Disability couldn’t deter Zara from doing PhD!
Physical disability can be sidelined provided one has the will and determination. A brilliant example of this is the life and academic achievements of a deaf girl from Lahore who is doing PhD in special education from Johns Hopkins, a prestigious university in the USA.
In her message from USA, she said that she was thankful to God and everyone in her family, friends, professors and those who have been in her life for support and made things easier to her to excel in her studies. According to the data provided to this correspondent from her near and dear ones, Zara Hussain, a deaf but outstanding student, daughter of Iftikhar Hussain and Salma was born in Lahore in 1981.
When she was about a year old, her parents had discovered that she was deaf. It was not easy for them to accept this bitter reality, especially when Zara was their first child. They consulted many physicians to get her cured but to no avail. She was admitted to a school for primary education where she was only deaf child in her class and it was difficult for the teachers to treat her normally as they used to do so with other child students.
Zara did her high schooling from W.T. Woodson School (USA) where her father was posted in the Pakistani mission. She passed her high school with high grades and won ‘Role Model Award for American Deaf Children.’ She also learned CUED Speech, a system of communication used with and among deaf or hard of hearing people. She was also editor of the children magazine in her school at Virginia. She also wrote a guide for the deaf children studying at the American schools that was highly appreciated by the teachers and is now being used as a ‘Handbook for Deaf Children.’
When her family moved back to Pakistan, she got admission in Kinnaird College, Lahore, where she graduated with her major subjects including English Literature, Journalism and Psychology. After completing her bachelors, she got admission in the Punjab University and chose special education as her subject for masters. She topped all the four semesters and in recognition of her achievements former Punjab chief Minister Ch. