong within you, so that you can improve yourself. So you become master of yourself, you become a university for your own self, you become your own dean, you become your own rector, you become your own teacher and once you have that, I can assure you that there will be nothing which would be able to resist you, there will be no hardship, there will be no factor which can slow you down and you will be able to achieve new milestones, you will be able to go beyond your dreams and you will move faster, you will see that successes and resources are coming your way and you will be able to serve the society and when you serve the society, you will feel the highest of the joy and you will feel that you have contributed something that would be long lasting.
So my dear graduates, I wish you success in your life. I wish you success in the life in this world and the life to come hereafter, and I hope that you would be a source of pride for this university and you will stay connected with the university, with the huge base of alumni of this university which is now over 16,000 and which is marked by its presence in almost all the leading cities of the world and in every corner of our country. So I hope and wish you best. I am grateful to the faculty members, to the chairperson of the departments, to program heads, to deans who did their best, who devoted themselves to this noble cause of teaching. They could have taken positions in the professional world, they could have gone into other careers but they are the pillars of our society, they are the pioneers of our society, they are the mainstay of our society who have consumed themselves in order to prepare the new generations and they have invested their time, resources and life. So thank you very much faculty members, thank you very much deans, CODs, thank you very much rector for this march of graduates, thank you very much honorable esteemed guests, thank you very much Dr Ansar Pervez. Thank you very much.
Video # 65
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkk8a4lCzw0
Topic: Importance of Action Research
Event: Conference on Action Research
Event Date: Year 2018
Audience: International Delegation, Guests, Faculty & Students
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 28 Minutes and 3 Seconds
Summary:
Professor Dr Rebecca Fox from George Mason University, Chief Guest of this session, Dr Muhammad Aslam, Rector University of Management and Technology, Dr Rauf e Azam, Vice Chancellor University of Education, Dr Naveed Yazdani, Director School of Professional Advancement, Dr Farhat Munir, Chair of the organizing committee, representatives, deans, directors from various schools, presenters from abroad and Pakistan, faculty members, my very dear students, ladies and gentlemen, Assalamo O Alaykum.
Before I was called I whispered to Rebecca that now it will be your turn and then I was expecting that I will have another bleacher of about ten minutes to make up my mind and then she said that now she will speaking in the next session, and then I was called in. So thank you very much for inviting me to this session. It means a lot to me. I have had the experience of teaching courses on qualitative methodologies in this place for about I think two times and I gave a lot of insights while teaching and talking to our participants, course participants and I saw a great interest among the participants to undertake research based upon the methodologies, the array of methodologies available to them through the action research paradigm, and I was also greatly impressed by the outcomes of that course when I saw a lot of papers being presented and then improved, refined and they saw publications in various journals around the world.
You know we are living in a world which is highly turbulent, which is not stable and where things are moving fast and the rate of acceleration is also increasing. A world which is uncertain to all of us and added to this uncertainty and turbulence is the factor of complexity. Things are complex because they are so interrelated and intertwined and remotely as well as closely, directly as well as indirectly, and immediately in near term as well as in long term. So we are living in an ambiguous world where it is very difficult to interpret something confidently and be assured about its authenticity and its truthfulness that we have arrived at the right conclusion and this is the fact. This is not just fact but this is the truth. So to assign the value of truthfulness to any discovery or any conclusion is a very difficult task.
And I also believe that the era of the colonial research, coming up with something which is so generalizable and which is so enduring and which will have a long lasting you know validity over a period of centuries and millennium, I think that era has gone and if it is still possible then may be it is possible in the confinement of disciplines where it is matter that is subject of study, where it is the universal laws and universal you know, the physics and chemistry, geography and geology, where these disciplines are subjects of interest. So maybe still we can find out things which will have a long lasting impact and which will continue to have relevance and which can be taken up as the truth and as a theory which can perhaps never be challenged or which could never be then refuted and may be improved upon.
So we are in the domain of social sciences and management sciences and also information technology. We are dealing with the world which is emergent at any time, at any moment and at any morning, which is changing and which is about human beings, which is about the society, which is about the relationship between human beings and society and the forms and institutions that we have created like families, groups, neighborhoods, localities, state, provinces, organizations, business organizations, firms and all those various kinds of virtual forms and networks that are coming about and consuming ourselves and enabling us to develop our new identities and new forms of interaction. So the exchange mechanism within our life that has come about in real and as well as virtual world, has made it very difficult now to fully grasp the import and the totality of the behavior and conduct of human beings or their in any collective forms.
So I think in the current scenario it is very important, number one for educators to be addressed of the latest, of the cutting edge of what is there, what is just being there and what is coming forward. So that is the kind of advancement that our students expect from our faculty members. I read somewhere that if we are going to teach our students what is printed in the books then our students will not have any future, present or past. I just can’t recall who said that but it is a very education. respectable quotation and an idea that should drive the content and curriculum that we finalize for So what is in the book is certainly very important to us because that packages very well what was there before. But since the world has changed and world is changing very fast, so what exists now and what is going to come tomorrow is also equally important and perhaps more significant because these students will take up jobs in the world of work tomorrow and they should be good to discharge their responsibilities. They should be good to discharge their responsibilities, understand their roles and the society before them and figure out what is the best way to work in their lifetime, in the years 2020s, 2030s, 2040s, 2050s. So how can we do that, how educators can to that? It is very difficult even for educators to know exactly what exists today and to keep themselves at all time at the cutting edge, and also to envisage and foresee and to have the sufficient resources to develop their foresight for the future.
So I think as a teaching method, we can rely upon action research, and here is the potential of action research, here is something that can be computed by action research, in terms of human behavior and in terms of society and dealing with the world of social science which is the world of political science, sociology, psychology, social work which is about media, law, governance, citizenship and also information technology and also in the world of management, which includes business not for profit and management of all kinds, in all kinds of situations and in all kinds of institutions.
I feel that what is going on in the real world, in the world of work should be of our primary importance. When we talk to practitioners and when we talk to executives, and when we talk to professionals, they don’t look at the books first. When we go to doctor and we share with them our problems and doctor would certainly look into the books to find the best medicine, in the pharmacology and will write the prescription. But when a decision opportunity comes before the executives and when there is a situation that is dealt by professionals, they don’t have time to go into books and books would only carry very little significance for them and it would be very hard to find out the right book and the right author and the right thing that would actually be able to help them. So they are pretty much on their own at that time, at that moment of action because they are in the arena and the only thing that can work for them is their ability to reflect, is their ability to comprehend the situation comprehensively and is their ability to refer to their prior exposure and experience and the learning that has come about and then making a judgment at the moment and then finding out okay let’s do this, this is the perhaps cause effect relationship so let’s do this to solve this.
And then each individual, each professional then move on and on and then they also learn from each other. They go to professional associations, they talk with other professionals, they refer to seniors, and they hire consultants for major issues so that’s how it goes about. So the world of work is developing, has found itself competent and has developed capability to develop the theories and to help themselves with the set of choices, alternatives and actions, and then that is how it goes on.
So with special reference to the school of professional advancement, where professional advancement is the mission. Of course one way to do is to develop professionals and offer them the skill set that would be helpful to them and provide them of course a quantum of knowledge that would develop their mindset and would make them aware of the domain in which they are going to work. But it is also equally important that we encourage our professionals and train them in the methodology of action research. By having training in this methodology, they would be on the one hand in the area as a professional and making the decisions, but on the other hand they will be within themselves, they will be another being, kind of a scholarly being, a reflective being who would take up every situation as a next chapter in their portfolio of experience and will define a situation and will detach themselves and do a dispassionate analysis with objectivity and rationality and reflect upon their experience and then conclude the chapel with a concluding note as to what really then happened, what was the outcome and what was the result of what they did. So if our professionals can become expert and trained, trained in the methodologies of action research, they will be better at work. So that is the first idea.
Second, our faculty members, our teachers and I’ve seen that action research is especially very popular in the field of education, in fact it found its first hospitable home in the field of education and Professor Rebecca Fox I hope that would vote for it. So it is I think very important as a teacher that in our courses we offer our students an assessment tool in which we engage them in small assignments but basically drawing from the principles and the mechanism of action research. That will make our students very good. That would make our students more analytical, more reflective. That would connect our students with the world, with the practical world and they would be on the one hand will increase, enhance their skills and will see how to achieve more rigor but not at the cost of relevance.
So they will have both rigor as well as relevance. Because we will throw them back to the world of work, they will emerge themselves into issues, into situations and then they will come back to classroom with what they observed, what they saw and may be how they interacted because in action research you can also be engaging in participatory research, in collaborative research and you can be part of that research. So there are all kinds of possibilities in action research. So I think that there is a great wisdom in this domain, in this particular methodology and there are many other research methodologies but somehow I feel that all of them contain a portion of or an aspect of action research, whether there is constructivist methodology or you know, unless it is purely humanistic or interpretive where you just looking at the published text. So action research carries a lot of weight and value for us as a teacher, as a student, as an educator, as a professional, as a practitioner.
Universities today are not limited to just conveying what’s in the textbooks. We are not the secondary, we are expected to be more than what publishing houses have prepared for us. We are expected to be our own publishing house which means that we as a faculty member, we have to take up the responsibility of management of the knowledge that we are going to teach. So we have to have ways to surface the private knowledge. The knowledge that is hidden, locked and that is within the minds of the practitioners, that is within the corporate stories, that is within the professionals and within the observational you know spectrum of our senior managers and senior executives, those who are at the helm of leadership. It’s our job, our challenge that how can we get that private information out and document it properly and make it usable and useful within academia and it would be a better textbook for our students. Because this would talk about what’s going on, what’s in the situation, what’s going on in the arena and that’s what we are all about.
So I think that’s a great beginning that perhaps this is the first time that a conference on the subject of action research is being held, and I think it was someone thought and it is really good to enlarge the canvas and talk about social sciences, all the disciplines of Social Sciences and went on to include information technology which I perhaps would never have thought of and then of course the management research. Especially, just a point about management research, there are many who are from the management discipline, especially I think in management research it has come into fashion late, after maybe education but has gained lot of respect and is now being taken up as a very reliable source of information and especially in the era where we are dealing with mechanisms for organizational learning, for development of knowledge, for advancement of knowledge, for access to knowledge. I think we understand that knowledge is in the network, knowledge is in the mindset and knowledge is in the conversation, knowledge is in such conferences and knowledge resides in the reflection.
So I think for management research, for those who are interested in doing research with respect to HR, organization science, organization theory, organization behavior, operation research, especially and other areas of management, action research is a very good tool and it’s a very good learning experience, it provides a very good assessment tool. Because faculty would learn that how good our participants are in going to the real world, conducting a research, observing, documenting, reflecting and then coming back and pioneering in authoring it and writing it. So I think there is a great potential for fast publication, for young faculty members that if they rely upon action research, they can get published. Because these situations which are here, which are in Pakistan, which are in the city of Lahore around us, I think these situations will not be discussed by professors from Japan or South Korea or China or Europe or America. It’s up to us. It’s our job.
If we don’t find case studies related to Pakistan and if our students complain that you are teaching here about the multinationals and global organizations, their strategies which are located in Europe and originated from United States or other parts of the world, then there is a moral question that how relevant is what we are all engaged in, what we are doing. So I think it would solve the problem of relevance which is key to the success of Education. It would solve the problem of boredom of assessments because our students are too fatigued and totally disinterested in marking true false, in MCQs or doing an assignment or quizzes, standard norms. They do in 40 courses, five times in each course. They are I am telling you, it’s time that we get rid of those standard, blackboard type of assessments and we offer our students innovative, creative, collaborative tools of assessment which will make their learning interesting, exciting and which will send them to the world of work today rather than when they would graduate. So they become at home, they would learn from everything and in the process our faculty can become good consultants, our faculty members can become good researchers, our teaching in classroom would become better, we would be able to write the textbooks.
How many textbooks are there on organization behavior, on organization theory, on Public Administration, on governance, on sociology, psychology related to the context of Pakistan? There has not been any serious outcome in terms of inclination. We pay homage to it, we are all very much you know concerned about it but why there is no textbook? Because our methodology is not right. So I think if we promote this methodology, we will have the textbooks, we will have the research journals, our journals will be better quality, they would be more meaningful. There are so many journals coming up from Pakistani universities, I look all of them and I feel that there is beginning.
Yes our young researchers are waking up and they are different from the old researchers, from researchers of my time and then going to the ground and they are undertaking action research which is grounded in the real world and they are coming up with their ideas and connecting those things with the theory as well.
So this is a good beginning and I hope that with the collaboration of such respectable esteemed organizations such as Agha Khan University, Institute of Education, University of Education which is our neighborly university and I’m always very pleased and delighted to see Dr Rauf e Azam who is always there, University of Lahore another large university from the city of Lahore, and of course we are very blessed to have once again the presence of Professor Rebecca Fox who is there, who is expert and a leading authority in the field of education and there is much to learn from her. I’m glad that she has made available herself to not just this conference but a series of conferences.
So I think there are three conferences in one ticket. So that was a really very, very useful for us that she has been able to contribute in not just one but three conferences. Thank you very much for taking the trouble for visiting Pakistan. We greatly admire you and your presence means a lot to us. You represent not just the country United States of America but the people of United States of America. We are just about to conclude very exhaustive two year engagement under the patronage of state department with George Mason University where our faculty members went to, got trained, came back and engaged in research, and we hope for only may be double loop learning but I think Rebecca has found various other loops in various other layers and is going on and on, and I am myself surprised to see how a seed work can then lead to a chain reactions and responses and initiatives. So thank you very much everyone. I look forward to a very interesting conference.
Video # 66
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv_lXgOBxFE
Topic: Challenges by Muslim World
Event: Pak-Turkey Relations Conference
Event Date: Not Available
Audience: Turkish Delegation, National Guests, Faculty and Students
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail & Incomplete Start
Total Time of Video: 10 Minutes and 26 Seconds
Summary:
NOTE: This speech is missing a proper start. It starts as:
By the information that you have shared with us and it gives us a very good view of where Turkey stands, what geopolitical challenges it is facing right now and how it is proving itself to be adept and resourceful, innovative to deal with those mounting challenges within and without. We believe that such visits are very important for our future collaboration. We hope that we would be blessed by more such kind of visits and I look forward to Sardar Danish who is here now as Turkish Counsel General in Lahore. I hope through his good office we would be able to receive more guests in future which will provide us first-hand information and enrich us with the thinking that is going on in Turkey.
We believe that Turkey and Pakistan are kind of role model for the rest of the Muslim world. Turkey fix that condition more ably and justifiably, and in a better way certainly than Pakistan. But there is a need for greater linkage between Pakistan and Turkey. We are looking at a time, we are living in a time and looking in the future which is full of risks for the Muslim world and for the countries which have been able to progress and countries which have proven their competitiveness, countries which have progressed on almost all counts. Turkey and Pakistan are two countries which are regionally prominent, globally significant and internally challenged. I feel that Turkey has progressed at a very rapid rate in the last 15 years. It has taken charge of its economics. It has grown in terms of its economic size. It has enhanced its trade profile with the leading importers and exporters of the world which shows that how Turkey has taken care of the developments of its human capital, its intellectual capital, how turkey has organized its polity, how turkey has developed a society, how turkey has been able to address the issues of governance and has settled the questions that are faced by any country going through development phase like Turkey. So Turkey is a role model for all of us and we have good wishes for the future of Turkey. It was a litmus test that when Turkish democracy faced a challenge and two years back and it was last year, and it was able to successfully you know repel that onslaught and once again emerged as a mature democracy having a responsible governance, and if there was going to be any crack in that social contract or in that governance that has been laid out, that crack has been fulfilled.
When I see the Muslim world and especially referring to the comments made by our dear brother, Diplomat Ambassador Mr. Shamshad, I feel that Pakistan and Turkey must discuss the future of Muslim world and has a great responsibility to take care of that future, and size of all those threats and risks that we are facing as a Muslim within our countries and as a Muslim world as a whole body in the world. I feel that recent realignments where we see new kinds of alliances like Arab and Islamic Alliance against terrorism and so on and so forth. You know these kinds of alliances may have their specific purpose in mind and may be efficient for that specific purpose but they may also discount and they may also ignore the overall unity of the Muslim world. The necessity to have the Muslim world remain united under one platform and to have a robust platform in which Muslim countries can speak up, can share and can collaborate and can find out solutions to their problems. So while we may have these kind of alliances more in numbers and more in kind in future, Turkey and Pakistan must act together to revive, and rehabilitate and activate the Organization of Islamic Conference. Turkey was its Secretary General for two terms and I don’t think Turkey will get a chance soon now but still Pakistan Turkey and other D-8 countries, all D-8 countries and ECO countries should join hand to ensure that Muslim world is united and our sectarian differences, our regional differences, they do not come our way and they don’t crack our overall unity and our identity.
So that is a great challenge that we all face and adjacent to that there is another challenge, that what is the meaning of Islam, what is the meaning of governance within the paradigm of Islam and how as Muslims we should live together and work together and chalk out a way forward for us in the global scenario. These are perennial questions and our youth, our intellectuals, our political leadership, our journalists, analysts, academics they all need to be engaged so that there is a free dialogue, discourse and critical thinking should be encouraged and we have to have a consensus emerging within ourselves in the right direction which will once again save us from deviations, distractions, divisions, subdivisions and allow us to shoulder and discharge our obligations and responsibilities lying upon us.
So I feel that Turkey and Pakistan are two strategic points in the Muslim world and if they are united and if there is consensus in these two countries as they have always enjoyed, and if they are together then I think the fate of Muslim world can be better, its future can be brighter and we would be able to solve all the problems that we are facing together and we will be able to confront them in a very constructive and creative manner. Thank you very much once again. I acknowledge that a lot of distinguished guests were here. Leading diplomats, intellectuals, political leaders were here. I also would like to record the presence of our dear students who have come to join us in this afternoon. University was closed today so they have undertaken some special you know arraignments to be here and to then listen to you. Your message must have gone forward to the next generation and I look forward to more guests and more interaction in future. Thank you very much.
Video # 67
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDh25Xwuy1I
Topic: Economic and Educational Development
Event: Conference
Event Date: Year 2017
Audience: Turkish Delegation, Guests, Faculty and Students
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail, Incomplete Start, Noise in Background & Poor Audio Quality
Total Time of Video: 5 Minutes and 28 Seconds
Summary:
NOTE: This speech is missing a proper start and words within the speech. It starts as:
If we just focus on this one thing, what can be learned you know, what benefit we can provide to Pakistani economy? Secondly, population of Turkey is only 80 million people, population of Pakistanis (MISSING WORDS). Turkey has a number of SMEs, number of micro enterprises. Their skill level, if you go to Turkey, the standards of conversations (MISSING WORDS). So we think that maybe our faith is coming in our way that’s why we are not able to export more, that’s why we are not able to progress more and people give us different type of recipes, do this, do this, do this, compromising, do this , do this and you will do well in the world, alright. So currently people of Turkey they maintain their identity as Muslims, they are strong Muslim, they maintain their identity as Turkish, they take a stand as Turkish national where they have to take a stand, and what I like about President Tayyab Erdogan that he gives if nothing else, that one thing that has been given to the Turkish people and also to us, to me and all Muslims is confidence. He has given us confidence that yes we can do it, we can achieve it.
So Turkey has negotiated all of the challenging, has faced threats, has faced lots of risks that General Javed Hasan, who has pointed out and Dr Shoaib, Civil Military relation and all of that. So if I think if you want, and I have talked to the Ambassador also, if you want to study in Turkey, let us know. If you want to go to Turkey and spend time and do some research on Pakistan Turkey, we have a long history and we cherish that history but we have to now do some good work, we have to produce some good results. So they are brothers. You know he may have many appointments, the Minister, he is also a PhD and he is also a businessman and he is the Minister for Development of Economy and Trade, they have own time, there are many other Turkish here. So why there are, he is from Turkish embassy, alright. Ambassador sent him otherwise Ambassador would have come. So what Asad Omar and you know people from Turkey, so why they have come here, what they want from us? Do they want money from us? No, they want Pakistan to rise at the level of Turkey.
They want us to do well and that’s why they left their business, they left their office, they left their families and they are travelling at their own to help. They found there is a conference, they heard our invitation and they said ok we will go. Why President Tayyab Erdogan sent Ministers, Chief Advisor, why? I f I write to Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi that I am holding this conference please send Advisor, will he send? He would not. If I’d asked President that I am having this conference please send, I talked to Minister for Trade that I am having this conference, please visit us. He’d say I haven’t got. The Minister Ahsan Iqbal is my very good personal friend, so he is always there, he came, alright. So problem is that they are our brothers, more brotherly than blood brothers.
