Category: Press Release

Mondelēz Pakistan, one of Pakistan’s and global leading snacking companies, announces the appointment of Sami Wahid as the new Managing Director (MD) effective January, 2022. Wahid will be responsible for the overall business strategy and commercial offerings.

As an expert in the snack and beverage industry, Wahid brings over 17 years of experience in the fields of marketing, sales and strategy. His role entails a holistic business strategic direction and commercial operations for Pakistan, while being based locally. Sami has had a long association with Mondelez International, starting back from 2015 where he became part of the organization and have overlooked various responsibilities across the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan (MENAP) markets. Armed with experience in other organizations, he has built a successful career in the food and beverage industry.

Mr. Asif Inam,Chairman, All Pakistan Textile Mills Association, Southern Zone has requested Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mr. Imran Khan’s intervention to save export oriented textile industry of Sindh and Baluchistan from total closure as they have become almost standstill due to denial of gas.

Mr. Asif Inam said that export oriented textile industries of Sind and Baluchistan are contributing more than 52 percent in total textile exports of Pakistan are deprived of gas supply despite of government vision of the higher priority of gas supply to export oriented industries as compared to other industries. He further said that industries of Sindh and Baluchistan are denied of their legal right on gas supply although they are self-sufficient in supply of natural gas.

Chairman APTMA Southern Zone said that due to extremely low gas pressure and frequently unavailability it is very difficult for the export oriented textile industries located in Sindh and Hub Industrial Area to run the mills and fulfill their export commitments well in time.

Chairman APTMA Southern Zone said that despite Baluchistan High Court Order industrial units located in Hub Industrial Area since last two months are getting only 25 percent gas pressure which is inadequate to run the mills.

Mr. Asif Inam urged the government and gas supply companies to provide gas first to export oriented industries including textile to run their mills without any disruption so that they can fulfill their export commitments in time and then to other industries if they have enough gas supply otherwise export oriented textile industry would be compelled to shut down their industries as they are incurring heavy financial losses due to unavailability of gas.

A three-day Module-II of Training on Transmission Planning for the officers and engineering professionals of newly established Market Implementation and Regulatory Affairs Department (MIRAD) of Distribution Companies (DISCOs), National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA), and National Power Control Center was arranged under the banner of the Power Sector Centre of Excellence (PSCE) established at LUMS.

PSCE is a training and knowledge hub founded jointly by Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA-G) and the LUMS Energy Institute. The training was attended by 50 participants. Module-II was a continuation of Module-I of the programme, where key activity areas of Transmission Planning were deliberated. Participants were given intensive knowledge about Power System Studies, Network Planning and Expansion techniques and strategies according to the global best practices. The training was imparted through the Power System Simulator for Engineering (PSS/E), a globally used and acclaimed software for Power System Studies. Before the start of Module-II, newly selected participants of MIRADs were imparted a separate advance level training on the use of PSS/E by the resources from CPPA-G.

Modernising Pakistan’s electricity infrastructure and power sector professionals is one of the top priorities under the envisaged Competitive Trading Bilateral Contracts Market (CTBCM) regime. Transmission Planning is one of the key ingredient to an Integrated System Plan that serves as a blueprint for building a reliable and secure electricity grid. It maps out strategies to expand and reinforce the transmission system to support future load growth and generation development. Without continuous and overarching improvements and upgrades over the coming years, our nation’s transmission system will fall short of the reliability standards our growing economy requires. The introduction of modern tools, techniques and approaches will improve system monitoring, visualisation, control and operations as required under the competitive electricity market framework. This will ultimately modernise the electricity transmission system to ease congestion, allow for an increase in demand, provide a greater degree of system security and reliability, and reduce costs for the ratepayers.

A key strategic focus of the training was to better integrate the newly formed MIRAD, at all 10 DISCOs, with all the power sector entities. MIRAD will play a key role in transmission planning and demand forecasting under the competitive electricity market, which will start operations in May 2022.

The DISCOs have already prepared their own Demand Forecast. They shall use their Demand Forecast to prepare their Secondary Transmission and Grids Expansion Plan. The expansion plans of DISCOs, their Demand Forecasts along with the latest Integrated Generation Capacity Expansion Plan will enable NTDC to prepare the Transmission System Expansion Plan. In this way, NTDC and the newly created MIRADs of DISCOs will pave the way for Integrated System Planning, an exercise which has been missing in the sector for decades.

LUMS celebrated its Convocation 2020 and 2021

LUMS’ first in-person Convocation ceremonies since 2019 were held on two days. Pro Chancellor LUMS, Mr. Abdul Razak Dawood, officiated the convocation for the Class of 2020 on Saturday, January 15, 2022, and the ceremony for the Class of 2021 on Sunday, January 16, 2022, at the LUMS campus in Lahore. Founding Pro Chancellor, Syed Babar Ali and member, LUMS Board of Trustees, Dr. Pervez Hassan were also present on both commencement ceremonies.

Students felt overwhelmed and involved in rejoicing the celebration together as a community, noticing and marking its various aspects that they missed since the start of the pandemic two years ago. A warm address by the Registrar, Ms. Zara Fateh Qizilbash, welcomed students and their families on both days followed by exclusive talks by the Vice Chancellor, Dr. Arshad Ahmad, and the keynote speakers.

