International Islamic University blasts victims

Vigil prayer for IIUI deceased students
Islamabad, Oct 23: Pakistan Youth Alliance (PYA), a youngsters' initiative for political awareness amongst new generation, is all set to arrange vigil prayer on Sunday in memory of students killed in two blasts of International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI).

On November 9, 2007, as emergency imposed a group of three youngsters including Samad Khurram, Maryam Kanwer and Syed Ali Abbas Zaidi joined hands for creating mass socio-political awareness amongst the youth as well as enhancing their energies in an organised manner to yield actual and practical output that could help in development sector of the country. Primarily the team participated in lawyers-led movement for the independence of judiciary and latter they set their targets and invite youngsters from all over the country for joining their alliance.

Following the announcement, so far, around 3,500 youth from all over the country had joined the movement. These youngsters mostly belong to well-off families and are successfully arranging diverse awareness activities across the country besides delivery of material goods for the deserving people on their own.

During an interview, Syed Ali Abbas Zaidi, pioneer of PYA, who is also associated with Siemens Company as an Aeronautical Engineer, said that the source of inspiration for PYA team are the volunteers, who instead of watching the TV screens doing something for Pakistan in practical form. He said that, so for, they had organised about 50 activities including massive protests, vigils and walks for creating political awareness amongst the youth.

In addition, he informed that they had delivered material help to over 5,000 families during Swat IDP crisis and other general social service campaigns. Today, he maintained that the nation is facing so many problems and no one really cares that why such cruel things happen again and again.

He opined that unemployment and lack of healthy social and cultural activities were pushing the youth into the spiral of frustration, making them vulnerable to become an easy prey to the elements out to disrupt public peace and engage in criminal activities.

Unfortunately, he added, "Talent of our youngsters has never been explored in a right way, they were always left at the mercy of cruel circumstances."

Taking part in a discussion, another member of PYA, Romana Mehmood said that youth must be aware of the root cause of the problems and their energies must be utilised in healthy and positive activities. She continued, "We believe in going back to the very roots for which Pakistan was created, and we yarns to fulfill dreams of our leaders of making our country one of the greatest and progressive countries of the world." She further informed the alliance is also going to publish magazines with name of "Inqalab" for awareness of youth. The nation

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Rawalpindi private schools decided to
Rawalpindi: The Rawalpindi Association of Private Schools (RAPS) has decided to keep academic institutions closed till further notification from the government.

The decision to this effect was taken in a meeting here on Thursday.

The Civil Lines Police Station SHO and other police officials also attended the meeting and briefed the participants on precautions to minimise the risk of any untoward incident.

The heads of schools were of the opinion that whatever measures are to be taken should be notified through the media well in time.

Police officials advised the heads of schools to hire services of private security guards and don't allow any person to enter the premises without checking his or her identity card, install CCTV cameras at the main entrance and other parts of school buildings, arrange a mock exercise in their respective schools about emergency situation and display all emergency numbers at prominent places in their schools. The news

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Education centres asked to improve performance
Islamabad: Federal Minister for Social Welfare and Special Education, Samina Khalid Ghurki Thursday chaired a meeting of the representatives of Special Education Centres from Punjab.

The Minister was informed about the problems of the centres, for instance, meagre resources, non-availability of Braille, lack of spirit in teachers' issues related to transportation.

The meeting was convened to know the province's specific problems of Special Education Centres located in Punjab. The delegation comprised all the heads of Special Education Centres from Punjab.

Federal Minister for SW & SE stressed on increasing the enrolment rate of the centres. While talking to the delegation, she said, "Special Educators' position to be improved in terms of social recognition, salary and working situations so as to increase their motivation."

The Minister emphasized the role for public private partnership. She said, "It is the mindset which needs to be changed and for that we need to involve the community and she also stressed on the role of media in this regard."

The meeting was one in the series of meetings held by Federal Minister for Social Welfare and Special Education with all the four provinces to address the province-wise specific problems in the field of Special Education. The nation

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TWAS prize for Dr Atta-ur-Rahman
Islamabad: Former chairman of the Higher Education Commission Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman received Regional Science Prize from Academy of Sciences for the Developing World generally known as Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) in a ceremony held in Durban, South Africa, on Thursday.

The prize was conferred on Dr. Rahman in recognition of his services for building scientific institutions in Pakistan. He was selected for the prize in August this year from among the scientists of South and Central Asia, including China. He addressed 400 delegates from more than hundred countries of the world after receiving the prestigious prize.

A TWAS note of appreciation said that he started nearly 400 projects which mainly included a free of charge digital library providing nation-wide access to 20,000 journals to all academic and research institutions in Pakistan.

TWAS Regional Science Prize is awarded every three year, which recognises individuals who have played key roles in the establishment of vibrant scientific institutions or the expansion of already-established institutions in the developing world. The awardee receives a $3,000 cash award alongside a plaque/certificate describing the winner's achievements.

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Pathologists' moot to start on November 6
Islamabad: A press conference in connection with the upcoming Pakistan Association of Pathologists (PAP) 33rd National Conference was held at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences here on Thursday.

Head of the Department of Pathology (PIMS) and Chief Organizing Committee Professor Anwar Ul Haque briefed the audience on various planned events.

He said that pathology is the backbone of medicine which is related to almost all the disciplines of medicine and surgery. "Without proper diagnosis, treatment and management of patients can not be done. Pathology is both art and science. No doctor could be a good doctor unless he has good knowledge of pathology. The art of choosing the simple, inexpensive and non-invasive tests over costly at times unnecessary, expensive and invasive tests is very important."

The conference has five-day programme. The main conference will be held on November 6 to 8 with one-day pre-conference workshops and one-day post-conference workshops.

Dr Anwar said that all major diseases and organs would be targeted in order to improve the knowledge and skill of both consultant pathologists and the trainee pathologists. "There are over 145 original research papers and 15 workshops." He said that the workshops include the hands on training session on diseases of skin, which are quite prevalent in the country. Skin is the mirror of the body and many systemic diseases such as vasculitis can be easily diagnosed with simple small biopsy of the skin. "Both dermatologists and pathologists in large number would attend this workshop."

He said that another workshop would concentrate on breast diseases, which are unfortunately quite prevalent in the country. "The disease can be easily picked up in early stage through proper self-palpation and fine needle aspiration cytology which is an out patient procedure and avoids unnecessary surgery in many cases." He added that if the breast cancer is diagnosed in early stage, many patients can get cure easily.

There would also be a workshop on renal disease, which would focus on diseases of kidney, which are also quite common. Other workshops include the topics on AIDS, infection control, blood diseases, genetic disorders and viral diseases. "There would be several important research papers in gastric and intestinal diseases which are also quite prevalent in the country," said Dr Anwar.

He said that PIMS is actively involved in original research and has given the pioneer concepts about the diseases first time in the world. "The Department of Pathology of PIMS brings out International Journal of Pathology (IJP) which is also available on internet and all articles can be downloaded freely. Its website is www.jpahtology.com."

Dr Anwar briefed that there would special workshop on quality management both for doctors and technologists. The news

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