So I think, please take advantage of this relationship, the Pak-Turk center. General Javed will be there and our center is an open platform. You tell us what you want to do, we will do. There is an entrepreneurship gala in Turkey for entrepreneurs, IT Innovation and our students went there. One of our student from electrical engineer went to that to participate in that. He did well and they kept him there, they give him the scholarship and he is now studying in University of Ankara. He didn’t come back, alright. So I think there is a lot support available. Ambassador told me that if you will have research projects, he will give us all the support. So there are open doors, take advantage of that. This is better than Europe, alright. This is, if you go there you will have good food, you will have good courtesy and you will have good learning. So I think this is really a blessing for us that we are here.
Video # 68
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJRogDUdAQ4
Topic: Synergized Efforts for Economic Development
Event: 2nd IBCE
Event Date: October 28th, 2017
Audience: International Delegations, National Guests, Faculty and Students
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 11 Minutes and 48 Seconds
Summary:
Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal, our esteemed guests from abroad Mr. Ihsan Sener, Mr. Hasan Ali Celik, Mr. Tang Song, Mr. Abdou Mamon, Rector UMT, Muhammad Aslam, Mr. Yasar Dogon, Emanuela Bell, Mr. Awais Rauf, Mr. Tahir Malik, President LCCI, Mr. Abid Shirwani, Chief Organizer of IBCE. This is the second International Business Conference and Exhibition, and I welcome all of you in this hall who have participated in this conference. It has been a difficult and challenging task to bring all players and partners in the task of development of our economy and society together under one roof.
We as a developing country are too much entrenched, we remain too much consumed by what goes on within our own sector, within the borders of our own area and the challenges are so enormous that it leaves little room for us to reach out to others and establish bridges and activate our born and connectedness with other players and partners. We have seen and no one else but Ahsan can I hope easily vouch for it that development takes place through partnership, through partnership of all leading sectors of the economy. Most importantly there are three players. Government, the role of government is to offer a framework which is conducive for development, the role of government is to develop policies and organize the playground in a way that there is fairness and justice for all and there is equal opportunity and all resources are fully exploited and capitalized for maximum advantage and there is coherence in the movement forward. Job of government is to lead the effort from the front but then there is equally important role of business and industry. The role of business and industry is to capitalize upon the human resources, natural resources and take advantage of business opportunities, seize the moments and offer products and services, win over the markets and initiate competitive strategies for the success of their own business and industry, and also the overall success of Pakistan in international market. So it is also equally important and significant role that the world of business and industry has to play.
Thirdly and again very importantly, there is role of academia. Because academia, the job of academia is to provide human resources, is to offer research and innovation for business and industry, and out of the two government and business industry, academia takes a long-term view and engages itself with the youth of the country, develop their potential, harness their portfolio of competence and skills and send them to business and industry in Pakistan and abroad, so that they can turn the opportunities into profits and wealth and develop their competence in a way that their businesses also develop the capabilities that are required for success. So academia is in a way a neutral ground which can easily reach out to both on the right hand to the government and on the left hand to the business and industry and then bring all three together under one platform. This is what we are trying to attempt.
This kind of forum provides opportunity to our faculty members who spend their time in classroom with books and research that they can have interaction with the business and industry. This offers opportunity to our students who can interact with the business and industry and get exposure to their current products and services, their issues and challenges, converse with them and be exposed to their dynamics directly while they are still in the classrooms and in the academia. And it also offers opportunity to business and industry to see what we are doing, what are our programs, what is the standing of our faculty and students and how we can meet their expectations in future. It is our responsibility to develop human resources which is critically needed by business and industry in the line and a standard that they hope for.
So this kind of forum which is multi-dimensional, which is multi perspective, which is multi-sectorial, I think is very crucial for our success and to have a coherent and fully aligned movement and transformation of our economy. We also believe that there are other sectors which are equally important like media, civil society, legislature, judiciary, security and all of them have to come around in one platform for development of policies and for conduct of affairs of our state and our society, so that we remain focused on single agenda, the agenda of prosperity of our people, agenda of poverty alleviation, agenda of generation of employment for our youth, agenda of taking Pakistan forward, agenda of being coming up to the expectations of our people and doing what people of the world, this global society expects from our country. So we believe that gone are the days when academia is secluded and isolated within its own campuses and is just narrowed down to its own teaching and research within the classrooms. Gone are the days when business and industry is working again in isolation and gone are the days when government would take everyone as granted and would just announce policies or just not lent any ears to the people who are important players and partners, to hear from them their concerns and hear from them the feedback of what is going on. So we believe that we need to have active linkages, we need to have channels of communication, we need to have channels of feedback, we need to have codetermination, we need to come together and enter into a dialogue and discussion, so that we can help each other, we can reinforce each other, we can work with each other and together we can build a better society, together we can do what we can for the development of our country.
I’m so delighted to see that there is interest from across the border as well in the economy of Pakistan. Pakistan is self-passing through a critical phase but still we have to project Pakistan, we have to work for Pakistan and we have to promote Pakistan come what may. And I believe that given the potential, given its inherent potential and given the potential of its future, I believe that things will get better and there will be improvement and there will be improvement of our business and industry. We cannot see that how our exports are in decline and it is the responsibility again of all actors, business, industry, government, academia all together. They have to join hands to arrest this decline in export. This is also the responsibility of the youth of Pakistan to see that what is needed in the global markets, to align their careers and their aspirations and their passion according to what is needed and then taking an entrepreneurial path to initiate new ventures, to set up new businesses and then offer those products and services to the world markets, and increase the share of Pakistan in the world markets. Pakistan has a great future and if we join hands and we are together, I believe that we can harness that future.
I look forward to the deliberations of our foreign delegates. I look forward to the discussion and critical discourse when all of us will be together in various conference sessions and I hope that this conference will lead a way forward. This is a very humble step that we have taken within our own resources and I would like to give credit to the team who has worked day long and over the years to make it happen. And I would like to ensure that InshAllah we will continue to hold this program in years to come. We will make it a tradition and there will be consistency and every year there will be this forum offering a unique taste where academia, business, government, media and other civil society, legislature and actors and players, important and significant in the way forward would come together and would share their views and then create a better understanding of each other and work together for the success and progress of Pakistan. Thank you very much.
Video # 69
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAs33x0C1Tw
Topic: Importance of Inclusive Education
Event: ICIE 2017
Event Date: October 24th, 2017
Audience: International Delegation, Guests, Faculty and Students
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 27 Minutes and 53 Seconds
Summary:
Mr. Muhammad Shafiq Sb., Minister for Special Education, Dr Rebecca Fox from George Mason University, Dr Abdul Hameed, Dean School of Social Science, Dr Seema Arif, Chairperson Department of Economics, Sajid Masood, representatives from various universities, organizations working for the cause of special education and inclusive education, members of faculty and my dear students, Assalamo O Alaykum.
I wanted to first of all draw attention to the model, a 6-point model that has been summarized in the message in the booklet by Dr Rebecca Fox. I think that is very useful framework and it includes almost everything that we need to do to make inclusive education successful and effective and efficient. So that model is very illuminating and each point needs several pages in order to go into the details but that suffices in many ways for our needs. So thank you very much for that framework to us. I’m also grateful to the speech made by Dr Hameed and Dr David one of it is from this one and actually what could be more apt reflection of inclusive education than the fact that there are faculty members from United States of America Dr Rebecca Fox and Hannah Manova, and someone from discipline and so many other people who have sent their papers and wanted to talk about this topic.
So given the context where we were ten years back, when this topic was not in the mainstream of academic discourse and it was considered as a sideline as yes, okay we need to do something about it, and we always thought of those people as the other who actually also think of us as the other. So we were not really fully attentive to their needs but then we have moved on since then and I’m grateful that it is the unique honor and privilege of UMT to hold this conference successfully for second year. I’m grateful to Dr Hameed who has been the champion of this cause for a long time. It has been his lifelong mission. So I am grateful to the good work that he has done, his heart and soul is in this field, and he goes all around the world talking about it. So we are really privileged to have him with us now.
There are two misunderstandings or two clarifications that I would like to first emphasize upon. Number one, education and those who are in education know it very well that has been a vehicle to produce citizens who can be productive for the state, nation state. And who can remain obedient, cooperative and participative in the order of the state and I would be hesitate to say but more often than not it is correct subservient to the state. So the whole education system has been geared accordingly. So now with this in background, we ended up with a system which assumes and which projects sameness and uniformity, and we think that of all those pupils who are sitting before us, their faces are also in that age look alike, their haircuts are same, their uniforms are same, their heights are same. So we expect sameness and we expect similarity and anyone who is devoid of that, who betrays or who is different, who is hyperactive or who is passive, we consider them as abnormal. So that is the dilemma that we face even in the normal schools, schools for the normal.
And it is very frequent that when parents go to teachers meeting, teachers are showering them with the complains that oh your child is not listening, he is not stationed as the furniture, he is different from the furniture, he moves and he moves sometimes uncontrollably, resistibly and he shouts and he raises voices, he’s not cooperative and he is detrimental to the discipline of the class. So he doesn’t shut up and he doesn’t shut down. So we expected that predictability in the classroom and we have suffered from that, even the normal schools. So starting from that, which was an education system to project and propel an authoritative system especially in this region, in our region, I believe that it was no surprise for us that we have totally ignored the needs of those who are actually, physically, noticeably different and their difference is manifested in their self apparently. So we mostly thought of them as unusable, as burden over the state because state is geared to educate people for productivity, for their contribution to GNP and these guys they are a burden on families, burden on themselves, burden on state and they’re not looked at positively.
That negative notion about those especially special people has been the part of our social fabric and social norms and it has really been you know caused destruction of those, it has caused them to remain outside of the mainstream, there were never bridges, there were no interconnectedness, they have a different family, they have different social setting, they have different language and they were outcast from the main. I experienced this more clearly of course because one of my brother, we are a family of six and one of my brother is deaf and we have lived with him for so long. So I know very well how he was dealt with, what kind of behavior he faced when he went to school and what kind of prejudices and biases he faced when he was you know in the social setting, especially here. So he’s doing very well now. He did two masters from Bristol University, studied at Royal School for deaf in UK and he’s now going through another masters and is actually head of the Muslim community of deaf in UK. So I suggested to Dr Hameed who also has a deaf in his family that please invite him next time, it would be I think very useful.
Now my thought is driven towards the idea that how can we make this inclusive more inclusive. How can we reinforce the spirit of inclusiveness and enhance the spread of inclusiveness? So that has been my thought and since I also read that Dr Rebecca’s brief, so I was then able to draw up on that thought. So here it is a very brief, some very brief 10 points that I would like to share with you especially those who are educators and researchers in this field.
Number one, in principle and I’m very glad that Mr. Muhammad Shafiq is also with us. We have seen how good he was when he was minister for industries and now he’s into this very important area. We look forward to his leadership in this area so thank you very much for coming to us. So number one is of course, the basic idea is that we all expect and deserve education. Regardless of number one gender, number two social economic status, number three religion, number four location, number five language, number six race, number seven color, mumber eight is formation of an inclusive character, number nine is medical support and facilities and number ten is symbolic leadership. So I have listed these in the priority, in the order the way we face these biases here in Pakistan, all right. So this is the list that I draw that these are the various filters that worked through and they reduce the excess, they reduce the positive, they compromise the positive approach that we should have and they also then fail us in providing the resources and developing the policies and also making sure that all provisions are there.
So we abide by this universal belief and faith which is also part of our constitution, yet we are not fully refreshed, aware and alert by what are the requirements of this. So this is the basic fundamental, universal you know agreement. And this is the kind of conviction that we all have but we pay lip service to it and we do not fully comply by it and we do not do whatever is needed to make sure that we are free of all biases coming against this basic conviction. So that’s the first level of inclusiveness that we refresh ourselves of this conviction and its explanations and its bearing, it’s you know consequences, its implications.
Second is then we have within our society, marginalized people. People who are marginalized because of number one poverty, they don’t have resources, they don’t have enough means to travel to school, they don’t have enough means to buy books and they cannot pay tuition. So there are people who are below the poverty line and there are people who are above the poverty line but they have large families and still they cannot meet both ends so how they can pay for the students. I know one person who educated all the sons but didn’t move as far as the education of his daughters was concerned, and I asked him the reason he said that I could pay for the transport cost of them but not for the girls because I have limited budgets.
So girls were only educated up to higher secondary but boys went to the graduate education. So these are the decisions that parents make. So the second level is to enhance the support system. Support system for those who are ready, who are aware that yes their sons and daughters must receive education and they want to have it but they are really constraining by their limited resources. So here we need to do something for specially those who are poor and that’s part of inclusive education, and then there are people who are disabled whose learning abilities are different, I would not say impaired, I would say different. Each person in this world is a unique person.
Each person has different kind of orientation and a portfolio of skills and attitude and mindset. So we have to take each person differently. And there are some people who are knowingly you know apparently can be classified as different just because they cannot hear, they cannot see, they cannot walk or they cannot speak. So we call them disabled but I would say that they are unique in their learning abilities. I would not call them in any way lower or less than those who we see that yes they are seeing and they are hearing. Although we are able to hear and see but many times we don’t see things the way we should have and don’t hear things the way we should, right.
So third is the social, you know there are social issues. I know many locations in many village areas that to educate children is not seen as a worthy cause and this thing that it will not work for us. Once I went to a distant location in Sukkar and in the morning I was supposed to go to the school assembly because sometimes on my off days I go to distant schools for teachers training and to be there in the morning in school assembly. So here I was in Shikarpur and I went to, in the morning I went I was driving towards the school, a small school in Sukkar with about 300 students. So when I was going to school I saw two beautiful kids with almost blue eyes you know and but the dirty clothes and having a bag of a garbage collection and standing on near the garbage and then picking up the waste and filling their bag. So I saw them, I was moved and then we talked to, I said okay we will pay for their education till the University. So we talked to their parents, we invited them and what not you know we went through the whole exercise but parents were not ready. Parents didn’t allow us to educate those two beautiful boys.
It was really very hard for me to digest that how could they not you know allowing us to educate their children free of cost. Everything was given to them, this education was coming to them free yet they were not ready. So I think there is a social problem which we have to identify and we have to take care of that. Then there are vulnerabilities. I talked to again, I went to the tribal areas and there I was told by a school principal that here people are accustomed to firing, day long firing and there are groups here there and they fire each other every day. But there is an agreement that at the time of school, when the children go to school there will be no firing and at the time when they return to home from school there will be no firing. So here we have a case where children are really vulnerable. Their life is at stake, they are going to school but they may pay for their life, for the sake of going to school and teachers have great problems as well.
I was later on told by the same principal and I’m talking of Derra Adam Khel, that after two three years because of the agreement on school, the need of schooling of their children, they gradually turned the whole area into a peaceful area. Because then they say that okay now students need in the evening to play, so there will be no firing during the play time. So then they said ok now we have this need or that need, so ultimately all of you know the 24 hours were converted into a peaceful time. So security is an issue, that’s the second level. Third level is, as rightly pointed out by Dr Rebecca Fox as well, that you know learning impairment is a lot of time it’s about education. We can see these deaf people speaking a language, all right, talking in a language. So we need to find new languages so that blind, deaf, learning impaired others you know they can’t communicate each other.
So here is I think something we need to do with the ICT, Information and Communication Technology, how we can develop a language which will make all of us, bring all of us into conversation, into free, frank, natural, spontaneous discussion where we can show our expression and where we can discuss and talk. So there is something that we need to do in order to make this whole thing inclusive. We have to work out the language and then not to mention that since English is the language, lingua franca and most of the schools, so here is a big bias that work in our schools when we try to teach in English and our teachers are not good in English. I was told by a professor in Punjab University that in his village he was taught ‘K N O W’ you know knowledge as ‘Kanowledge’, that this is ‘Kanowledge’, right. And so you know this is the way it is happening. So I think we have to have a bold decision as to teach our students in a language which will work for them, which will develop their creative abilities, which will make them a better person rather than imposing upon them a language which is different from their mother tongue, which is different from their local language, which is different from their national language and totally a different language. So that’s my third level.
Fourth level is that we need to work for inclusive beyond sympathy. It’s not just a social cause that we should be inclusive, it’s not just a fashion. It is part of our governance and part of our society, part of our government that we should not be discrimination free in all respect and we should believe in the inherent dignity and autonomy of a person, and we need to prepare our citizens for a responsible role as a global citizen and arrange or make it convenient for everyone to have full and effective participation in the society, and develop among our people respect for differences in identity, differences in capacity and differences in their outcomes, in their thinking. So there is a lot of social engineering that we have to do within ourselves. I am you know aware that you know Islam which is our religion has laid out a lot of things which are very supportive but we even do not draw from our religion on these aspects. So that is really too bad. So that is I believe fourth level of inclusiveness.
The fifth level of inclusiveness is again lifelong engagement, because people, they develop over a period of time, and right from early primary to tertiary education, we have to develop a whole system which is geared towards inclusive education so that we can provide for evolving, developing and emerging means of people, and they are into this part of inclusive, both for the people who we considered as normal and people who we considered as not normal or having differences.
Sixth level is, there are some and I read some papers as well on this topic, barriers to inclusive education. There are some poignant and barriers which are negating all efforts towards inclusive education. So we have to work with parents, with immediate family and we have to work with negative attitudes of people in society and also provide for accessibility and security and financial resources in order to overcome those marked barriers to inclusive education.
Seventh level I would suggest that I haven’t seen any program in media which would create awareness. I haven’t seen any innovation which would take care of this inclusiveness and will provide, make it easy for students to learn and get educated. So I haven’t seen any special you know programs even by academia. You know we at university are geared towards it. We have a department of a special education, we have students enrolled in our normal programs and we had tried to cater into their needs but it is not nationwide.
So I would like to draw the attention of all universities that, and here is one misunderstanding that we need to correct, that quality comes from the recruitment of the top notch students, the best people who can speak, who can read fast, who can write, who knows the world and who have come on the top of the list in the secondary and higher secondary school. That is the belief and that is the basis on which universities recruit people. So for them this is not quality, this is not serving the quality goal if we recruit these people, and I think we need to break that notion we need to have explicit not just quota, in terms of quota, it is not the matter of quota as I said.
It is to be inclusive in terms of spirit and in terms of spreading wholly. So I would suggest that universities have to work for recruitment number one of faculty, number two recruitment in administration and services, and number three then recruitment of students. So that is where universities haven’t done, haven’t taken even the first steps, and this is what we are telling and this is what we need to do.
Eighth level is formation of an inclusive character. This is a character and this character if we are inclusive in our mindset, character bearing, I think we will also be a better global citizen because we will be able to appreciate the differences and we will be able to adapt to all the contrast and differences and we will be cognizant and we will be collaborative and we will be able to set up bridges and interconnect with all the differences, even despite the differences. So if we want our citizens to be culturally intelligent and if you want them to be consciously you know behaving in this regard then I think this is the kind of character that we need, inclusive character, inclusiveness in the character, an urge to be inclusive and seeking inclusiveness. So I think that is required.
At ninth level I would like to specially mention the hospitals, the health facilities, medical support, psychological support that is needed. Our hospitals don’t have anything for these people. There are no doctors, there are no clinics working. So if we have to cater to their medical needs and there is nothing that you couldn’t find for these people. So that is another area of inclusiveness, ninth level. And my tenth and final level is some symbolic action. Through Mr. Shafiq I would like to convey to our Chief Minister that have someone as minister who is blind, who’s deaf. Have these people elected in the legislature. So this is the symbolic leadership that we would like to convey to others. I know that there was a British Home Minister who was blind and some other countries as well. So you know this would be good politics, if not only a good gesture. So I think we need to show that we are humans, we regard, we believe in the dignity of every human and we need to have and we need to cater to all these differences that are in our society. So that is the tenth level, some symbolic gestures and actions which will motivate us, encourage us.
So these were some of the things that I wanted to mention so that we can really embrace inclusiveness. It is a really wonderful conference. This is the second and I hope this will continue at UMT in future as well. Thank you very much.
Video # 70
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qmm8a6yjmI
Topic: Importance of Exports in Global Market
Event: IBCE 2017
Event Date: October 30th, 2017
Audience: Guests, Faculty and Students
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 14 Minutes and 49 Seconds
Summary:
Professor Dr Nizamuddin, Chairman Punjab HEC, it’s always a delightful moment to see you at UMT and we consider you as our Patron & friend and patron of higher education overall in the province of Punjab. Mr. Hasan Ali Celik, Minister of Turkey, Yasar Dagon, Mr. Tang Song, Mr. Abid Sherwani, Mr. Abdu Maman, Assalamo O Alaykum. Ladies and gentlemen, we have come to the conclusion of the conference, exhibition will continue tomorrow.