During his address, the Vice Chancellor, Dr. Arshad Ahmad, recalled notable moments from LUMS’ journey through 2020-21, calling them as the years of strength and resilience. While we are still emerging from the grip of this pandemic, the Vice Chancellor paid exemplary homage to all members of the LUMS community including the students, staff, faculty members, and parents who stayed connected through these challenging times and maintained uninterrupted learning through technology and innovation. He inspired the students to embrace the idea of quality and apply it in every aspect of their life. To propel growth, he advised the students to adopt the values of merit, integrity, and empathy. He also urged the students to serve the society through research and purpose and recognise the power of change that has been vested within them through their academic endeavours at LUMS.

Dr. Arfa Sayeda Zehra, educationist, public intellectual, culture expert, gender specialist and human rights activist, addressed the Class of 2020 as a keynote speaker. She advised the students to look for possibilities in every aspect of life and while doing so embody the values of tolerance and compassion. According to Dr. Zehra, education is a force that triggers ingenuity and inspires new thinking. She also mentioned that empathy should drive the quest towards unveiling new prospects, since the true potential of one’s natural abilities can only be unlocked through good education and ethical values.

Mr. Shahid Abdulla, an acclaimed architect and Director, Arshad Shahid Abdulla (Pvt.) Ltd., addressed the Class of 2021 as a keynote speaker on the second day. He inspired the students to acquire practical skills and work towards realising their dreams through creativity and passion. He urged them to step out of their comfort zone and achieve their vision through bold and innovative thinking. He concluded his address on the importance of serving society and doing good to expect the same in return.

The above addresses during both convocations were followed by the award of degrees to all graduating students, robing of PhD graduates, and the presentation of the National Management Foundation awards and corporate medals to high performing students.

Recorded broadcasts of both ceremonies can be viewed at these links, Convocation: Class of 2020 and Convocation: Class of 2021.

The alliance between two leading non-profits of Pakistan to educate children of underprivileged communities was able to get massive support of leading businessmen and industrialists from Lahore for the schooling of at least 10,000 out-of-school children.

The third joint fundraiser of Shahid Shahid Afridi Foundation (SAF) and Green Crescent Trust (GCT) was held here at a hotel as it was the first time the charitable joint venture between the two charities stepped outside Sindh to expand their drive to educate children of the backward areas of Pakistan.

The most appealing feature of the fundraiser was the participation by leading Pakistani sports and show business celebrities including Anwar Maqasood, Adnan Siddiqui, Shahid Afridi, Jahangir Khan, Ahmad Shahzad, and Shahbaz Senior. The memorabilia belonging to the sports celebrities were also auctioned on the occasion to raise money for the charitable cause.

Leading names of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry, Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry, and other trade bodies of Lahore and the rest of Punjab attended the event. Total over 400 businessmen, industrialists, philanthropists of Lahore attended the fundraiser and announced donations for the joint SAF-GCT charitable drive.

Akhuwat Founder, Dr Amjad Saqib, was one of the prominent guests of the event who personally announced Rs 2.5 million donations for the charitable school education campaign of the two non-profits.

Dr Saqib also announced to join hands with the SAF and GCT to further the drive to establish charitable schools for the deprived communities all across Pakistan.

Students from backward areas of Tharparkar and Kashmore in Sindh presented welcome tableaus to thank the philanthropists and businessmen of Lahore for their participation in the cause to educate children of the underprivileged areas.

Prominent writer Anwar Maqsood used his celebrated humourist style to have a dialogue with Shahid Afridi to highlight the need for generously donating for the cause to enrol out-of-school children for the progress and prosperity of Pakistan.

Shahid Afridi, who is also SAF Chairman, said that he owed much to Pakistan for the name and fame he earned as his non-profit had been working in the education sector as an effective mean to pay back to his motherland.

He expressed gratitude to the leading businessmen and philanthropists for lending him fullest support to carry out a number of welfare activities under the aegis of SAF.

The SAF Chairman said that his non-profit had joined hands with the GCT in view of its years-long work to educate children of the backward areas,

GCT CEO, Zahid Saeed, said the joint charitable campaign required the support of the concerned philanthropists from all over the country as the enrolment of millions of out-of-school children was a gigantic task.

He said the non-profit GCT had been working in the education sector for the past 28 years as it had a network of 150 charitable schools with an enrolment of 29,000 students of the backward areas.

He said the GCT had been acting upon its Vision-2025 to enrol total of 100,000 out-of-school children by increasing the number of its charitable schools to 250.

The two non-profits joined hands in 2018 to work together for the education of the children of the deprived communities. Both the charities have been jointly running eight schools having an enrollment of 3,000 students from the backward areas of Sindh.

The SAF and GCT have the aim to increase the number of their jointly managed charitable schools to 100 in the next five years for the children of the underprivileged areas.

Other prominent participants of the fundraiser included SAF board member Uzair Sabur, GCT trustees Abrar Ahmed, Faizan Jawaid, and Saad Zia.