Mr. Ahsan Iqbal - 1/5 (January 16, 2010)

A seminar on Challenges and Opportunities was held at UMT by Center for the Globally Responsible Leaders (CGRL). The event was attended by Mr. Ahsan Iqbal Secretary Information PML (N), Mr. Shamshad Ahmad Khan, former Foreign Secretary, and Dr Ijaz Shafi Gillani, Chairman Gallup Pakistan.

Mr. Muhammad Nazim, Director General, CGRL welcomed the guests and acknowledged that the problems being faced by Pakistan are immense, irrefutable and global in nature and the corporate sector holds the key to remedy the wrong and ensure progress and change. He said that CGRL is going to be a laboratory where we will be working, along with other stakeholders, at all organizational levels, to prepare leaders who will serve on a global scale.

Addressing the event Ahsan Iqbal stressed that the future belongs to us and we should be fully prepared to take on it. "We all", he said "are equally responsible for ongoing crises but we should not lose hope as our past is full of achievements and failures, hopes and despairs and we have survived bigger crises than what we see today". He pointed out that we can only make progress if we have honest, committed and self relied leadership. "If we fail to have a collective vision, selfless leadership with high values and principles, rule of law and justice, culture of transparency and accountability", he cautioned, "we might see an irreversible damage".

Addressing the seminar Mr. Shamshad Ahmad Khan said that terrorism is our sole identity now. We are seen both as a problem and a key to its solution. We also suffer serious image problems rooted in our notoriety in the comity of nations as a breeding ground for extremism and militancy and as a country afflicted with a culture of violence and sectarianism. Today Pakistan's name raises fears and concerns in the minds of the global community. Our image is being tarnished by unabated wave of violence and recurring suicidal attacks. Blaming America and India, he said, for our problems is not the right attitude. We ourselves are responsible for being where we are today. Had Quaid lived longer he would have been embarrassed to see how miserably we and our leaders have failed to live up to his vision of Pakistan.

Dr Ijaz Shafi Gillani, Chairman Gallup Pakistan told the audience that despite current crises and war on terror, our current surveys are showing that Pakistanis as a nation have a strong belief in Pakistan coming out of the present crisis. He enumerated five factors which prove this factual optimism, which are: restoration of chief justice, revoking NRO, opposition to Kerry Lugar bill, uprising by the people of Swat against terrorism, and failure of separatist movements in Baluchistan.

Dr Hasan Sohaib Murad , Rector UMT extended his gratitude to the speakers for their devotion and commitment to the cause of Pakistan and announced that UMT will publish an encyclopedia on Pakistan with the title of " Pakistanica" very soon. He concluded the Seminar by presenting shields to the guests.

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