As a parting thought I would like to share three things very briefly. Number one is as I mentioned earlier as well somewhere yesterday, that there is a great need to focus upon the challenge of increasing exports from Pakistan. If we look at the exports of our neighboring countries, then you find Bangladesh having population of 163 million, which is 25% less than Pakistan but boosting exports worth about 38 billion dollar, which is almost double than Pakistan. So that is Bangladesh, 25 percent less population and twice the exports. Now if we go to Sri Lanka and we have Jameel here with us from Sri Lankan Trade Corporation. So population of Sri Lanka is 20 million which is one by tenth of Pakistan and their exports are ten billion which is half of Pakistan. So with the population is one by ten, they are able to explore half of what Pakistan exports. And if you similarly see the Turkey, the population of Turkey is 80 million and their exports are crossing 160 billion. So their population is about one third of Pakistan and their exports is nearly ten times higher to Pakistan.
If we were to calculate the potential of Pakistan exports in terms of the population size and extrapolate then with the population of 200 million and with the strategic location that we occupy and with all the resources that we have and with all the talent that we have, with all the diaspora that we have all around the world, so I believe that our exports should be anywhere, if we apply the Turkish formula, then it should be 400 billion dollar and if we apply the formula of Sri Lanka then at least it should be five times which is at least hundred billion dollar. So see the potential, see what we are missing, see where is the gap and see how easily we can solve our problems of poverty, we can alleviate poverty, we can provide food, medicines, shelter and jobs to everyone.
We can take care of all needy and underprivileged. We can give free education and free cure and health services to every individual in Pakistan, and see where our per capita income would go if we are able to realize our potential for exports in years to come and at a faster pace. When I, as I mentioned before when I went to Turkey first time in 1995 their exports were 35 billion dollar. In a matter of like 20 years their exports has risen to about 160 billion dollars. So they have worked, they have done something, they’ve aligned everything accordingly, they’ve aligned macro policies of government and made government a patron and responsible for providing a conducive framework for businesses to operate.
Their ministers are available all the time and they are geared to do their best. So their job is to offer a platform which is helpful, which is friendly to business, to people. And they are also taking care of development of technical expertise, research and development, innovation, education, peace and order in society, helping all the institutions to work sharing one common ideal and one common goal. It is not easy, it cannot come easily but it is not difficult. There are standard policy frameworks available. Everything is available, everything is written. We can just cut and paste within our society and we together in this common ideal, that we have to work together to increase the exports of Pakistan.
Now my second point is, that you see what we are missing and you see how grave are the challenges. If we are continue, if we will see in future a continuous slight in our exports, it has already come down from 24 to about 20 or less, and there are predictions that if nothing will be done this trend will decline to 17, 18, 19 and how shameful it would be. How shameful the Sri Lanka can have five times the population size exports, Turkey would be heading towards 200 billion dollar, a Trillion dollar economy and we are sitting at the tail end of China having trillions of dollars of economy and occupying a strategic location, having pores, having all the resources of the world and the capital, the best and the best and we are going down and down and down.
So I think my second message is that if I were to pin my hope upon the existing big business houses, I don’t want to name any, that these will be the people who will go back to their drawing board and do something and in three years we will see our exports going up. So I’m not hopeful. I don’t see the top 10 or top 20 would be able to do that. What they have done is before us, we can see that. What they have achieved and what they are helping, we can see the type of commitment they have. We can see the level of expertise they have, we can see their momentum, we can see the effect of their strategies, and we can see where their mind is. So I don’t see them, the top 10 or top 20 business houses, and let’s have no hope. It is their responsibility, yes, they should be doing it but we should not wait for the next five year or ten year. They will do it and we will say no.
So my second point is, I think the responsibility of young students and graduates who are studying right now within academia. Who haven’t yet taken a job who are studying that please develop yourself a plan that how can you position yourself in the global market. So global markets are open, global markets are there for you and by virtue of your access to the global markets through internet, your computer, the wealth of information that is available at your fingertips, I think you can do it. And I’m sure you can do it. I’ve seen students within my academy that one student came to me, while he was in textiles, and he developed a project for exports of towels when he was in the final here. And after three four years he came to me for some reference letter and he said that he applied that project and he was already exporting worth about 1 million dollar. A very poor student and who had nothing, and who had a desk in a friend’s office loaned to him. So he could do that and leverage the industry in Faisalabad and the customers out there and manage one million dollar and now he had sufficient funds, and when he came to me he was thinking of moving and having office in Dubai. So he would be an exporter from Dubai not from Pakistan, all right.
So the second thing is that our students, it is the job of our students, it is the job of our faculty to train them to become a global businessman, to become a global player, develop their mindset, develop their skills, their communication and the confidence and give them the tools for their analysis and decisions so that they can develop their business houses. So the future 20 business groups, 10 year 20 year down the road. So if Pakistani exports have to increase from 20 billion dollar to 40 billion dollar and that must, and that should and InshAllah that will, so if they have to increase from 20 to 40 billion dollar, that twenty billion dollars should come from you, the young mind sitting here. And that can come about if the faculty teaching them, training them, living with them, talking to them, working with them will also raise this issue in class, raise this issue in when they will select their projects, monitor them and evaluate them that they are our graduates are exporters, pro exporters.
Our graduates should be exporter friendly and our graduates should be taken up by the companies who want to export or they should have their own companies exporting. So I think at the moment the ecosystem that we are living, capital is available and accessible. Human resources are also available. The existing infrastructure can be leveraged. So I think you alone and lonely yet, can I think achieve phenomenal targets in the global markets. There are those who are here, they have their own stories, the businessmen who have joined us here they have their own stories and you can be future millionaires, you can be future billionaires that 20%. Otherwise if we will remain hooked that now the existing will come, they will do something, no they are all do something different may be, they have a different agenda now. They are not anymore willing, working, motivated to do something for increasing this, otherwise they wouldn’t have been falling, right. They are still reach, they are becoming richer but maybe they are doing something else. So here is this market and I hope that our students will do that.
Third, now this kind of activity and this kind of event, the purpose is to sensitize our students with these possibilities, is to throw them to the business world and have the business world also come to them so that we create this forced intimate interaction and relationship, so that our students can get to know that ok this is how it can be done, this is what is possible and this is what I can do. They can have ideas, they can be inspired, they can be motivated and they can see yes, develop a confidence and a sense of self assurance that we can do it and we will do it. So this is what I think should be the gain of this conference. I’m really grateful to all the speakers who have come. We have talked about B2B, B2C, this is U2B and B2U, which means University, all those of the universities, faculty, students everyone.
So I think this is a new kind of relationship that we are going to establish in the history of business that here is, this is the first kind, I think in the world that universities came about and only reason that we have done is I think, this facility of Expo Center is here next to us, so we thought that we should leverage it. When it was being built, the idea was in my mind that we will leverage it and we will use it as our extension. So we want to hold more fairs and exhibition, we want to engage more students and faculty also in it, and I think this will give a completely new dimension and direction to what universities do, to higher education and to actually satisfy the expectations of stakeholders.
Our stakeholders want our graduates to have good jobs, our stakeholders want our graduates to be earning, to be capable, to be making, to be going around the world and doing well, and to be making world generating wealth for the country, for the world, for our people and for themselves. So I think we will be able to meet those expectations if we engage more within the classroom and within the realm of textbooks with this mind that our graduates should be pro exports. It’s not just pro entrepreneurship, its pro exports and then we help them, we hold their hands, we guide them, we monitor them, and we coach them so that they take the first steps and really become an exporter in their lives. That is the goal and objective and I thank you all once again for your cooperation.
Video # 71
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ5gd4JZDN8
Topic: Transforming Yourself
Event: Orientation Fall 2017
Event Date: October 18th, 2017
Audience: Faculty and Students
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 6 Minutes and 16 Seconds
Summary:
Honorable Rector, Dr Mohammad Aslam, Khalid Naqi, Director OPA, members of faculty, Deans, Directors and my dear newcomers. Assalamo O Alaykum.
We have little time to talk at the moment. You have chosen UMT as your vehicle for your journey onwards on the path of education. I welcome you, I wholeheartedly welcome you and embrace you, I wish you every success in your journey towards advancement of your own self and I assure you that you have made the right decision. Whatever program you have chosen, whatever degree you are going to aim at, I hope and I assure you that InshAllah you will be successful. Apart from the degree, I would like to also suggest and advise you that while you are here at UMT and working towards your degree, you also work towards your new being.
Allah SWT has created us once but he has given us the opportunity to recreate ourselves and to renew ourselves every day, every night, every moment, every year and take this opportunity because this is your last, perhaps second last stop before you walk to the real world. So take this opportunity to re-craft yourself, to reconfigure yourself, to renew yourself, to transform yourself and to enhance yourself and to elevate yourself. This is your chance, this is your opportunity, and this is your challenge. So wherever you are coming from, whatever is your background, whatever education you have received before is a matter of past now and whatever is going to happen in future will be the result of what you do from now on.
So my advice to you and my gift to you is that you need to have big dreams for yourself. You need to have dreams that none else has even seen till now. You need to have a great brighter, prosperous future for yourself and you need to think of your destiny, you need to think of new horizons in your future. This whole world is waiting for those who have great aims and who have set for themselves higher and higher destinies. And I hope that although you are starting just the first year in your university but you are worthy of that dream and you are worthy of the highest of highest pinnacles of success and you can turn around this world.
There are thousands and thousands, millions of poor who are struck with their poverty and they look for ways that how we can create a new atmosphere and take them out of poverty. There are many opportunities there, there are resources that are available in our country and they look forward to creative minds who can deploy those resources for gainful means. We are a country of 200 million people and we haven’t done yet anything that would create an impact because this nation and this country is waiting for leaders who can transform this nation into a great nation.
We are 5th largest in the world but ranked as hundreds or below in terms of our potential of human capital and it is you who this country now look forward to that you will create, recreate yourself, renew yourself and will take, will exploit this opportunity, take advantage of this chance and will create a new you, a new yourself and in the process you will lead the nation, you will lead this country. Our message is the message of learning, which is our mission. Our message is the message of leadership, which is our vision. And these two guiding principles should lead your way forward. I thank you again and I wish the organizers success. Thank you very much.
Video # 73
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM7_CVW-zq8
Topic: Importance of Psychology
Event: ICP 1st International Conference
Event Date: March 9th, 2017
Audience: Foreign Guests, Faculty and Students
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 21 Minutes and 41 Seconds
Summary:
Dr Zahid Mahmood, distinguished dignitaries sitting over the stage, esteemed members of faculty, deans, directors, professors, my dear young scholars and students, Assalamo O Alaykum. I would especially like to welcome our foreign guests who are here. Thank you very much for coming over to Pakistan and we look forward to your insights, to your views in this conference.
I am related to this field of psychology, broadly speaking in a tangential manner because I am student of management and my area within management is organization theory and somewhat organization behavior. And I teach courses in the fields of human self and identity, human systems, leadership and so on so forth. So here I am with that very limited knowledge of psychology. My interest took me to American Psychology Association and I have been member of that Association for some time and I get to know what’s happening. I attempted to go to one of their annual conferences but I regret I couldn’t make it for some other last minute important appointments.
Psychology I feel is very important and it is very significant to us. To us as a society and to us as part of the academia. It is related to human behavior and human society and this is the subject that talks about humans, and who are we other than being humans. So this is a subject, this is a discipline which focuses upon just ourselves, our lives and that is how it is so important and what could be more important than this. Maybe this is the starting point for human inquiry about life, about existence, about the world at large. So understanding of human self is the key to understanding the human society and psychology helps us in knowing more and in discovering the multi-faceted of an ever evolving being of the human self.
I feel that psychology has contributed to our understanding and it has given us light on understanding the dynamics of inner and outer dimensions. It is also important to see that how human behavior and human societies have evolved over a period of time. So there is this very important evolutionary perspective that becomes part of psychology, and then of course like any other discipline psychology also has a way of prescribing what is good, what is bad, what is normal, what is abnormal, what is acceptable and what is not, and what is the range of that goodness and that acceptability.
So it is important, I feel that within the field of management there is very little understanding of human self of human being. We start talking about managing human beings without having any chapter or any book or any preparation on human being, and this is a realization that I think is now taking roots among the scholars. So psychology has implications all around, in the field of management, also in political science, sociology, economics, religion and of course management, as I mentioned.
This is the time when there are narratives going on about civilizations and culture, what is civilization, what is culture, and there are narratives that are being thrusted upon people and then there is dialogue and there is a conflict and we see differences of opinion and there are maybe wars being planned or fought or already have been fought on the notion of this priority of civilization and culture. So I think psychology can enrich that debate and that dialogue that is inherent in within the dialogue of civilization, that paradigm of civilization which is going on for now.
Psychology can provide that objective and scientific research on the basis of which we can draw conclusions which can be acceptable and it will provide a foundation for logical analysis which can lead to our fundamental, which can lead all of us towards fundamental truths. So I think psychology is important from that perspective of a civilization also and there is a possibility of arriving at common grounds and discovering that common ground and outlining the features of that common ground for our shared understanding about who we are, the essence of human beings and that can pave the way for a shared and peaceful existence in in this world.
I would also like to suggest that the making of a human society and it’s all attendant micro and macro factors at broader levels which are at work and the behavior that goes on, actually leads to four different kinds of interactions between people and it is the responsibility, it is within the scope of psychology to understand the nature of each interaction and then figure out the best course for all of us. The first exchange is a kind of reciprocal that, okay I smile and you smiled, I gave the shop some money and I got in exchange some goods. So that is basically a reciprocal kind of interaction. Second is where someone tries to dominate the other.
So there is this subordination and domination interaction and that is of course very common and that takes place in variety of shapes and kinds, and that is all pervasive. Two, we cannot deny the existence of that within families, within generations, across the generations, within societies and of course within the state and government relations with these people. Third is shared volunteerism where we get together on the basis of common values and then we share whatever energies we have, whatever ideas we have and we work towards common goods and then we move in a kind of fraternity and we develop a kind of conclave. So that’s another kind of basic and a very essential human interaction.
In this process I feel that we acquire certain identity, we develop certain identity and we develop our shapes and ourselves, and there are negatives and positives on each of these different kinds of interactions. So psychology I believe can enhance the understanding of each and it can also help us find these sources and outcomes of each of these basic interactions and it can mind the gaps of you know in each situation and then it can also bind us in a better way, you know whatever the situation is.
My next suggestion is that when I see the world today, I feel that this is characterized by disruptions and disruptions going on all around. Disruptions because of innovation certainly, disruptions because of the speed of change in our way we think and disruptions because of the complexity and uncertainty of our overall and political, economic, social environment and disruptions because of ambiguity and equivocality of what is going on. So it is difficult to interpret what’s going on. It is tough to arrive at the meanings of what’s happening and who said what for what and to whom. So there are multiple layers of what is stated and what is narrated, and with this kind of disruption human life is becoming difficult and difficult. It is becoming difficult to hold on to something and then stay that way for some time and develop a comfort zone in mind, in psyche, in heart and then arraign the life accordingly. Because change is coming too fast and change is ruthless and the speed of change is also changing very fast.
So I feel that it is a dimension that psychologists need to take care of that as a person, as group, as citizen, as a member of an institution, as worker and as a partner or as an associated, how can I chop out a course for myself in this age of disruption, and how it hampers, how it influences my mind, my thinking, my habits, my behavior and what pressures and stresses it is leading to within our societal structures of families, of neighborhoods and overall our interaction with each other. So I think that the practices of, the clinical practices and the virtue of healing that clinical psychology is there to heal, to help, has a tremendous value in this age of disruption. We need to solve our problems intelligently and we need to be resourceful enough to solve the problems that seem insurmountable and big enough for us.
And clinical psychologist can play the role of partners and can shed light and can help people live better life. So if there is a goal, if there is a common goal among the people to lead good life and to shape good society, to build good society, I think clinical psychologists can become change agent for good life and good society, and can also in addition, can also provide that healing, that soft healing, instruments and tools of healing, can equip us with that so that we can think better, we can address the challenges, we can solve problems, we can take care of the stresses. So that intrinsic human talent of healing and helping, this is what I believe clinical psychologists can highlight and can then popularize and can make it available to the society.
But here is a caveat that psychologists, the help from psychology is available to those who can afford it. The help from the doctors, physicians and surgeons is also available to those who can afford it. How can we make that help available to all who need it, whether they can afford it or not? This is a question for me, this is a question for you, this is a question for us and unless we are able to make it available and accessible to all, its impact would be very limited to those who are already resourceful. Please remember that half of this world is shelter less, please remember that about you know 40% of the world resources are with just less than 10 people.
So there is great inequality, there are large number of people living in acute situation, in distress and they are helpless, they are shelter less and they need the help most. So I think it’s time that our governments and our institutions pay attention to it that like health, and it’s part of the health, mental health is part of the health and it’s also part of the physical health. So it should be our goal to provide that necessary health that is required, that is required by parents, that it requires by teenagers, that is required by those who are handicapped, that is required by those who are poor, that is required by those who are disadvantaged, those who are underprivileged, we need to provide them that help.
My next submission is that good life good society, yes they are very, very noble goals and we all share that goals. We all are willing to invest our lives for the pursuit of good life and good society. But then there is another thing which really attracts our attention and that is the possibility of attaining happiness and then not just the possibility of attaining happiness but also the possibility of being able to meet and attend to all desires that I may have. So my ability, my unlimited, unrestricted ability to meet my desire that is important for me. And I call that my freedom. If there is any restriction on my desire, I feel that my freedom has been checked and that’s wrong. We are living in a society which is based upon liberty and freedom of human action. So I cannot find my happiness without having my unrestricted ability to meet all my desires. So I think this is the curiosity of our time that how far, to what extent, in what ways we can allow human beings to live just the way they desire and then in the process, achieve happiness probably.
So the possibility of attaining happiness by being able to meet and attain all the desire is a big question mark. And here is what I think research, scientific research is needed, and its connection with freedom and its balanced with the overall goals of good life and good society. So the pursuit of happiness and unlimited attainment of desire, individual desire I think these are crucial questions of our time especially in the time when people are becoming more and more affluent, where we are tuned to more and more indulgence and where we want to have our way. We are under stress. We go to psychologists if we just can’t have our way. So I think there is enlightenment that is required and human life will go to wrong, to far in the wrong direction if we are not given right help at the right time.
My last submission is that there is on the one hand, yes this I mentioned about the desire and it relates to of course those who are affluent and those who have it. But what about those who don’t have it. They have the challenge. They are living in an environment of incapacity. They are living under the constraints of hardships and they are not able to meet their essential and basic needs, and they are forced by the systems and institutions and the regulations, increasing number of regulations, and they’re subjected to laws and very specific code of behavior. So those who don’t have it, fear the law more than those who have it and those who don’t have it feel more pressure and they are more constrained and more regulated and under more severe vigilance and they get the worst kind of treatment and the lowest quality of judgment by the society. So here I think something that is also an issue for our future psychologists and clinical psychologists.
Ladies and gentlemen, these were my ideas that I wanted to share with you. I see very good crowd, professors, senior professors, deans, directors from institutions, I see representation from a lot of institutions and I see very young people who are planning to and aiming it, dedicating their life to this profession. So welcome to this very important conference and welcome to new ideas that you would go through and welcome to discussions, debate that will go on and I hope you will also find new friends and new partnerships for your ongoing intellectual and academic journey as well as your personal life. Thank you very much.
Video # 74
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZjVz-x4N90
Topic: Psychology as Profession
Event: Farewell
Event Date: Year 2017
Audience: Students
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail
Total Time of Video: 6 Minutes and 40 Seconds
Summary:
NOTE: This speech is missing a proper start. It starts as:
We at UMT are trying our best to disseminate the education in the field of social sciences. We have developed already a range of disciplines within social science and I am very happy to see that Psychology is one of them. We have also introduced political science, international relations, economics, media and communication, education, English language and literature, communication studies, anthropology, gender studies, sociology and we also introduced the programs in philosophy and world religions but they were not as popular and they were suspended last year. I hope that the programs that we have offered have been useful to you and have added to your education, to your upbringing in a comprehensive manner especially the field in which you have opted, which is Psychology.
And we introduced BS Social Sciences a few years back, you know about I think 7, 8 years back and we realized that Psychology is a very popular discipline and then Dean came to me. It was my idea that we should have something like this exactly at 09:15 because otherwise I saw that classes keep going till late sometimes and our busses have to leave on time, so I thought that all the lectures and classrooms should be terminated by 09:30, so there should be a 15 minutes alarm for all of them.
So when we realized that BS Psychology is very popular and there was a demand that Psychology should be introduced as a standalone degree, so we introduced BS Psychology. And then there was also this clinical psychology which is a separate institute and which deals with the practice of Psychology. BS Psychology is the main discipline of Psychology and it teaches Psychology as a subject with its theory and applied in both forms. So I am really pleased to see that another batch of BS Psychology is heading towards the world of work. My own PhD thesis was on the subject of Human Nature and I developed a synthesis of philosophy and science and religion in understanding human nature, so I dealt with the discipline of Psychology and I have also been teaching Organization Behavior for some time at UMT. So Behavioral Psychology, Social Psychology and Human and Group Psychology, all have been within my purview. So I feel at home with Psychology and as I probably mentioned before, I am long standing member of American Psychology Association as well and I go through all of the current literature and current advancement.
So what I wanted to say to you is that you are in a very good field. And a field which is needed by schools, by colleges, by institutions, by work place, by HR department of corporations, field that is required and in variety of base you can have your career. So it depends who you want to be within Psychology and what is it and how you want to contribute in the field of Psychology. So it really depends upon you that what did you figure out for yourself, how do you determine your strengths and what have you discovered within you as per the field that you have adapted. You can be a professional, you can be a researcher, you can be a scientist and you can be a teacher, you can be a counsellor. So there are hopes of opportunities that are available to you and you will be able to make good of them and make value of them and make value for yourself only if you precisely determine for yourself the exact career path that you are aiming at. And Psychology is needed by every person, by every family member, by every husband, by every wife, by every son and daughter, by every daughter in law and by every son in law, by every student, everyone needs Psychology and help from Psychology. So you can add to the happiness of the people, you can contribute towards the self-fulfillment of the people, satisfaction of people and you can increase the quality of life for people. So if anyone ask you what do you want to be and what do you want to do, tell them that you want to enhance the happiness, self-fulfillment and eventually the quality of life of people and of society. So that’s about it that I wanted to say at this last moment. Thank you very much.
That is a token of your love and affection for me and I always am grateful to you for that and I am indebted for that gesture, but today what I have got, I would always remember that and I would always treasure that. So thank you very much for giving me and honoring me with this. Thank you very much. It would add to the décor of my office background. So thank you very much and I would remember all of you for that.
Video # 75
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_rB2p0AA14
Topic: Importance of Islamic Economics
Event: 3rd Global Forum on IEFB 2018
Event Date: February 20th, 2018
Audience: Guests, Faculty and Students
Issues in Video: Improper Thumbnail & Incomplete Start
Total Time of Video: 23 Minutes and 12 Seconds
Summary:
NOTE: This speech is missing a proper start. It starts as:
But day before he would get a nerve, he would walk around the room and he would get really disturbed and under high stress, so his secretary said that, sir why do you accept the invitation if you cannot handle. Speaker said, but it is for the love of introduction that I accept. So I hope to be a servant of the ‘Shah’ of Medina but I’m not actually a ‘Shah’. It has never been a part of my name.
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s once again a great honor and a privilege to be here this morning with those who are passionately interested in the field of Islamic Economics and Banking. I’m very delighted to welcome our distinguished guests sitting on the stage, Justice Khalil, who is the beacon light of Islamic Economics and the path breaker in this field by announcing, formulating a landmark decision on Riba, when he was Chief Justice. Dr Ghazanfar has been the Chairman of the Department of Economics in University of Idaho and he was here on vacation, he contacted me and I thought it would be a good time for him that we can spend here and we look forward to his thoughts after my speech. Dr Aisha Muniza is from Maldives and Minister in Maldives, again a scholar in Islamic Economics, Dr Ahmad sitting on the stage, Dr Nizam Uddin has been a patron of intellectual and academic gatherings and has always made himself available, his duties on desk and on job never hindered his presence in the venues and avenues where something of interest is being talked and discussed and guests from all over the world and nation have come together. So thank you very much all of you for making yourself available to this event. I wish to congratulate director of Institute of Islamic Banking for organizing this conference, the team of Institute of Islamic Banking, Dr Talat, faculty members and students who once again took this task upon themselves and organized a very successful conference. They say that the first conference is a chance, the second is continuity and third is a tradition. So I think now this conference has become certified as a tradition and we hope to see this every year, InshAllah in future.
As maybe I have shared before, my own interest in Islamic economics started when I passed the intermediate examination and I was in UK visiting my parents and there was the first International Conference of Islamic Economics held in London in the year 1977. That conference was a new beginning. I saw scholars, practitioners, executives, policymakers, government officials coming from all over the world, I think more than 50 countries, from advanced countries, from developing countries, from Muslim countries, from Europe, Asia, they got together and they spent three days together, that was the first conference and perhaps that was a milestone. Before that there were writings, there were thoughts projected by scholars having religious background and trying to make a case for Islamic Banking and Islamic Economics, and most of them were really good, most of them were not given any serious hearing. It was set at that time and I witnessed that, that how could an interest free, Riba free banking can exist, can take place, and can function in the modern times.
So that was the situation but they were lonely voices, but they were very assured, confident and they made a rational case that how to set up an Islamic financial institutions in the light of the teachings of Quran and Sunnah, and how we can go about it, how we can initiate it. That was a pioneering effort, a bold and courageous effort and it has paid. They were not shy of making a point across, and they used the modern template, they understood how the dynamics of modern economy function and then situated the principles of Islamic economics in that scenario and tried to make an attempt to present the case and I think it was a very unique conference. Islamic Development Bank of course is known as perhaps the first bank in that direction which came after the OIC conference in Morocco I believe.
So there was then a series of initiatives taken by different people in different places, institutions for research in Islamic economics came up in Jeddah, in Islamabad, International Islamic University in Malaysia, in other places, but practitioners, policy makers, Ulma’s from the religious institutions, bankers and those who were concerned the way world economy is going forward they all were unanimous in the view that Islamic economics has a credible approach to solve the problems and to respond to the challenges. And I think we must pay credit to them and we must pray to Allah SWT for good rewards to them for what they did in those times, and that is perhaps a very inspiring story that if there is a case presented and there is an argument and the effort goes on consistently with commitment, then there are results. Today it’s known to be, this field of Islamic financial institutions is known to be about 1.5 to 2 trillion dollars and is increasing at a faster growth rate which is a testimony to the point of view. We can argue what’s happening and how it is happening but yes, there is a movement and there is a credible significant movement right now and we can relish and we can take pride in that movement. Since then a lot of work has done and a lot of progress has been made in this field.
This conference is another step in that direction. The objective of course is like any other conference to organize a gathering of scholars in Islamic economics, finance and banking have a free interaction among themselves to see what’s new research, what are new ideas and to understand the new insights, to share point of view, to understand what are the problems that are being faced by the practitioners, by enterprises, by institutions and what are the solutions that have come to the forum in different places, what are the experiments that are going on so that we can all enlighten ourselves with the cutting edge and we understand where this field stands as of now. In contrast to the other different kinds of disciplines, the development of this field doesn’t laid in the Ivy League Institutions in the advanced countries where we would normally rely upon for any further development or research.
If there will be any development in this field, it will come when there will be committed research being undertaken within those, among those who believe in this and who are practicing it. So the responsibility for further development, for refinement of the idea, for critical evaluation of what’s going on rest upon our shoulders, and it is we who have to take these steps forward. On the one hand to implement and apply what is already there and on the other hand to ensure that we develop this as a discipline on the basis of the theory and principles and we further expand the boundaries of this discipline and we make sure that this discipline doesn’t fall behind the pace of development of the world and this discipline is in fact able to lead the world and it is ahead of its time and it’s coming up with the right solutions, right strategies in time.
So I think that is the responsibility that has laid upon our shoulders. So this conference is not just like any other gathering where people would come, they meet, they greet and they share pleasantries and they know each other and then they go away. If we are here then we have a task to perform, we have a responsibility to undertake to find new questions, new answers and to enter in to a long term dialogue and discussion for the benefit of those who are in this field and for the help and to facilitate the practitioners and to encourage and promote research in this very important field.
One thing that we need to realize and we need to understand is that if there are Islamic banks today coming up, springing forth in every corner and if mainstream banks are opening not just windows for Islamic banking but a standalone alternative for Islamic banking, it is happening not because there is any advertising campaign going on, it is happening not because there is any World Bank or IMF regulation taking place and prompting them to do that, it is not because there is any other structural change that is binding them to opt for Islamic economics, the only reason it is happening and it is moving forward and it is progressing and accelerating at a faster rate is that people among the Muslim countries and wherever Muslims are, they are increasingly looking forward to Islamic banking as a source of their financial arraignments and financial transactions and they want to have an Islamic alternative, they want to have a system which they can refer to and they can take advantage if they are looking for investments for their companies or if they want to deposit their personal surplus money or if they want to make any transaction with any other global players for their business for trade.
So it is the call from the people, the demand is from the people that is forcing them. None of the banks today first conducted a billions of rupees advertising campaign to draw the attention of people, to convince people that go for Islamic banking, they have been made to do that by the demand of the people. So it has come, it has achieved this momentum only on the basis of the demand, only on the basis of the pull from the people. It is not a result of any push. So once we realize that it is the demand of people, here comes the moral and ethical responsibility that since it is not something which has come about as a result of any marketing strategy, it has come because of the conscious people who want an alternate so there has to be a fair and faithful and honest arraignment which would really satisfy people what they’re really looking forward to and which should be closer and closer to their expectation and which should be aligned to what actually is required and which should be in true spirit of what is needed and what is called for. There is no room and there is no space for any compromise or any gain or any mix up which would be not fair to the expectations of people and that’s how we also know that is the first principle of even marketing for any products.
So here is this responsibility once again for us and which again adds to the responsibilities of our scholars, researchers, practitioners, teachers, academics, policymakers that we need to be true and we need to be truthful, we need to be fair and we need to be honest in what we do in the name of Islam Economics Banking and Finance.
Ladies and gentlemen, conferences are about new questions and answers to the old questions and new answers. Conferences are about new horizons, conferences are about extending the frontiers of knowledge, conferences are about innovation and it is about debate and discussion, and it’s about critical evaluation and examination of what’s going on. So we draw your attention to the problems that world is facing right now. What are the world’s biggest challenges and how the field of Islamic economics finance and banking can respond to it? So that’s the first question. So that we ensure that Islamic economics finance and banking remains relevant to the problems and challenges of the world. That’s the first task. Second, how dynamics of political economy are changing and what directions it is taking in the future.
This is important for us so that Islamic economics, finance and banking remains significant and relevant player in the future. We cannot work in isolation, we cannot just confine ourselves into a box and think inside. We have to relate ourselves to our context, so we need to see how the context is changing, how the world political economy is changing, how trade and investment is changing and then we need to see that how Islamic economics, finance and banking is best suited to respond to that.
Third, what is the new research and new findings overall in the mainstream economics? We can benefit from that. There is tremendous research that’s going on. Thousands of economists, researchers, analysts are geared up and spending the day and night with millions of dollars and rupees around the world in all countries, in all situations for all issues and problems. So we need to relate ourselves to that unfolding body of research and draw lessons for us. So we have to have a very active interface with the mainstream research that’s going on in the field of economics, politics, sociology, political economy and overall in the field of society and human behaviors, to see that how it really informs us, how it enriches us and how it enlightens us. Forth, what is the state of conventional banking in financial arrangements and financial regulations, financial institutions in the world and how it is revamping and changing itself, reconfiguring itself, what are their successes and failures today so that we can again learn from that. So we need to again have a window to the conventional banking for our own benefit.
And fifth, we need to see within ourselves that where is the new knowledge coming for Islamic economics finance and banking? What are the top 5, 10 journals in this field? What are the 10, 20 leading minds in this field? So that we can draw inspiration from them, we can look up to them, we can see what are the guidelines that they are sharing with us right now? So we need to develop this momentum for the continued development of this discipline, so that this discipline is increased in its respect and repute and dignity, and it can steer the field onwards and its development is ahead of its time. Sixth, we also need to assess the performance and progress of financial institutions and enterprises that have come about with the guidelines of Islamic economics. We need to see what is their niche, how they are surviving, what has been their progress on the path of institutional development and what is the view of stakeholders, regulators, executives, board members, managers, customers and others about their performance. So there is a need of fair assessment of the performance of the current financial institutions.
Ladies and gentlemen, Islamic economics work within the regulatory environment. So there is a deep relationship with the government, with central banks, with civil society and with community at large. So there is the need again to see that strategic linkage and see what’s new in this whole ecosystem, so that the field is once again tailored and tuned according to those needs. This conference is although like just any other conference but I really hope for some very interesting, illuminating, enlightening thinking. I hope for courageous and bold thinking. I hope for and I wish a radical, substantive, holistic viewpoint so that we can come up with amazing solutions and surprise the field, the stakeholders, those who are the experts in this area with our thinking. Because we believe that what we have got is the right approach and if we believe in that this is the right approach then if we are short on performance, then it is our lacking, it is our shortcoming not in what we believe. I once again thank everyone who are here, our students, faculty members, professors and academics from other universities, scholars, presenters, researchers and I wish you all two very interesting and exciting days. Thank you.
Video # 76
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v_K5Q78e7w
Topic: Business, Academia and Government
Event: Launching Ceremony of SATHA 2014
Event Date: Year 2014
Audience: Staff, Faculty and Students
Issues in Video: Poor Audio Quality
Total Time of Video: 7 Minutes and 30 Seconds
Summary:
My very dear friend, brother and neighbor, Nabil Hashmi Sb, Abid Sherwani Sb., Corporate Chiefs, distinguished faculty, ladies and gentlemen, Assalamo O Alaykum.
I think it’s a memorable day. We are laying the foundation of Triple Helix South Asia and I would like to give credit to Mr. Abid Sherwani for taking this initiative, going to Moscow and coming back with this and carrying it forward. I came into contact personally with Triple Helix some three four years back, we were organizing a National Conference of Business Management and I was trying to figure out an appropriate theme for the conference which will give the conference a permanent sustainability. And given the context of an emerging economy, I felt that something like bridging the gaps between business, academia and industry; business, academia and government would work best for us in our context.
As an academia, our job is to provide, to contribute towards the formation of the human capital, strategic base of skills, talent and help business and industry meet the needs and achieve their business results. And our job is to introduce to government and business new ideas, develop creative solutions, undertake research and development so that we do the research, we take care of innovation and then enterprises can take it forward and commercialize it. So again the academia has a very integral role in that access of development and progress.
Then comes the business and industry, the job of business and industry is to actualize it. Turn ideas into reality profitably, meaningfully, productively and for the benefit of the society. The job of government is to oversee the arrangements. Increasingly government is becoming irrelevant and I think that if business and academia can get together then we can take care of the issues, all right. They are busy in their own activities, so let them remain occupied in their activities. They have their own agenda. Every time a new government comes and we have high hopes, and at the end of four five years we see, oh, where are we. So I think it is falling upon us and this is the beauty of this Triple Helix that it lays the foundation directly upon the shoulders of the pillars of society, academia, business and of course government. I would add the governmental and non-governmental side as well.
Because I think now that as far as the delivery of the services is concerned, for example security, education, health, you know many other areas related to human development is the non-governmental organization, the non-governmental sector taking care of it. So government, as well as non-government, so we have further minimized the government, right. So InshAllah, with this Triple Helix going forward, we will carry this concept.
UMT has already organized three conferences on this theme. The first one was Business, Academia and Government, the second one was Science, Enterprises and Society, the third one I can’t remember but then it was I know two conferences were held in Lahore, the third one was organized by IBA Sukkur and the forth one now is going to be organized in Karachi by Institute of Business Management. So we are taking this conference all over the Pakistan and in each context, in each different conference we address different sets of issues and challenges, again based upon the theme of Triple Helix. So I think it’s a very powerful theme for economies in transition, for emerging economies, for developing world, this is what we need, that we take charge of our issues and problems and we meet together. Nabil Hashmi Sb has rightly pointed out that he has some concerns regarding the academia, we have some expectations from industry and only if we meet, we sit together, we collaborate, we extend our hands and we share our ideas, we will be able to offer value to the society, and we are ready for that. I hope this is a good start. I’ve seen that the flag of Afghanistan is missing from here, so Afghanistan is now also a part of that, so I think that needs to be there.
So right now from Afghanistan to Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, these all countries present different kind of context. India very big, and Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan very small, Afghanistan very turbulent country, and then Bangladesh. So I think it will be very exciting, very interesting, very challenging, and we all need to put together. Nabil Sb has said that he will definitely put his weight, I’m hundred percent sure that if he puts his weight, then everything will be all right.
Video # 77
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK-Eu5GBQWE
Topic: Transformative Message of Quran
Event: Khurram Murad Memorial Lecture
Event Date: Year 2014
Audience: Staff, Faculty and Students
Issues in Video: Low Audio
Total Time of Video: 34 Minutes and 26 Seconds
Summary:
NOTE: This speech is missing a proper start and missing words in the middle of the speech. It starts as:
Most important attribute of his life was that he considered himself the servant of Allah SWT. He worshiped Allah, he found his freedom by surrendering to the will of Allah. His choices, his preferences, his likings, his disliking, his decisions, his deliberations everything was according to the traits as to what would please Allah and what would earn his maximum pleasure, not just his acceptance or his indifference, but His utmost love and pleasure. He was the seeker of the love of Allah SWT, and he wouldn’t compromise anything for that. He would give up everything for that, he wouldn’t take anything which would reduce it even a bit. So that was his first attribute. And when he returned from, let’s say when he went to America in 1959 and he came back, and his friend and his colleague Professor Khurshid inquired that how was you stay in America and were not there any time when you felt dissuaded and it might have occurred to you that you may deviate from the right path or some misconception or misunderstanding or doubt mirage in your mind when you were studying there for two years, he said no, in fact he said that my faith transformed into a kind of ‘Ishq’ when he was there studying in America. So this was the kind of commitment and this was his first attribute.
Second, he was willing to make sacrifices, he was very well endowed with competence, with skills, tremendous skills and capability to do things. But he was ready to sacrifice to struggle, sacrifice to do more, sacrifice to achieve more, sacrifice to give more, sacrifice to work more for others and for the cause. I never found him indulging, I never found him entertaining. It was all part of the life but not at the cost of his work. So he was very dedicated and committed to his work.
Third, he shared his love with others. He was silent most of the time. He used to speak less, which if he were to given a choice he would seclude himself from the company of others and spent time with himself but when he was in the company, he was in the company. When he would meet even the stranger, normally when we meet strangers we don’t even look at their eyes, we will not embrace them, hug them, we will not shake our hands with warmth and we will not convey our feelings to them.
The person is a stranger why would we? But one of the attribute that I found in him that even when he would meet strangers, he would meet rich, he would meet poor and whoever he would meet he would embrace them in a way that they are lost friends, that he was waiting for them, that he wanted them and he wanted to be very close to them and he would extend his everything to them and would give them a very good embrace and he would talk to them. Nothing artificial, very genuine sense of affiliation and love and bond with everyone, whether Muslim or non-Muslims, known or unknown, very dear ones, loved ones or someone from the outside.
Forth, that I was really impressed was his professionalism. We started the function late today but never in my life I found him late anywhere. He was right on time every time, on every count, every prayer. Wherever he would commit he would be on time. When I was working in Dawood Hercules, so my Chairman Hussain Dawood once desired that he would like to meet my father, so I told my father and time was set for about 11am So my father arrived in the office and as it would happen that Chairman, big bosses their appointments would always be late. So he waited 15 minutes and then he left. So chairman came after half an hour and said okay where is your father, I said he left, he waited 15 minutes and then he left. So this was his timeliness. He wouldn’t waste his time and he wouldn’t let others waste his time. So this was a tremendous reflection of his professionalism.
And then his quality of mindedness. He was absolutely perfectionist. I was told by someone who was hired as a procurement manager for Masjid-al-Haram, so in order to test the attitude of the work of person, my father gave him about 100 riyals and said go to the market and buy some dates. The person came back with some dates. So my father said okay now tell me where did you go..(MISSING WORDS HERE)
(MISSING WORDS HERE).. Or someone who had the heart, who could see that what it means, and I think he bought the highest place in paradise just by that decision.
And then seventh, he was very loyal, very faithful to the cause of Islam. That was his obsession, that was that took away his energy, sacked his resources, that was something which made him, which kept him awake in the night and busy in that day. So he was devoted to that cause. He had a mission in life. He was cause minded, mission driven, value oriented and he would not take a no, he wouldn’t compromise. He was there forever, whatever time he had he spent it for a mission and for a cause and he made good value of this life. He valued this life and made a good value of this life.
I would conclude my thoughts by saying that this event is not just to project him. He was one of those many who were blessed by Allah SWT. Even before that people have told me that Khurram was the one man who always has matter of habit. So I’ve never seen him, sometimes he will be traveling, sometimes he really had hard day but I’ve never seen him missing his moments of quiet talk with his God in the calmness of the night.
And today the topic is transformative message of Quran. The last thing that I would say which defined him, which made him what he was, it was his relationship with Quran. He discovered Quran in his early life. He was taught Quran by his mother. He learned Quran at the knees of his mother. His mother imbibed in him the message of Allah, the word of Allah. And it was in his nerves, it was absorbed by him. It became his intuition. He preached into Quran, he lived by Quran. One habit if you would say his hobby, what was his hobby, his hobby was to recite Quran. If he’s alone not doing anything, to refresh himself and to unwind himself, he would sit somewhere and would recite the verses. He had memorized half of the Quran and he would know the other half very well. He had a full grasp of every verse of Quran. So he discovered Quran and once he discovered it he never forgot that. Once Dr Israr came to our home and he said that he thinks, Dr Israr, that after Abul Ala Maudoodi the one person who has really understood Quran in his view it was my father.
So he had a deep insight of the Quran that why this verse, why this world, why, what, how, when, where and its implications, it’s imperative, its meaning, its relevance, its history, its future, its present. So he had the deep insight, deep understanding of Quran. Its relevance, its permanence, the transition that Quran wants to make and he was charmed by Quran, the beauty of Quran. He was unflinchingly, inextricably embedded in it, embedded in Quran. And what was the time when he would read, he would read Quran before Fajr, he would read Quran and there was a special Quran hour in our home and everybody in the morning would be reading it. I remember when I was in school, and one thing that he would always say that please have your children read Quran first and then send them to school. He wanted the sequence to be established.
So when I was in school my Qaari was teaching us Quran, who was a very good person, so he made us memorize Surah Al-Gashia, Surah Al-Fatah, Surah Al-Duha, so I and brother Ahmed both memorized it. So one afternoon when my father came from office and my mother was very happy and she said to my father, look Hasan and Ahmed they have learned Surah Al-Gashia, Surah Al-Duha, my father said ok come on, let me hear. So I recited. He immediately went and gave us some money, he was so happy, so delighted. So he celebrated Quran and today we are holding this event on the topic which was very dear to him, for which he has lived and which a book that would I believe be a witness in favor of him on the Day of Judgment.
So the topic today is transformative message of Quran and I hope that the lecture that will be delivered by Dr Ahmed Murad would be very enlightening and would convey to us the meanings of Quran as a transformative book. Thank you very much.
Video # 80
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3j0XNqumxg
Topic: Key Issue of Governance of our Time
Event: Idea Exchange 2011
Event Date: March 28-29, 2011
Audience: National & International Delegates, Faculty and Students
Issues in Video: Low Audio
Total Time of Video: 17 Minutes and 11 Seconds
Summary:
Honorable Chief Guest Rana Mashood Ahmad Sb, Mr Iftikhar Ali Malik, leader of the business community of Pakistan and Chairman Guard group, Mr Andreas Weber, World President The Textile Institute, Dr Nasira Jabeen Director Institute of Administrative Sciences Punjab University, Dr Nisar Ahmad Siddiqi, Director Institute of Business Administration Sukkur, Dr Rukhsana Kalim Associate Dean School of Business and Economics, University of Management and Technology and Chief Organizer ICOBM, Dr Nabil Amin, Director Institute of Textiles and Industrial Sciences and Chief Organizer of the third international textiles and clothing conference, Dr Muhammad Amin, Chairperson Department of Islamic Thought and Civilization and Chief Organizer first conference on Islamic civilization, Dr Rashid Kausar, Pro Rector UMT, learned scholars, distinguished speakers and presenters from Pakistan and across the world, distinguished guests, business leaders, government officers, faculty and students from academia, ladies and gentlemen, Assalamo O Alaykum Warahmatullah.
It is indeed my unique honor to welcome all of you at the platform of UMT Ideas Exchange 2011. Initially this conference was supposed to be held in January this year but it had to be postponed just a day before because of the sad demise of the Governor Punjab, Mr Salman Taseer. Many of the guests had actually arrived by the evening from different cities of the country as well as from outside Pakistan. He was patron of UMT as Governor Punjab, may Allah rest his soul in peace. I am delighted to see that all delegates have returned to this place once again. In January it was only International Conference on Business Management 2011 to be held, In March UMT had planned two other conferences The Third International Conference on Textiles and Clothing as well as the First International Conference on Islamic Civilization. It then occurred to us to combine all three in a unique super event appropriately titled as UMT Idea Exchange 2011. The motive to combine this conference into one was primarily driven by the necessity to economize and synergize the organizing efforts as well as to consolidate the interest of the participants. However as we move forward with the idea, we soon realize that this is a unique concept where more than 175 speakers from over two dozen countries and from a dozen cities of the country are going to present on such a wide range of topics.
The galaxy of speakers at UMT Ideas Exchange hail from diverse countries, from all continents. It includes the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, France, Turkey, Italy, Czech Republic, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Georgia, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Oman, Syria and Ghana. Unfortunately about two dozen speakers whose papers were accepted could not make it because of financial constraints.
Honorable Chief Guest, rarely one could find an event where such a momentum is generated due to widespread participation of the speakers. It is a great event, almost one of its kind. It is not easy to convince those sitting in the cool environment of academia to consider Pakistan as a destination for sharing creative ideas and new knowledge when many other better destinations are competing. I would like to commend the speakers and researchers, business leaders and public intellectuals who have honored their commitment and made it possible to convene this mega event successfully. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in extending a warm welcome to our distinguished speakers from around the world. We hope that you would enjoy the traditional hospitality of the people of the historical city of Lahore. Mr Chief Guest of Honor, this conference is also unique in terms of the participation of the faculty and students from academic world in Pakistan. In principle it is co-hosted by two leading institutions of higher education, the Institute of Administrative Sciences of Punjab University and Institute of Business Administration Sukkur. We are grateful to both of these institutions for joining hands to make this event truly remarkable. Faculty and students from both of these institutions are also participating in this conference.
Ladies and gentlemen, UMT Idea Exchange 2011 was to be inaugurated by none else then the Chief Minister of Punjab, Mian Shahbaz Sharif. When we explained to him the theme of this conference, he took less than a second to agree to be here amongst all of us. Such is his enthusiasm for knowledge and education. His unflinching commitment to education can be gaged by his multifarious path breaking initiatives such as Punjab Education Endowment Fund, Danish School Systems, Supply of IT Infrastructure in all schools, revival of TEVTA, rewards to position holders and increasing support to education institutions. His heart throbs every second for doing something to develop the human resources of Punjab. His mind is incessantly engaged in seizing the opportunities and possibilities for economic development. He begins his work before the sun rises and melts his minutes and seconds until stars remain in the sky to show him light. Let us acknowledge his untiring efforts and endless zeal to make Punjab the hub of economic growth by giving him a warm welcome.
Ladies and gentlemen, our guest of honor today is Mr. Iftikhar Ali Malik, a beacon of business community who has made a name by starting his group to new industries, providing leadership to the business community and illustrating the significance of social responsibility through many social projects. He has been a friend of UMT, ILM since its inception and we are proud of his association with us. He has been there on calling whenever we needed him. Honorable guest of honor, the theme of this conference has been carefully selected to address the key issue of governance of our time.
It has been identified as the trilateral strategic partnership between business, academia and government. The three pillars of the modern state. By fostering dialogue and providing opportunities for discussion, this partnership can nudge towards realization of its full potential thereby accelerating the progress and transforming Pakistan. Gone are the days when key components of the governance would entrench themselves in silos besieged by their own tunnel vision in the process consummating each other, in mutual contest and internal conflict at a great cost to the society. What is required today is cooperation and understanding among all key components leading to the mass mission of national convergence on the basis of a strategic symbiosis and structural linkages. This partnership can entail opening of new vistas for fast paced growth, technological advancement, global competitiveness, social benefits and sustainability. It would also allow each to leverage the strengths of others, to share the responsibility of development without exploitation or disregard of the interests and concerns of the other.
To begin with, we in academia realize how important it is for us to align ourselves with the business world in true spirit in order to ascertain greater acceptability of the graduates, removal of mismatch between expectation of employers and a skill set of prospective employees and draw upon a curriculum which is relevant and useful. Through this interaction, faculty is exposed to the current practices and what works in the real world. They can in turn undertake research to enrich theory and blend content with learning from the context. On the other hand it is the responsibility of the business world to extend open heart cooperation to academia. It is important for the business world to divert a part of their energies and attention to steer and inspire as well as support and facilitate the academia in order to avoid frustration when it is too late for all concerned. In the present a poke of the knowledge society, running business is redefined as settled equivalent of managing knowledge networks. Ideas enables leaders to drive the enterprises towards competitive superiority and success. Business growth depends upon supply of intellectuals and Human resources put simply. Academia has an integral role in the quality and supply of these resources.
Ladies and gentlemen, this conference represents an urgent call to faculty and students to come out of the shell of campus fortresses to the bazaars, factories, chambers, exhibitions and corporate corridors for establishing purposeful and meaningful linkages to learn right and better. Quite unequivocally, it also exhorts the business community to consider the progress of academia as a necessary prelude to their profits and sustainability. Much more than token gestures designed to embellish the sections of corporate social responsibility in corporate annual reports is required. The role of governance is to ensure that movement towards knowledge based society is planned and all essential components are fully on board to achieve desired results in priority industries and important sectors of society. The task of governance in current times is to focus on human resource development and oversee growth of enterprises, provision of justice and fair play, expansion of research and development, facilitation of innovation and new venture formation, and alignment of culture to the requirement of progress and competitiveness. Governance in a modern state is about managing stakeholders from multilateral institutions to civic and political institutions.
In these turbulent times when high degree of uncertainty and interconnectedness dominates the business horizon, it is important to provide a policy framework capable of harnessing and leveraging the complementary expertise of academia, industry and government to facilitate new systems for novel collaboration fostering multidisciplinary global collaboration amongst public and private sectors leading to new methodologies for achieving economic and social benefits.
The trust of private sector holds key to investment, employment, and technology transfer and government resources is maximized in a law abiding society guaranteeing safety and security. It is a challenging task at the moment but could be met with trilateral collaboration, political resolve and public support. This conference is not limited to only scholars. In fact about half of the speakers come from the practical arena. This is the corporate track. There is a corporate track where two parallel sessions would be held and distinguished speakers from government and business would be presenting their thoughts. Their practical insights on all these issues would blend with the intellect of the academic, generating a spontaneous reverberations among the audience.
Honorable guest of honor, the two other conferences are of no less significance in any way. The Third International Conference on Textiles and Clothing relates to backbone of Pakistani economy in all respects. This sector is in dire need of a strategic management, technological advancement, adaptation and research and development for value addition. We are grateful to APTMA and the textile Institute who have always extended full support to us. We have been offering courses and programs in the field of textiles for the last 20 years and our graduates are employed even before they could finish the program.
Mr Chief Guest, the third conference is organized by the Department of Islamic Thought and Civilization. The objective is to initiate dialogue on various aspects of Islamic civilization and its relevance to contemporary times. It is incumbent upon us to deliberate over the issues and challenges facing Muslim society in an attempt to build consensus on the way forward. This tree of Islamic civilization reflects a strong emphasis on Knowledge Innovation and Advancement, competency and meritocracy, peace and harmony, universalism and futuristic orientation. The challenge of developing new frameworks and methodology, so that those noble characteristic shape the identity and fabric of Muslim society is the core of this initiative.
Mr. Chief Guest, it is my privilege to report that the University of Management and Technology has made good progress. The total number of students have swelled to 4,500 and around 220 full time teaching staff is dedicated to their learning. We are in the process of making a world class institution. More than three dozen programs are being offered from doctoral to bachelor levels. A new building of library is under completion. This singular event of UMT Idea Exchange is a crystal realization of the pursuit of global linkages, knowledge development and dissemination, real world interaction, multidisciplinary approach and quality focus. A network of agents of knowledge is fast expanding at UMT. A fountain of wisdom in human development is in the making.
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to conclude by thanking once again all of you. I hope that it would be two days of learning and discovery, debate and discussion, questions and answers. There would be a challenge to intellect and foresight, and all frontiers of new knowledge would be further extended and contributions would be acknowledged. I would also like to thank the team headed by university professor adviser, Professor Dr Rauf and co-chaired by Pro Rector Dr Rashid Kausar, Dr Sarwar Azhar, Chief Organizer of ICOBM, Dr Rukhsana Kalim, Chief Organizer of textiles conference, Dr Nabil Amin and Chief Organizer of conference on Islamic civilization Dr Muhammad Amin, as well as founding director of UMT, Mr Abid Sherwani.
The team of more than two dozen who headed different committees and shared responsibilities have remained busy for over a year to help us all see it come through so successfully this morning. This conference is a living proof of the devotion and teamwork. Lastly, we remain indebted to all the sponsors who came forward to lend us full support in realization of the objectives of this conference. More specifically I would like to mention Higher Education Commission, IBA Sukkur, Punjab University, APTMA, Guard Group and many others. Thank you very much.
Video # 81
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx5EdBbqZvo
Topic: Concluding Speech
Event: Idea Exchange 2011
Event Date: March 28-29, 2011
Audience: National & International Delegates, Faculty and Students
Issues in Video: Low Audio
Total Time of Video: 15 Minutes and 40 Seconds
Summary:
Dear participants of this conference and distinguished heads, it has been one of the most memorable time of my life as I saw two days, joyful days full of spirit, full of inquiry. I went to different seminars. I never had the chance to attend any single from beginning to end but I have tasted many different seminars and I was really impressed by the quality of presentations, by the devotion of speakers, their commitment and their enthusiasm in contributing to this task of knowledge development. I was equally impressed by the level of participation that came out spontaneously from those who were sitting in front. They were not passive or silent. They absorbed, they listened to whatever was being said and then despite the shortage of time they came up with their own responses, comments. I wish they had more time to explain themselves and I wish all of them would have time to say whatever they wanted to say.
But anyway in sum, these two days have been inspiring for each one of us who were part of this. They were full of intellectual luxury. It is a kind of luxury that rarely comes about. It was enthralling, it was exciting, it was stimulating, it was inspiring and overall so many young minds acted together in pursuit of knowledge. What a scenario. We see people coming together for entertainment, we see people coming together for maybe some fun or some other social family gatherings but here we have a diverse group coming together from not just dozen cities in Pakistan but also about two dozen countries from abroad, and coming together for the sole purpose of contributing to this universal obligation of inquiry.
It is our universal obligation to inquire, to be inquisitive, to pursue knowledge, to gain more and more knowledge, and if we are today where we are and if we feel restless, if we feel being elbowed out, if we feel that there is decline that has set in, the only way out of that which can defy the decline, which can help us take forward to once again a curve which would be rising and which would elevate our status, give us more respect and dignity, that is the way of knowledge. If we spend more on knowledge, our time, our attention, our energies and our resources, if we have that incessant obsession to access more knowledge, to gain more knowledge, to analyze, to reflect, to think, to think creatively, to think critically then I feel that that is the best thing, that is the best asset that you can have.
You may have money, you may have designations, you may have some position, you may have some your own sphere of influence, you may have some muscle, some power, but basically as a human what distinguishes us from other creators is that we have a mind, we have a mind that can think, we have a mind that can foresee, we have a mind that can reflect, we have a mind that can analyze, we have a mind that has the power of intuition, we have a mind that can innovate and that is your most important asset, and this asset with the passage of time can appreciate. This is not something with would depreciate with the passage of time, with each birthday, with each month. Our other assets begin to depreciate, they have their own life cycle. But the only asset which appreciates and continuously appreciate till the last breath is this, our mind. So let us treasure, let us celebrate this power, let us treasure this tremendous asset that sits on the top of our head. And this conference was one of the occasion to actually help us relate ourselves better to whatever is happening.
The topic of the seminar, Business Academia and Government was a teaser. It was just a question that was thrown in the air and the objective was that those who think, those who raise questions, those who are excited to know what is unknown, they would find enough of ground within this team to relate their expertise, to deploy their thinking machine and to get some innovative ideas and come up with a paper.
So I really would once again like to commend the very good work of our speakers, of our presenters. I didn’t have the chance to meet all of them, personally say thank you to them. I would write a letter to all of them but it’s an occasion where I would like to record my appreciation and acknowledgement, our recognition for the people, for presenters. They have done a wonderful job, they have made this happen, they were the center of attraction and it was their good work for which they were not paid, they didn’t get any cheque for that. It was their good work out of their voluntary invocation. It was the good work that came out because it was their passion. It was their passion to write, it was their passion to read, it was their passion to research and it was their passion then to share it with others. So we would like all of us to fully comprehend what it was all about.
Now secondly, we would like to carry forward this tradition and for the next year UMT Idea Exchange would again be InshAllah organized and the continuing forward with this theme of Business Academia and Government, we would like to extend this theme to the next layer, to the next level. And the next theme that I propose, we would take some time to further sharpen up, but I propose that it is Science, Business and Society. So this is again a theme which comes from this basic idea of Business Academia Government partnership. So what academia is all about, academia is not just institution. The output of that institution is science and with science we mean not just natural science or physical science but also social science, management science and all of that. So it is science that is the premium output of academia. Academia is there because they are custodian of science, because they are the source of introducing new science. So that is science. And whatever comes in the shape of science, it translates to society, it is transferred to society in terms of knowledge, it is then packaged in the form of theories, applications and then instruments are developed, products come about. So it is science that translates into technology and then society, the objective is to make the life easier, happier, better, prosperous, convenient and between science and society then comes the institution of once again the business which is a bridge between science and society. Because this is business, this is the responsibility of business to take the ideas from science, turn those ideas into reality and then develop technologies for implementation.
So our theme, overarching theme for the next year is Science Business and Society. Those of you who are here, I invite their attention to look into this theme, to consider this theme within their own areas, within their own particular domains of interest and see how they can move forward with this Science Business and Society theme. I would also like to announce that in the next conference we will have a separate track for young scholars, I mean the students, those who are creative and have minds. Creative ideas come from fresh minds and students have the fresh minds, right. We as professors and those of us who teach, our minds, I don’t want to say that is stale, but yes our mind has already learned many things and that is a cage within which then we tend to think. We have our own mental archetypes, we live with our own comfortable mental constructs, so maybe we don’t have that freedom to think. Our mind has to break those locks, has to cross those barriers and has to think innovatively and creatively.
So it is difficult but we hope that our young scholars, our students will take a short at it and InshAllah in the next conference they will come up with their own presentations, briefs, poster sessions, exhibitions and things like that on this very important significant theme Science Business and Society. So there will be this young scholar track and then we will also have an open session on this theme in one of those two days in the night where we will have a general discussion with the full audience so that we will provide everyone an opportunity to share, everyone an opportunity to express their views on this idea and this whole group, this whole large number of audience as one unit, as one group, as one committee, as one workshop will InshAllah digress on this important theme.
So I hope that next year we would make it even better and some of our schools did not participate this time, we hope that next time they will come forward. The school of Social Sciences and Humanities has many departments in it and they haven’t taken much interest in this conference. So I invite them to kindly take this conference as a serious objective and conduct their own track of sessions in education, in social sciences, in media and in of course also law and politics. We had few sessions but we want a whole track to consolidate views within their own domain of knowledge.
I once again thank our co-host, IBA, Institute of Business Administration, Sukkur and Institute of Administrative Sciences, Punjab University whose cooperation was very important, was very significant for us. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Hotel PC, thank you very much for giving us a very comfortable place, very hospitable place, all right. We would appreciate you more if you do not charge us. But we know we understand that you are a business organization all right and you cannot do things free, right.
I’ll also like to thank some of the business organizations who were highly appreciative of this idea and who gave us funds to be able to hold this. Coca Cola, Packages, Hardees, Optimedia, Higher Education Commission and Guard group, they were prime sponsors in terms of funds. Then of course the money came from those who registered, even our faculty members paid, lot of our students paid. Thank you very much for all of those who paid for it, okay. Lastly I’d like to thank our volunteers from the depth of my heart, thank you very much. I like all of you. Volunteers, please come forward and have a lineup here in the front and we would like to acknowledge your very good work. Thank you very much.
Video # 82
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP7B_ZdzDBA
Topic: Importance of Islam in 21st Century
Event: Khurram Murad Memorial Lecture
Event Date: Not Available
Audience: Chief Guests, Faculty, Staff and Students
Issues in Video: Poor Audio Quality
Total Time of Video: 12 Minutes and 24 Seconds
Summary:
NOTE: The audio quality of this video is very poor. Some words and sentences marked in red might not be transcribed correctly.
Dr Rafiq Ahmad, Dr Tariq Ramzan, the Chief Guest, Mr. Irfan Gillani, Guest of Honor, distinguish guests and friends from all walks of life, learned scholars, members of faculty, Dean School of Social Science, Pro Rector UMT, students and young participants, ladies and gentlemen, Assalamo O Alaykum.
I begin in the name of Allah SWT, who created human kind in the finest possible shape, who has shown His limitless mercy and choicest favor by perfecting our religion, our way of life Islam. Who sent out a person as a role model, the light of whom never before and ever after lived, an unlettered man who enlightened the world and got peace and love, salvation and guidance. I welcome you all this morning. Thank you very much for having this session and becoming part of this interesting dialogue. It was certainly nothing else but an urge to know more, to be able to do more in search of the pleasure of one Who has all in the heavens and earth encompassing in His lordship.
I would like to take this opportunity to extend a heartiest welcome to my learned scholar Dr Tariq Ramzan, who graciously accepted the invitation and has come to share views and thoughts on the subject. He has a huge distinction in the academic corridors doing research and reflection on the issues facing Muslims and Islam in his particular, in his part of the work. He has established an effective bridge to communicate to a diverse audience, differentiation within universality and evolution within permanence. He has received a tremendous attention in the world media and has been described in amazing ways being gratitude and revert, revived and respected. I feel that his ideas are worth considering and pave a way for further development. In him we have a man who when speech, others listen. Today we have a chance to hear him privately and objectively with regard and respect. As sun shines outside this room and brings light to the outer world, in the confines of this Awan e Iqbal expositions coming from his the lore of thought and experience would hopefully serve to create a better understanding towards the questions probably filling the mind of a scholar.
Islam intends to make our mind not just a depository of memories but a source of inquiry and intuition, intellect and ideas. The conducive environment of debates and discussions conveys healthy minds, better propositions and refined outcome. The future of the Muslim Ummah critically depends upon unfreezing the closing minds so as to unleash the creativity, creative talent and fast forward to a leading role in the community of the nations. The youth today deserves strengthening in the midst of the future arising out of the way of scholarship, vision in the face of onslaught of opposing ideas and enrichment of faith and practice for a more fulfilled life as a responsible member as a Muslim community and citizens of the global society. Interestingly this assembly is held in Awan e Iqbal, a man known for his extreme brilliance, transcendental thoughts and lofty dreams for the intellectual revival of the Muslim Ummah. May Allah bless his soul.
I am grateful to Mr. Irfan Gillani, a young soul who was born and raised in Denmark, who became interested in the writings of Late Khurram Murad, may Allah bless his soul. In early 90s, he travelled to UK to meet him in the summer of 1996 and spend an hour in discussion with him. Since then, he has become a part of our family. He was instrumental in persuade of Tariq Ramzan to deliver this lecture. Thank you brother Irfan.
Khurram Murad memorial lecture is being held after a gap of few years. During this time, each year we tried our best to hold it in a befitting manner but could not succeed for one reason or the other. We hope that with this re-start InshAllah we will be able to hold it regularly in future years.
This lecture also marks the second sitting of the Department of Islamic Thoughts and Civilization in the University of Management and Technology. UMT is perhaps the first private university to initiate a faculty in this discipline. The objective is to encourage research and scholarship by launching MPhil and doctoral programs. This department would highlight facets of Islamic Civilization and dimensions of Islamic thoughts as reformed in the historical dimensions and focus on future as embedded in the present times. Through education and learning we aim to promote intellectual capacity for understanding Islam as a current ideology in current times and in desperation for future times. It is a humble effort with high objectives. I hope that courses and programs of this department will contribute to other professional programs in the university and also to some extent meet the needs of those engaged in policy formulation, practice of management and implications of technology.
We must take into cognizant far reaching previous attempts from all corners, internal as well as external to reconstruct, revise, redefine, reshape and renew what Islam means and how it means. On the one hand there are calls for outright full scale escalation and diffusion, on the other there is insistence of total copy emanation of what it was and how it was before. On the one hand there is attempt to innovate and interpret in a method which allows all that others want from this religion. This view goes to the extent of telling homosexuals you are ordained in the eyes of Islam and having a female imam for Jummah prayers. On the other, there is total disconnect from the understanding of issues and challenges in the intrepidity context.
The vision and role of Khurram Murad and people like Dr Tariq Ramzan has played a sensible role. Their aim is to take advantage of the evolutionary dynamics of history and context keeping in alignment with the will and desire of Quran and Sunnah.
I would like to close my remarks by once again expressing my gratitude to my late father who was also my mentor and solace, role model and ideal. Very few will have the opportunity to live with the role models. I bare witness that I did not see a night going by when he had not rubbed his forehead in remembrance of his Creator. I did not see a day going by in which he had not done something good for those around him and the world. I did not see a promise made by him remaining unfulfilled or remaining unaccounted. He was weak perhaps physically but extraordinarily strong in his determination. Before the fall of Dhaka, I did not forget that he was over to fly away but he chose to remain with the people around him and faced life threats and two and a half years of custody in India. Not to manipulate, he would have the sense of obligation to this extent to people around him. His works and books published by ——, he and his brother Muslim Sajjad and Salim Mansoor Khalid have labeled with love to bring this one for the benefit of all. We live together here and pray, be the promise of Almighty be fulfilled and we all live together in the hereafter.
I thank you all once again. I have taken a bit longer. The objective was to charge the minds of the speakers and involve this audience in expressions and substance and thoughts. I am grateful to the chairman Dr Rafiq Ahmed for accepting the invitation to preside over. We look forward to his remarks after the keynote speech. He has deep relation with my father as well as to the father of Dr Tariq Ramzan. It was actually discovered when once my father visited Dr Rafiq to condole the death of his father. The commonality of bonding with Dr Saeed Ramzan came to discussion when they came to share his antidotes concerning this. May Allah have mercy on all of us and bless this event with His attention. I would like to invite Irfan Gillani now to present introductory remarks on the theme of the speech of Dr Tariq Ramzan. Thank you very much.
Video # 83
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcNxZ4dZK8g
Topic: Industry, Academia and Government
Event: 5th ICOBM
Event Date: Not Available
Audience: Chief Guests, Faculty, Staff and Students
Issues in Video: Low Audio
Total Time of Video: 15 Minutes and 23 Seconds
Summary:
Thank you very much for energizing me with this introduction. My very good friend, brother the chief guest today Mr. S M Munir, Chairman TDAP, Mr. Tariq Karim, another very good friend, brother, colleague, Rector IOBM, Dr Nisar Ahmad Siddiqi, another very good friend and brother, colleague, Director IBA Sukkur and organizer of this conference, very distinguished and esteemed participants, I see Vice Chancellor of Quaid-e-Azam University, great institution, number one in research in Pakistan, I see other very distinguished deans, from academia, I see young scholars and professors from the business schools.
It is indeed the fifth conference and as the saying goes that the first is a chance, second is a coincidence, third is the continuity and forth is a tradition, and fifth I believe is something enduring and permanent InshAllah for years to come. More importantly, every year a new institution has joined in and we have also started to change the locations. All of this has added new dimension and new perspective, it has brought new energy, new embitters, and a new set of participants. This proves the conference is now really owned by the scholars, by researchers and it is they to decide where to hold the next one.
IOBM and Riphah has joined us this year. We hope that next year we would move to Islamabad, another great location and IMS Peshawar has also joined us this year. Their rector couldn’t come because of some engagements outside. NUST has informed me that they are also interested in joining and partnering with us and BZU has also shown its interest. So InshAllah this will be in future a multi-institutional, multi-topic, multi-invitation and multi-dimensional conference and that’s how it should be. Each institution adds its unique value to our program, to our participants, to the research and when we change location, of course it provides new exposure to our attendees, they have moved to a new location, they see the city around, they see a new institution, they meet new people and hence all becomes part of the input for the next conference.
I am really pleased to see Mr. S M Munir here. I cannot fail to say that you know, my in-laws are also located in Karachi. It is easy for me to escape a lunch or dinner at in-laws’ but it is very hard to escape a lunch with S M Munir because whenever I come he finds out and if I somehow escape his attention then he calls and he says ‘Oh you didn’t come to me’. So as soon as he sees me he say that when are you going to have lunch or dinner. So he’s such a friendly person and such a good brother. He’s an entrepreneur by himself. Today Din Group is a formidable business group to reckon with and he as entrepreneur, he labored it to new heights every year, and he’s also an educationist. He has a deep passion for education. I’m involved with the Din Girls College in Chiniot and I’m head of the academic committee. We meet twice a year at Chiniot and I see that how he prioritizes the affairs of Din College within his engagements and pays attention to every detail. He has been involved with IOBM and certainly a matter of pride for IOBM. But I would say that he is involved with ILM and UMT before IOBM, and as the founding member, and the first computer lab at ILM came into existence because of his support as grant from him at that time. And I remember, and here is a lesson as well that he once gave us a time for a function and then prime minister Benazir Bhutto invited him, he was in Dubai and he was supposed to fly to Lahore, he informed the prime minister that I have an appointment in Lahore at ILM, so I’m very sorry, please reschedule your appointment for the next day. I wonder how many businessmen would be able to do that today.
The theme of this conference is very interesting. It is something that is fast catching up and stakeholders are realizing its significance. There is series of conference worldwide under the theme of Triple Helix which brings together the world of business, the world of academia and the world of Government. These three worlds come together, they sit together and deliberate on common issues and find ways to act together jointly, to increase their collaboration and add value to the society. We have seen in the case of fast growing economies in Asia and in other places that they have been able to leap forward because of extraordinary collaboration between governments, business and academia.
So if there is any chance of renewal of our society, fast-paced progress of our nation, enhancement and improvement of our civilization and culture and effectiveness. That on the one hand, yes we need a visionary leadership, we need good governance, we need political will, and we need determination and resolve at every step and a viable and feasible strategy. But on the other hand we also need to have these three wheels of our society, of the modern governance to work together, move together internally. And this is exactly the purpose of this conference. I think it is the first of its kind in Pakistan where we try to put together, academia, business and the government together. We feel that we are living in a world which is increasingly interconnected, a world which is interdependent and a world where decision making environment is becoming more and more complex, and a world which is very uncertain, turbulent where the ground itself is not flux and there are global challenges as well as local. So we need to act together, we need to think together, we need to work together and we need to address common issues together.
Gone are the days when businesses could work independently in isolation, just in their board rooms or in the boundaries of their factory or plant, or academia could just limit themselves to their teaching in classroom or government just confined to their offices and work in a bureaucratic manner. I think this is the time when we realize that governance is distributed, that decision making is distributed and nothing is possible if all stakeholders not come together and make it a joint agenda. So I feel that this conference is a very humble beginning towards increasing the mutual understanding, developing shared mindset towards co-determination and certainly co-prosperity.
We feel that academia, business and government, all these three great institutions, they bring a unique set of strengths and competence and by joining hands they can really add value. They can avoid the pitfalls of working in isolation and effectiveness and efficiency can increase incredibly. We feed that yes, there are challenges, there are serious challenges to the making of this joint platform. The world of business is concerned about the quality of output from academia, business world is concerned about the usefulness and relevance of the research in academia, the world of business is concerned about the utility of the whole investment that goes in education, when they see the mismatch of expectation and when they see that the needs of the human resources are not being met in time.
On the other hand, the world of academia also feels that there is a gap of understanding, there is a gap of information and communication and business has some reservations and they are not deeply interested and involved in academia. When we develop our courses, where we develop our content and when we teach in class room, it has little relation to what’s going on actually in the real world. So yes, academia also feels that yes there is scarcity of resources, they lack resources, they lack direct exposure and hands-on exposure of the real world, and there are very limited opportunities and limited appreciations and acknowledgement to do that, to provide that platform. On the other hand, government is government. Government is big, government is on the top and government really doesn’t need to listen or doesn’t need to pay attention to anything. So government can run and government can govern regardless of anything that goes around.
So I feel that there are yes serious challenges but we have to address those challenges, we have to voice our concerns and our interests, and we have to expose our reservations and only then can we hope to develop a common platform, a joint understanding and really make this partnership meaningful, bridge the gaps and work towards the common interests of our very good nation and our country. So I wish the deliberations every good wish and I hope that young scholars would benefit from this opportunity, I hope that this will open new avenues for research, useful research, relevant research, beneficial research and I hope that out of this interaction new friendships will born, new partnerships will take place and new ideas and projects for future conferences will be finalized. This scholarly interaction I hope would go a long way.
I once again express my deep hearted acknowledgement to Director of IOBM, the team of faculty and students who were involved in organizing it, they’ve done a marvelous job and they’ve left an impression certainly on us, and they have carried forward this journey InshAllah to the future. I thank all of you and I hope that we look forward to more interesting, stimulating and enlightening discussion in the sessions to come. Thank you.
Audios’ Transcription – English
Audio # 2
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9JGi7r1TNU
Topic: Electoral history in Pakistan
Event: Workshop on Electoral History of Pakistan
Audience: Faculty and Students
Issues in Audio: No proper introduction and incomplete ending
Total Time of Audio: 4 Minutes and 57 Seconds
Transcription:
NOTE: This audio has no proper introduction. It starts as:
This is indeed first workshop of its kind and a pioneering attempt by Dr Ijaz Gillani, his team and associates, on the subject of 50 years of electoral history in Pakistan. I would like to congratulate all of you on becoming part and a player, founding player, pioneering player in this endeavor and I hope that your attendance in this workshop will not be just limited to your own learning here but you will take this forward as Dr Ijaz Gillani rightly expects. And within your own academic environment and within your own institutions and in the realm of your own career. You will take this stream of research forward and you will undertake more initiatives, research projects in this line and eventually publish in this area, develop undergraduate and graduate courses and make academia also a partner in the political process in our country.
This workshop is being held at a short notice and as you can see there is no HEC funding in place and there are no foreign faculty members and experts to present their papers. And I was talking to Dr Ijaz Gillani and I was sharing with him that if we had gotten more time than we could have done all of that as well. But then he came back to say that then that would have meant this exercise meaningless and useless for our context and very rightly so. We have a unique context and we have a unique history of our own politics and elections. We have developed expertise in this area and we have command over our own resources, intellectual resources who are directly exposed to the phenomenon of elections all through the decades. We have command our own database resources developed by election commission of Pakistan, various polling agencies, authorities and especially Gallup. So we have all it takes to do a creative, innovative reflection in this area. We don’t need as such a foreign experts and we shouldn’t be feeling dependent upon them. In fact Dr Rasool was saying that foreign experts have observed a paucity in this area that there is lack of Pakistani authors writing on Pakistani elections, Pakistani faculty members undertaking research on Pakistani elections. This is an area where outside observers, outside experts and outside faculty members are looking forward to work done by Pakistani authors to refer it for their own work. So I think the very important and worthwhile objective of this workshop is to develop a team of researchers, a nationwide basis who would undertake this as their one of the prime focused areas and who would develop their expertise, their mindset and develop their own history, a trajectory over the series of elections.
Audio # 3
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfrFgpsnpaM
Topic: MOU Signing
Event: Interview with Mr. Fei Rong
Audience: Radio Listeners
Issues in Audio: Translator’s sound is not clear
Total Time of Audio: 5 Minutes and 56 Seconds
Transcription:
Dr. Hasan: Good morning Professor Rong. Welcome to UMT. We are very pleased to have you at UMT today. We understand this is your first visit to Pakistan. So how do you feel in Pakistan?
Mr. Rong: Very Good. I am very glad to come to UMT.
Dr. Hasan: We would like to know, what are your objectives of coming to Pakistan and also visiting at UMT today?
Mr. Rong: I am pleased to meet Mr. Hasan, the president of this University and I met him two months ago in China. We were asked about the cooperation agreement. Today we come just to arrange this agreement and we need to sign the agreement. Our university will warmly welcome the faculty people, teachers, the students and come to the University for further study and visit. We will support students from leaving, studying, transportation and everything that comes under our service. We are believing from this year to the future. From this year we will start this corporation, start this project. China is thousand kilometers but your first step is necessary for the success. You need to step from the first step. China is a fast country and the people are also fast. We want everything to be fast. We want to make this agreement with you fast and we will do development and cooperation together to make this project this agreement by this year start, as soon as possible to start. We already had the arrangement before leaving China. So our university had already arranged this kind of project for this inside internal of this University. The teachers, students will go to China for visit.
Dr. Hasan: Thank you very much Professor Rong for visiting Pakistan and visiting UMT. We are very excited and we will sign MOU today and we hope that it will benefit faculty and students of UMT as well as your university. Pakistan-China friendship Zindabad.
Mr. Rong: Pak-China dosti Zindabad.
Audio # 7
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MkFbKuQzT4
Topic: Forecasting Future
Event: Dr Nadeem ul Haque’s Book Launching Ceremony
Audience: Guests, Faculty, Staff and Students
Issues in Audio: Other speakers in the Audio
Total Time of Audio: 1 Hour, 4 Minutes and 37 Seconds (Dr Hasan’s Part: 11 Minutes and 5 Seconds)
Transcription:
NOTE: This audio has no proper introduction. It starts as:
We look at the present time and we try to keep ourselves alive of what’s going on around us in the present time. We also look at the past to see how it went before and we try to increase our awareness of what was and how it was in the past. Then we look at the future so that we are again alert and we are alive to the future times and certainly we can then gear up to prepare ourselves for the future. Now here is something different. We in business administration, in economics and in other areas, we know that we need to forecast the future and we do scenario planning, we do strategic planning to forecast the future. But this is something which is like back cast in a way, that he transported himself to future. It’s not vision, it’s not vision building, it is more than vision 2030 or whatever. He transported himself as an economist and as a social scientist broadly speaking, because too frequently we see that economists, they expand and widen their scope to envelop everything possibly that is relevant to what they want to do as an economist. So here is something broad based. So he transported himself to 2050 and there re so many now ideas, so many you know insightful articles in newspapers, how this world would be like in 2050. I think I’ve got like four five books, 2030, 2040, 2050. So the point is that this world today is a complex world and it is ruled by complexity. We see violence, which means it changes rapidly. We see turbulence, which means that change is too frequent and change itself is very unstable, so it’s turbulent. You cannot predict that the change that has taken place will stay longer and will be like that so let’s stay comforted now, no. Change is turbulent. And then as I mentioned, there is uncertainty, there is unpredictability, there is lot of ambiguity. So what we need to do in this kind of world, and this is your world because you are today studying, you will graduate in two three years and by 2050 you will be at the peak of your career, you will be calling the decisions and you will be seeing whether this comes true or not. So this is in a way like a dream book. Let’s say that the remittances have increased three times which means 14 15 multiply by 3, so that’s 45 billion dollar coming. And this remittance is not just coming from the labor, it is coming from the retail operations of Pakistani companies, it is coming from the Pakistani businesses working abroad. So that itself, I couldn’t have thought otherwise that remittances increased three times. I’m worried that whether we would be able to hold on what we have in terms of remittance in next year, two three years given how scenarios are unfolding in the Middle East, but here it is projecting that remittances are three times. Enrollment in higher education is projecting 25%, right now it is 4%. So which means that right now one out of 25 is going for higher education. If that significantly changes, that means today we have about 200 universities, soon we will need about 2000 universities in order to cater to that, and so on so forth.
Attendance in assembly is 80%, more than the attendance of students in class where they would get penalized. So there is vibrancy, there is a state of Pakistan that is progressive, fast forward looking, that is at peace and that is keeping pace with the development of the world and that is ahead, that is competitive, that is confident and self-assured of itself, a state that is disciplined, a state that is focused on future. So that’s what he projected himself to 2050 and then he began his narration as to how we can achieve that over a period of time. So that’s the work against time because he has only just about 20, just about 30 years to achieve that. So passage of 30 years, journey of 30 years broken down again from macroeconomics broad based factors and others as to what we need to do. No here is something for you. You are young and you have a whole world before you, you have your own life, you’re worried about yourself, your grade that weather you will be able to maintain F or pass. Let’s say, you should have said I’m ready for F, give me an F, that would have been your grade, so that would have a very good challenge to your teacher telling you and putting you to that rest. So whenever you face that risk, go for it, take that risk boldly and courageously. Because what you think is more important than what world thinks about you and what grade they think, so you have to be so confident.
So now you have to plan yourself for those 10 20 30 years ahead of you and what I want to say is be bold, be courageous and be out of fashion, go out of the stereotype. He has talked about the colonial mindset again and again, we couldn’t break that mold because we were there for about 150 years, and a whole generation was there. That generation left its imprints on next generations and we suffered, we are still suffering from the shackles, from the mindsets of the colonial era. So what you need to do, if a second generation person or a third generation person is still wheeling with those colonial imprints, then what really we need to do and this book calls for is a radical shift, a revolutionary shift, something which is out of the box, something which is totally drastically different and that’s your call because you can think of it. Just a few days back I was reading journal of political economy from University of Chicago because they brought out it at their 125 years anniversary journal and it is available free so you can read it, it’s a very good piece, it contains very good articles which talks about past, how the field of economics grew over the last 125 years under the watchful eyes and careful nurturing of all those who were in University of Chicago, Department of Economics. So one thing that mentioned is that improvement in theory came from the work of young mindset. I would have thought totally different and I was thinking totally differently. And Improvements in applications came through the work of experienced mind. I would have thought in reverse direction. I would have thought that theory is so complex and deep and you need to be so proficient and you need to have so much exposure that improvement of theory would come at a later stage, I wouldn’t be able to contribute to theoretical development unless I have seen so much and read so much and experienced so much. But exactly the opposite is true. So it’s your time to develop new paradigms, new theories, new concepts, new constructs, and new view, take a different view and he has taken. When we drive, we take a forward view through our wind screen to see how traffic is going in front so that you can steer your way, you have rear view so that you see what’s coming, what’s chasing you, what’s following you, what’s behind you, what’s coming so that you are safe, and then you have both side views. But here is something, back casting, that you position yourself in future then you work out your way that what you need to do and that’s very brilliant that’s very smart. Something you need, something that I haven’t seen done for Pakistan before by anyone else, so thank you very much for this gift to Pakistan. And this is beginning. I think those of you in your fields, you can similarly adapt this pattern of thinking and this very interesting research methodology and do back casting for culture, for society, for education, for economics, for politics and for what not. So thank you very much once again for selecting us as your host. We hope to be blessed by your presence again and again in the future.
Audio # 9
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5Aqs-ZL2Zw
Topic: Islamic Banking
Event: 2nd Global Forum 2017
Audience: National and International Delegates
Issues in Audio: No Issues
Total Time of Audio: 14 Minutes and 41 Seconds
Transcription:
Justice Khalil ur Rehman, Professor Kurshid Ahmad, Dr Monzer Kahf, Dr Fahim, Sheikh Essam, Dr Rukhsana, Arslan Mahmood Shah, my very esteemed distinguished guests who have traveled from abroad to attend and participate in this conference, members of faculty, academia from Pakistan, professionals and practitioners from financial institutions, ladies and gentlemen, Assalam o Aleikum Warahmatullah.
We held the first conference last year and it came after two years of thoughts and preparations. Then this year we are organizing the second conference and I think now there is continuity and I am glad to see that this time again it has received good response and I hope that this will be a regular feature at UMT every year. The objective of this conference is to provide a platform to all who are engaged in various roles and capacities in the field of Islamic economics, finance and banking. A platform which will connect practitioners and professionals with scholars and Ulama. A platform which will connect those who are into teaching and research with those who are in the real world. A platform which will connect policymakers, central bankers and leaders of other financial institutions and economic institutions, sponsors and owners of financial institutions with the world of research and academia. So this is a platform of civil society where people who have been the greatest driver and enabler of Islamic banking, finance and economics, they would gain awareness and they can be enlightened about the pace and progress of Islamic banking, Islamic financial institutions. So we hope that as years go by, this platform will gain momentum and this will become the leading global platform to connect the world of Islamic finance, economics and banking.
We believe that the world today needs more of Islamic economics. The progress that we have seen is very little and very humble compared to what is needed and what is required. The response that has been given so far and the institutional momentum that we see today is only a fraction of what is possible in future and we feel that a forum like this is needed to accelerate that momentum.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are truly blessed today that some of the pioneers and architects of this field are with us. There are people who made Islamic economics a mission of their life when they entered into the field of economics as a student. Professor Khurshid Ahmad is with us here and we all are aware of his pioneering contribution in expounding the thoughts, an ideology of Islamic Economics. At the time when he raised his voice and introduced the concepts of Islamic economics, it was considered something which is impractical, something which was subject of a joke in the field of finance and economics. It was considered something which is impossible and for a long time the debate was confined into theory and there was very little progress in terms of practice. But slowly we have seen that this voice gained more and more adherents and it was cry of people, those who were driven to Islamic economics and those who were ready to make a choice in favor of Islamic economics, business people ordinary men and women, families, those who were overwhelmed by the call of their faith and they demanded something, demanded institutions and banks to adopt practices of Islamic economics. And we see that in the last three decades, now there is a beginning of this development of institutions, products and services based on the concepts of Islamic economics. So what was a lonely cry and call five decades back, six decades back, today has become a leading trend and it is drawing attention of even those who are non-Muslim and those who are leading the affairs of global finance, they are also attracted towards the quality towards the uniqueness and towards the benefits of Islamic economics.
I feel that this forum in the next two days will engage into weight, dialogue, discussions, problem solving, will create new awareness and will shed light to current issues and challenges and will relate to each other the experiences and insights of each other to develop solutions and responses for future. Institute of Islamic banking is a young, newly emerging institution based in University of Management and Technology. It is self-reliant and I’m very happy to see that it has made good progress. Currently there are about two hundred who are enrolled in its graduate programs and there are forty students who are pursuing doctoral studies. We hope that IIB will be able to cater to the needs of this field in future. IIB is knowledge based, IIB is grounded within the academia, it is neutral and it is not given to the, I should say the pressures which we feel that bankers face. So it can act as an empowered entity, it can draw lines what is possible and what is not, it can assume a neutral position in this debate and draw from the classics and traditions, see what are the challenges on ground and then become a source of dialogue and discussions. So I feel that IIB has a unique positions. I know Islamic banks also have their own researches. Our research departments, there are Islamic institutions and Madrisas, Dar-ul-uloom, where there is research currently going on in the field of Islamic economics.
In this arena Institute of Islamic banking has a unique position and where bankers, those who are pursuing professional careers and those who want to go to research and teaching, all get together. And among the faculty we have those who have received degrees in economics, degrees in Islamic finance, in contemporary dimensions and those who have received specialized degrees in Islamic finance and economics. So it is a unique blend of people coming from variety of backgrounds and it is providing a platform for enrichment and for developing the field. This field is an amazing field. The scope of challenges that we have before us in this world are truly tremendous and humanity currently is looking for a new ideology to guarantee their good life, good society. This is one world, one humanity, one planet and we are increasingly also realizing the problems and issues that world is facing. I recently found out that only eight individuals in the world have wealth equivalent to that of the 40 percent in the bottom of the world. This shows the inequality, this shows how a system based upon exploitation, manipulation is destroying the life and how it is disturbing the peace of the world, how it is creating conflicts and how it is not allowing people to pursue the objectives of good life, a happy life and a good society.
So Islamic economics, the ideas of Islamic economics are just not limited to the field of economics. It is about the making and shaping of the society, global society. It is about human life, its consequences and its influence, its effect is far reaching. That’s why UMT is committed to pursue Islamic economics. Initially this forum was only Global Forum on Islamic Banking and Finance but Professor Khurshid guided us very rightly that it should be Global Forum on Islamic Economics, Finance and Banking and that is exactly what we would like to do. I think this field has generated a lot of employment and many more employment can be generated. It has addressed some issues and it can solve many more problems that we all are facing.
This conference is an avenue where we would like to invite all who are attending to share their thoughts freely and interact for cross fertilization and enrichment. I wish it every success and would like to hear from the speakers about their journey in this field of Islamic economics. How they view the past and present and what they envisage in the future coming ahead and how those who are engaged in this field as practitioner or as a scholar, as teacher or the student, how they should prepare themselves to address those challenges. Thank you very much.
Audio # 14
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFQPOHoOm6M
Topic: Joining Hands with Academia & Industry
Event: Conference
Audience: National Delegates and Faculty
Issues in Audio: No Issue
Total Time of Audio: 5 Minutes and 50 Seconds
Transcription:
Honorable guests, Sher Ali Khan Sb., Dr Nizamuddin, Chairman Punjab HEC, Dr Anees Ahmad, Rector Riphah University, Abid Sherwani, Director ORIC and DG UMT, Dr Qamar Abbas, I hope I got his name right, from COMSATS Lahore and the one and only Dr Arfeen Lodhi, the professor at Texas Tech and also professor at UMT Lahore.
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s a great opportunity for all of us to reflect upon the issues and challenges facing us as a global community in response to the scarcity and needs of energy. We have here four hundred authors showcasing their latest research. They come from more than 20 countries and they are going to present about 160 papers. And this conference is truly blessed because it is one of those rare events which has been generously funded by the leading research funding body of United States, National Science Foundation. I gratefully acknowledge their support to convene this conference. And then institutions have crossed their boundaries and have engaged into a partnership to make this event a truly successful and meaningful for all. I am grateful to Riphah University, COMSATS for coming together and joining hands and I hope that this partnership will continue in future. The support that we have received from Higher Education Commission as well as Punjab HEC is also acknowledged. We are indebted to them that they provided the support that was necessary to make this event a mega event and I hope that this conference is going to contribute to the research in energy, research on energy in Pakistan.
We invited Chief Minister to inaugurate this event but yesterday we received a communication from him that Mr. Sher Ali would be representing him. We welcome him, sir we welcome you and we hope that you will convey the enthusiasm, the excitement and the degree of participation that you have seen in this conference, to our worthy Chief Minister who is very eager and keen to provide energy and he is taking extraordinary steps to meet the gap.
Ladies and gentlemen, I understand that the sessions were supposed to be starting at 10:00 AM and we started late. I reserved my thoughts that I wanted to share with you on the subject of energy for dinner tonight. You all are invited to UMT for dinner tonight. So I will you know, I will be more at ease to share my thoughts over there and I will be happy to repay your listening in the form of energy and some food. Thank you very much. I wish you all a very enlightening, stimulating discussion. I’m really impressed by the range of topics. I’m you know very, very you know excited by the level of participation and this is new beginning. If academia, government, industry, policymakers, citizens all join hands then I think we can find some creative ways to respond to our energy and we can have a different world where people like Dr Arfeen Lodi would be sharing not just how the icebergs at Arctic’s have melted but in fact would be showing how they are once again being formulated. Thank you very much.
Audio # 16
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATkfq2u74Hs
Topic: Importance of Inclusive Education
Event: International Conference on Inclusive Education
Audience: Faculty and Students
Issues in Audio: No proper introduction
Total Time of Audio: 7 Minutes and 12 Seconds
Transcription:
NOTE: This audio has no proper introduction. It starts as:
This is the first international conference on inclusive education. It is being organized by School of Social Sciences and Humanities. At University of Management and Technology we have taken deep interest in the affairs of those who are impaired in one way or the other in terms of their ability to learn. Although we feel that they are not impaired in a manner as they are taken to be considered, to be handicapped. It is just that they are very unique and they are very special. If I compare people who are blind with those who can see, yes obviously those who are blind they cannot see but there are many who have the ability to see but they don’t have the capacity to understand what they see, what they are looking at and they fail to read what they should have. So it is just that there are people who are physically lacking one or two faculties or missing out one or two things and this does not mean that they are impaired. So the idea is that we should consider those who are lacking in any faculty just as equivalent and good enough to learn with the rest of the community. This is the primary understanding of inclusive education.
Inclusive education stands for education for all in one place, through one medium, in one setting, in one classroom, by one faculty. It does not differentiates with respect to their abilities but it does not segregates them. So there is a difference between differentiation and segregation. Inclusive education has a potential to offer much more value to those who are fully equipped and who don’t lack any faculty because if there are others who are studying with them and they are lacking faculty, I think they gain more insight to the learning process because they see the contrast, they see the difference and they realize the importance and this role of all that they possess. And those who lack they become part of the normal community. They gain a lot of confidence. They are free from any segregation and they live in a society which they will be joining once they conclude their education. So this is the idea of inclusive education. We need to promote that and at UMT we have been offering admissions consistently to those who apply to us in all degree programs wherever they apply, wherever they show interest. And we feel that it is our responsibility to take them along with us and if they need any support any special facility, if they require any attention then it is the responsibility of the system to take care of that. We have had a very successful experience in doing that. We intend to continue to offer admissions to all kinds of different, unique, very special people who apply to us.
We have also established Department of Special Education. The objective of the Department of Special Education is to undertake research into the issues and challenges facing this goal of inclusive education and look into how we can adopt, how we can adapt, how we can innovate, how we can create a system which would be inclusive and which would not have any bias of prejudice against those who naturally lack a faculty. So I believe that Department of Special Education also has done a good job in preparing researchers, in undergoing extensive and very exhaustive research and also preparing and developing the faculties, teaching staff for the institutions around the country.
I am grateful to Professor Dr Abdul Hameed for whom this ideal of inclusive education has been a lifelong ambition. He has devoted his energies, his professional career to special education, to inclusive education and it is because of his very good work that today we see the fruits of Department of Special Education, its various programs, its research and now this very important international conference. I welcome all of you who have joined us and who have submitted their papers. I hope that this conference would open new vistas, it would provide a platform to all who are interested in this to discuss and elaborate upon the issues and challenges so that we as a society can really progress and we can become a mature society, a society which has not just sympathy but also empathy and also a commitment to share whatever we have with those who feel somehow restricted in the process. I wish very prospering prospects and careers and a life full of happiness and fulfillment to those who have joined us and who are studying with us and despite their any physical you know handicap or any other problem. We want to assure them that we will lend them every support and every help that is possible for them to grow, develop and acquire knowledge. Thank you very much.
Audio # 19
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noqVc9mwPcA
Topic: UMT Alumni Association
Event: Annual Dinner 2016
Audience: UMT Alumni, Faculty and Staff
Issues in Audio: Improper Start
Total Time of Audio: 11 Minutes and 34 Seconds
Transcription:
NOTE: This audio has no proper introduction. It starts as:
I’m really pleased to be here. I’m delighted to see all of you and I should not take more time. We want you to be busy among yourself, exchanging your updates about your life about your career. There are many who are on my Facebook and they stay in touch. So, when they graduate they send me photos you know that I graduated. Some of them go out and then they send me another picture I graduated again. Then they marry send me pictures and say look, I’m not married. Then they are blessed by boy or a girl, they’d send me another picture that Allah has blessed me with this boy, Allah has blessed me with girl, good. And then they buy a car, they send me picture that I own this car. This has arrived my home. They get a new home sometime, they send a picture that this is where I live now. So they keep updated me and so much that I think it was two years back that someone from badge one, our alumnus, she came with her son and she wanted to get her son admitted at UMT. So that was really a very delightful moment for me. She studied with me. She was a very good student, outstanding and she took two three courses from me and she came with her son and I was really pleased to see.
So this is how this Alumni Association keeps you connected. And this is what it is all about. We remain so much isolated with the life, we remain isolated with touching each other’s life and we remain so much focused upon the work that we miss the charms of the life and Alumni Association offers you meanings of life. They offer you so many friends and now I can say that what UMT is. Within UMT, is very small. We are 9000 or 10,000 within our boundary those who are studying with us, but there are more than 15,000 outside UMT and it’s a great force. I met so many of you while you were entering the hall and I was delighted to see where you are working and the positions you are holding. So that is success and this Alumni Association can keep you together as a family. This is a community and if you will stay in touch, it will add to your social value, it will add to your life and you will make friends who will be your friends. Because friend whom you make friends while you study remain for the life. The ones I made I’m still most connected with those with whom I was friends when I was studying. I made many new friends on my way. But the ones I made during my study are really my lifelong assets. So you will stay as friends and it’s a society, it’s a community. And then it’s kind of also a help, a mechanism, it’s a helpline. And I’ve seen how our Alumni are eager to offer help to those who seeking better opportunities, to those who are seeking first job after graduation and to those who have a problem in life. Not everyone will always be blessed, sometimes some people get sick, sometimes some people have other problems, and sometimes they migrate to a city where they don’t know anyone. So this Alumni Association can really be a platform which you can rely upon and that’s what you should keep in mind. You are the one who will make it, you are the one who will form it and you are the one who will storm it and you are the one who will bind it, you are the one who will mind it and you are the one who will find it. So, this is your forum, this is your platform and this is your life and I think we have a duty, we have a duty to add premium value to what you have got. You have got a degree from us. You have got a lifelong training from us and it is our job, and I can assure you that Deans and Directors at UMT, Chairpersons of the department, faculty, staff, they’re all wholly and totally today committed. I started this work in 1990 and today this is 2016 and I am still there. My single agenda of making UMT a better place to learn, I’m motivated by it and I find everyday something new to do to make it better. So while you have left, while UMT Alumni have gone all around the world and while you are serving your organizations, we are the founding team we are all still there. But we need now your help. We need your contributions, we need to your partnership and we want to have a strategic partnership with you. I’m very glad that Alumni Association is very active. Abida, Atif, Salman, Shoaib all of them. They all are working hard now, they are reviving it, they are organizing it and we can be three times 4 times more than what we are in this hall today when we will really mobilize ourselves and we can do great projects.
Let me share it with you. We are looking at 2020 as a milestone in the history of UMT. We are planning to open a hospital with 500 beds and School of Medicine. We are planning to start construction of a mega complex with offering School of Social Science and Humanities, School of Governance, School of Law, School of Business and Institute of Culture and Communication. So it is going to be 450,000 square feet mega complex. We have already built about half a million square feet. Right now, we are building a School of Architecture, a building for School of Architecture and school of Textiles and that is 150,000 square feet, that is 40 Crore Rupees. And this project, we are doing within ourselves through our resources and that is a tremendous investment that we are going to make to develop the textile sector. So we have a plan for 2020 to make ourselves about 20,000 students enrolled in our campus at Lahore and Sialkot. Right now, we have about 120 PhDs. We would like to have about 200 to 250 PhDs by 2020 and this is going to be a great number. Imagine we were only 5 or 10 or 15 or 20 or 30, and it us so long to attract them, to retain them, to invite them and to provide them a meaningful working opportunities. Now they’re coming to us every day. We are receiving interest from PhDs around the world and we are adding fast. We are adding faculty members as soon as they come, even if we don’t need them to teach. If they’re interested we want to have them, we want to have them for the good work that they can do for the research and everything. So we are focusing upon fast growth, rapid growth, relentless growth and a growth which will bring us at par with globally-recognized institutions. We are already moving forward with International accreditations. International accreditations will bring you premium awards of recognition, and that’s what we want to do now. We want to make UMT a university, a center for higher education, which is internationally and globally recognized. So we have a plan and we want you, all of you to work for it and we want all of you to converge upon it to make this community a vibrant, dynamic, proactive community helping each other and providing each other a platform to interact, a platform to converge upon and a platform to do well with your life. And I hope, I wish you all the best in your careers, I wish you every success in your life and I wish you every happiness in your life. Enjoy your evening. Thank you very much.
Remembering Dr Hasan Sohaib Murad
Speeches’ Transcriptions
Speech by Dr Naushaba
Assalam o Aleikum Warahmatullah Wabarakatuhu. I’m not going to make a speech right now. These are few words or few lines which came from my heart. A few words which the whole world is saying about him are that he was an icon, a legend, a visionary, a mentor, a friend. He was a thorough gentleman and an institution in himself. I gave him a title that he was an Iron Man as I had spent 31 years of my life with him and 24/7 I used to watch him. So this is the title which just came in my mind and I thought about it and wrote it. He had infinite fountains of physical energy which he gathered from the spiritual stock, which he gathered during the early hours of the morning. He was always on call as a servant of God for the service and welfare of the humanity. He never rested enough since I met him almost three decades ago. I called him Quaid e Azam sani or the second Quaid e Azam few times and he smiled as always. So Allah SWT has given him complete rest and put him to deep sleep, just like a mother puts a tired baby into sleep because Allah SWT loves us 70 times more than a mother, Subhan Allah. Allah SWT called him for the final rest and InshAllah he’s in peace, I believe in it. Rest in Peace Dr. Hasan Murad, my better half. Indeed he needed rest badly.
When he left for his final abode on 18th September, 2018 that is last year, just one year ago, his last sentence on the night of 9th September when he called me before leaving Khunjrab was that ‘Naushaba, I have become very tired’. Really now I think that he was very tired due to the duty given by Allah SWT which he has been performing since his childhood. And I always say that all the credit goes to his parents. I lived with them for 10 years. His father, his mother they were great parents indeed and he was a great son.
When I heard the news of his departure from this world which is temporary through Abid bhai, he gave me the news that he is no more on the eve of 10 September, although they were hiding this from me like for five to six hours and they knew it and all the staff I came to know later that they were just acting in front of me because I was worried about his medicines and everything and I was just nearly panicking that I want to go in a bus, I can go in a bus and see what is happening with him. But everybody was saying okay doctor sahiba we are doing it. When I heard the news, I was and still I am truly devastated which was like tearing my soul and my thoughts and my mind. I felt as if my soul was extracted from my body but Alhamdulillah for the first month and for the first few days I was tolerant and patient through the help of Allah SWT and through the ‘eman’ Alhamdulillah which I have, which I acquired in the early days.
Life seemed to be and now also seems to be nothing and meaningless without him. Seasons don’t change, flowers don’t bloom and colors are transparent for me from now on. I can see that I always felt that he was beside me, he was protecting me, encircling me, comforting me, covering me and helping me whenever I needed him. He gave me utmost respect and cared about me in his own ways. I cannot see his empty chair. I cannot see the empty sight. Still it’s difficult for me. People say that yet, few people said that he had kept me like flowers. Now since he has gone far away, daily I’m trying to find him but I fail to do so. I feel his presence every moment and his absence every second. Please can anybody help me find him? Indeed we had a spiritual bond. It was unique and strong as we had a bond based on the love of Allah SWT Alhamdulillah.
These are few lines which I wrote in a letter in 1987 when we got married. I remember these lines and I wrote it again for him when we were parted and I really like these lines. For Dr. Hasan Murad from your wife. “He went away leaving me alone, he went away leaving me alone with the memories we made together. Do you know in the beginning men and women one piece? They were cleft asunder ever since to be rejoined again forever”. My dear husband InshAllah Aziz you are in a better place, but I want to tell you that I miss you each and every micro second of my life. Allah Hafiz everybody and thanks for listening to me. Assalam o Aleikum Warahmatullah e Wabarakatuhu.
Speech by Ms. Mariam Murad
Dr. Hasan Murad, if you were here with us today I would show gratitude to him for being a wonderful combination of strength, warmth, kindness, laughter and love. My father lived a life that many dream of. His discourse is so expensive that many aspire to this. He achieved acclaim that inspires so many. The simplest thing I can say about my father is that he was a force of nature, a storm of a man. In his path things moved, nothing stayed still. He was primal, preserving and on fire with the possibility that something good was just about to happen if you made enough of an effort to do so.
Summing up his life, I keep coming back to one thought, never will you ever meet a man who more faithfully lived his values. At any age when faced with an ethical dilemma after reflection study or even rationalization, I find myself coming back to one simple question, what would he do? His character is the foundation of my conscience.
My father’s teachings are endless. He had a mission in life to be able to create a Pakistan and the Muslim Ummah through ilm. He was cause minded, mission driven, value oriented and would not compromise. He spent every day every minute and every second for this cause. He valued his life and his life is the best manifestation of Islamic principles and professionalism. The most important attribute of my father’s life was that he considered himself the servant of Allah SWT at the core. He worshipped Allah SWT, he found his freedom by surrendering to the will of Allah SWT. His choices, his preferences, his likings, his disliking, his aversions, his decisions, and his deliberations everything was according to the will of Allah SWT. It was according to the traits as to what would please Allah and what would earn him the max and what would earn His maximum pleasure, not just His acceptance or His indifference but to His utmost love and mercy. My father was a seeker of the love of Allah SWT, endorsed further by his relationship with the Quran. He discovered Quran in his early life. His mother imbibed in him the message of Allah. He absorbed it to the extent that it became his second nature. His hobby was to recite the Quran. If he were alone and not doing anything he would sit somewhere and recite the verses. He had memorized half of the Quran and he knew the other half very well. He had a grasp on every verse in terms of its meaning and context. He was charmed by the beauty of the Quran and was unflinchingly, inextricably embedded in the Quran.
Another attribute I found in my father is that he made a personal connection with everyone that he met. Anyone who met him be it for a minute or an hour, had their own personal story to share about the interaction with him. Whoever he met regardless of their social background or affiliation, he would embrace even the strangers in a way that as if they were long friends and that he was waiting for them. It was not artificial but a genuine sense of affiliation and love and bond with everyone, whether Muslims or non-Muslims, known or unknown, very dear ones, loved ones or someone from outside. Ladies and gentlemen this is his legacy. He used to say often that he need not be idealized or enlarged in debt because of what he was in life. The greatest of all expectations, responsibilities and trust was placed on his shoulders because of who he was, but he surpassed them all because of who he became.
We do not weep today for him because of the prestige attached to his name or his office, we weep because we loved this kind and tender hero who persevered through all odds not for the sake of ambition or vanity, not for wealth or power but only for the people and the country that he loved. Hasan Sohaib Murad has departed for his final aboard guided by his faith and by the light of those that he has loved and lost. He has left those of us who grieve his passing with the memories he gave, the good that he did, the dream that he kept alive, with a single enduring image, the image of a man smiling broadly, ready for whatever storms may come, now carrying on towards a new and wondrous place just beyond the horizon. May Allah SWT bless Professor Dr. Hasan Sohaib Murad and May he rest in eternal peace.
Ladies and gentlemen, let us celebrate this larger than life figure by imbibing his values, ethics and integrity. This way we will become a part of him and he will become a part of us. Think what you want to be. Don’t hesitate in taking a bold step. Act what you want to become, then be. If it is true to our value system and serves the cause of our religion then success will follow suit. Just remember to lead a life shaped according to the will of Allah SWT with pure intentions and determination that our ‘Akhrat’ is purposeful. Assalam o Aleikum Warahmatullah.
1st Hasan Sohaib Murad Memorial Lecture
Speech by: Mr. Hussain Dawood
Transcription
Assalam o Aleikum Warahmatullah e Wabarakatuhu. Thank you very much indeed for the introduction and for inviting me to address this august audience and I hope that I’m able to share with you some of my experiences so that perhaps some of you may have some takeaways which may be of some value to you.
I would like to start of this discussion first of all by just giving a brief background about my relationship with Dr Hasan Sohaib Murad. He joined our group and he was really attached to me as a financial analyst. And he assisted me at that time in developing the feasibility report for the expansion of the Dawood Hercules fertilizer project. In 1990 he set up the Institute of Leadership and Management along with his father. He was an individual who started with really nothing. But in a short period of time of his life, he has created an incredible Institution ILM which graduated and became UMT and has become absolutely remarkable success story. And I would like to share that I think that he and I really had the same approach to leadership. And therefor I feel honored that I may be actually sharing with you the same frame of reference that has brought about the degree of success that he has had and a little bit about a degree of success that I have had the privilege to have enjoyed.
When my father died in 2002, we had a group with a turnover at that time of just short of 3 billion rupees. Today, the turnover of our group is 226 billion rupees, it’s about 76 times growth. I started off in 1968 when I joined the world of work or as I call it the great University of life and at that time as you know by 1971, we had lost East Pakistan. In 1972 we experienced nationalization. Our group at that time in 1967, when it was a group which employed 3000-5000 people and had a value at that time of quarter of a billion dollars. That group lost half its assets in East Pakistan and the remaining assets in West Pakistan, half of them were nationalized. So while I was born into a position of privilege where people would look at me and say, ‘well you are born with a golden spoon, you had everything going for you’, I just wanted to set the context to explain that you know, Allah taala and His infinite wisdom challenges all of us. It doesn’t matter what is your birth, what does matter is the tests that you would be facing and how you overcome them, and in that process how are you able to develop your leadership capabilities so that you can help the nation develop, I mean obviously in the corporate sector. Dr Hasan was in the education sector and I consider his achievements as important if not more important than mine. So at that time in 1971, we had lost East Pakistan and in 1972 we nationalized, naturally there was an environment which was extremely anti-private sector and in that environment, it lead to a creation of conflicts in family about the way forward, because we felt that we were being really attacked from all sides. Family dispute obviously took place and it took quite some time in order to resolve it. However, in 2002 my father passed away and I had to assume the responsibilities that he had bequeathed. At that time we were in difficult situation and we had to develop a fundamental basis of the business so that we could grow, and as I explained to you that by the grace of God, after 18 years we are able to grow 76 times. What I want to share with you is that my learnings on the issue of leadership. The title we have today is of course Learning and Leadership. So, what I would like to share with you is a practical side that I have experienced. And I hope that you would be able to appreciate and take away some of the learnings for your own to improve your own situations in life.
Basically, what is leadership? Is it an inborn characteristics? My answer to that is ‘No’, it is not inborn. It is something that you would learn. It is something that can be acquired. But there is a process and the process starts by first of all leading yourself. If you can’t lead yourself, the chances of you being able to lead others in a manner which would benefit them as well as yourself, is significantly diminished. So you have to leave yourself. But how would you lead? What I am about to give you today is sort of a formula. First of all you’ve got to realize that the most important part of leadership is what is the time dimension that you’re addressing? Is it the next 5 years, 10 years or is it a lifetime? If it’s a lifetime than naturally your appreciation and your ability to learn will be totally different from if you have a short time frame like 5 years. So early on I adopted the first and most important variable that this is for a lifetime. Then I realized that in order to be able to address all the tests and challenges that I was undergoing, it is only possible if I could ensure consistency. Consistency in what? Consistency in decision making. All of us make decisions. I have the same weaknesses that all of you have. I was at that time a person who had a lack of self-confidence, a person who had fears, person who was daunted by the challenges in front of me, person who was significantly affected in terms of the influences that were around him and the challenges that were thrown at me by all the various events and occurrences that took place. So like everybody else I too were struggling. Looking back, I realized that it’s another fundamental decision I made about leadership but the first of all I had to develop a sense of humility and in doing so there had to be a methodology, a way of going forward. I realize that the decision-making was the key. Every decision has a double accountability. It has an instant accountability to yourself immediately and it also has an accountability on the Day of Judgment. Because you have to accept the fundamental principle that we all have to die. And when we die we will be held accountable. There are no free lunches in life. There has to be accountability and without accountability, then you have immature behavior that you can make any decision you like because there is no accountability. So accountability is fundamental to success. It’s accountability that drives us to improve. So first of all I decided, accepting the principle accountability, I said that the best way to go forward was to make decisions which were consistent. In other words, each succeeding decision would be supporting the previous decision. And if I could go through life making these type of decisions, with each new decision supporting the previous decisions, than my probability of achieving would be higher than it would be if I kept changing the direction. In other words, I make a decision and then maybe several days later I make a decision with reverses the previous decisions. So consistency of decision-making is very important and to me it’s quite obvious that a person who is consistent in decision making will definitely succeed as compared to a person who does not make consistent decisions. So how do you ensure consistent decisions? Well you have to realize that decision-making is not just in business world, it is in all aspects of life. It has to do with family, it has to do with friends, it has to do with society, it has to do with the country and it has to be in totality. So you need to have a framework which allow you to make consistent decisions. So what is that framework that will allow you to make consistent decisions no matter what your occupation is life? First of all its realization that each one of us is responsible for our own development. Each one of us strive for self-actualization. And it is that desire which motivates us to face the tests and the difficult steps coming along the journey of life to be able to overcome them successfully, and to realize that every time we are successful in overcoming a certain test, then we are that much stronger to face the next test. But it is those tests which help us to grow, without which there is no way that you can grow. I life of ease does not forego well for those who wish to self-actualize. So therefore, one should have an attitude, a positive attitude to welcome those tests but in the process never give in. Never give in what? Never give in so that you result in making inconsistent decisions. So how do you ensure the inconsistent decisions? I realized that for me, I’m not intellectual but I’m a practical person and so I decided that I would go to the source of knowledge that is Holy Quran, which is a book of wisdom. All others writings of human kind are books of knowledge, the Quran is a book of wisdom. So I thought to myself that why should I go to Quran, I should go to one that really matters and try to learn from that whatever I can. And what I learned? I learned to develop a frame of reference which allowed me to make consistent decisions. And what was that? It is fact that you have to accept certain fundamentals. Those fundamentals are that you have to speak the truth. Always speak the truth. No matter what the losses are, you have to speak the truth. And always identify with the truth. So that’s the first fundamental decision I made. I made a decision that I’m always going to speak the truth and I’m not going to vary from that no matter what my losses are. With that I was able to then free my creative mind to concentrating on how best to address challenges. Because if you are inconsistent, you are not able to give all of your energy to overcome in the challenges that confront you. So having made that decision, I realized that first of all I have to develop myself. So the first thing we realize about leadership, what we learn is leading oneself. First of all developing our self. And if you don’t have the habit of speaking truthfully to yourself, then how would we speak truthfully to others? Because you can’t pretend that you don’t know that you’re speaking untruths. You know. So I would advise that every one of us in the morning look at yourself in the mirror and say ‘Can I trust you? Do you speak the truth? Do you speak the truth consistently? Without variation? So that is the beginning of leadership in my mind.
Second thing that I learned was honoring commitments, and this thing is told in the Quran, ‘honor your commitments’. And that is a difficult task. Even today, I suffer a lot on that account because for example I’m usually quite late in going to an event or a social event or whatever. And I try all the time to improve. So long as I keep trying, I’m not defeated, I’m not a failure. I may fail but I’m not a failure. There is a large difference between the two. So I will keep failing but I won’t give in. Failure only comes when you accept that you have failed. So long as you don’t accept that you failed, well, each failing gives you the ability to learn more because we learn it by failing and not by success. So these are very important development phases that you go through. So we all realize that commitment to oneself, and all of us try to change ourselves, we try to make commitments and we fail at them. But if we don’t accept them as a failure, we are still in the game. Keep trying to improve. So commitment is the next important point. When you have both of those, it leads to a situation of having trusted oneself. And if you have trusted oneself then you have secured a very important achievement. Why is that so important? It’s because it really really pills up your self-confidence. I’ve yet to come across anybody with supreme self-confidence. I think my father was quite like that but I don’t neither achieved supreme self-confidence. Because if you have supreme self-confidence, I feel that it will actually retard oneself. Because you will not then consider these challenges and these difficulties and these tests as your stepping stones for further self-actualization. Once you have been able to develop this within yourself, then you go to the next stage that is called ‘Leading others’. When you lead others that is when you have the capacity to multiply yourself through organization. And this is what Dr Hasan Murad did. He was able to get together a team of people who identified with him, identified with what he was doing and he was able to consult them and make decisions and all of the decisions he made have resulted in outstanding achievements that he bequeathed the world. So that’s what I tried to do too. So I like to consult. When I consult others, I’m very very insisted upon the fact that they give me what they think and not what they think I want to hear. For example, I did invite qualified people to join the board of Engro and I was asked by a director that am I allowed to give you my view openly, candidly? I said if you don’t give me your view candidly, you are no use to me, I’ll find somebody else. So in my approach, I encourage all board members, all others who interact with me to speak candidly, speak openly without fear and total security. And I say to them, the most you can do is make a mistake and then you learn from that. For me mistakes are divine tests. It is a nice way to learn. So what does that mean? It means that I as a leader, when I’m leading others, I’m actually encouraging them to develop themselves, expressing themselves and we learn from the body from each other. So then we start to grow and when your team grows and understands, and starts to think at a higher level, the contribution and the quality that they have to contribute, dramatically increases. And so really, the success that we’ve had in Engro and in the group, which is 76 times growth in revenue is entirely based on the team. It is not based on me. It was the team that was able to bring about this type of growth. And if you look at the life of Holy Prophet (S.A.W), he too developed a team. A team of like-minded people who he developed and allowed to speak with candid and so therefore he was able to make the decisions and you see the results of that. The results that never have been equaled in the history of the world.
So we see now that leading others requires the fact that the leader has to trust his team and the team members have to trust the leader. When does that trust come? Only when you speak the truth and when you honor your commitments. So that every member knows that there is a sense of security all around and they can speak and participate, and take ownership whole heartedly. So that means we go from leading self to leading others. And then, when you lead others then you start to lead organizations. In Engro for example, we have very developed governance structure. What is governance structure? What is the relevance of it? The relevance of it is that you define the processes by which decisions are made. And through the governance structure you are able to delegate authority which is commensurate with responsibility. And there is the principle of accountability, and on top of that there is a principle of reward and compensation. So, everybody feels empowered to make a decision, everybody feels that they are not going to be overridden by the boss just because the boss has a different attitude, a different concept in mind. What is that concept? That concept is what we today are really struggling with in our country, it is a concept of control. Control is a very negative attitude. What it does, it restricts human development, it restricts performance, and it restricts quality achievements. So therefor I never exercise control. I, Instead endeavor to empower others to make decisions. I never signed a check in my life. I’m not responsible. I’m at the board level. In our organization, the board has no executive authority. The executive authority belongs to the chief executive and his team, and there is nobody in the board that can overwrite them individually, the board can only overnight them collectively. So the chief executive has the confidence that he can make decisions and he can lead the enterprise without having the board constantly looking over his shoulders but rather the board empowers him and therefor he performs in great confidence, and he can make decision and deliver the results. So very clearly, in our organization, I have no executive authority at all and I ensure that the board never ever gets involved in any form of executive decision making. The job of the board is to ensure values, it’s to ensure that the DNA of the organization, the culture, is based on those values, is to determine the direction of growth. It is to mandate the strategy that management will develop. It is to give its decision on major commitments to investments. It is to identify and appoint the chief executive. It is to delegate and empower the chief executive to perform. It is to set the key performance criteria for the chief executive to perform. And it is to ensure that there is a governance structure which would actually monitor how decisions are made within the organization or each level, making decisions within the framework that has been specified. Those are the responsibilities of the board. That’s all we do.
Management on the other hand is responsible for delivering the results. Management is responsible for what I call the operational side of business. In other words, they make all the operating decisions and those operating decisions are then reflected in the income statement. And at the end of the year, that income statement is the basis in which the board then makes decisions about the allocation of the funds from the profit that is made. If I were to apply the same concepts to the individual, the individual is making operating decisions, all of us are. As we go down life’s highway, we are making operating decisions. So in some form it’s like having an income statement. What happens is that those are accumulated into a balance sheet and the balance sheet is our soul. So as we make decisions which are operational in nature, those decisions will either add value to our soul or subtract value. So the principle of accountability is instant. As you make decisions, so you will either benefit your soul or or you will retard its development, anything in all aspects of life and not just in the business world. And so you see how the soul develops, and when you develops, that’s when you get self-actualization. The ether of your whole personality rises as you make consistent decisions because consistent decisions, I always told you, is based on values. It’s not based on what I get, it’s based on my values, and always making decisions which are fundamentally for the benefit of all rather than for the benefit of self and to hold self-accountable for that. And then you develop your reputation. It is that reputation which is truly the wealth that you have earned. Look at the fantastic accolades that are stated for the Qaid-e-Azam. Both, from those who were the non-supporters as well as those who were supporters, outstanding. Wouldn’t one like that when one is facing death, at the final days when then says, ‘really, was I able to develop a reputation? Because that’s what you are going to take away with you and that’s what you are going to leave behind. All the other worldly things are irrelevant. So this approach also helps you to get a balance in your, the importance and the unimportance of worldly things, and instead it gives you a sense of harmony, a sense of peace within yourself. Ultimately at the end of the day that is what matters. But we should never forget that we are after all imperfect and we will make mistakes. And as I said you, Mistakes are blessings. That’s all I have implemented in my life. So all I have tried to do, always keep into my values enviably. Never tell lies, never take advantage and always think for the benefit of all. And this is exactly what Dr Hasan Murad did, and therefore I feel his presence because I know he followed the same principle. For you could not have achieved what he had achieved without that in my opinion. So it the frame of reference that matters. The frame of reference is a foundation for consistent decision makings.
It’s been such a privilege to share my experiences in my life with you. I’m truly grateful to you for giving me the time and for inviting me to be the speaker at this first memorial talk for Dr Hasan Sohaib Murad. I’m grateful to all of you for being so gracious and honoring me by your presence.
Thank you so much.
Assalam-o-Aleikum!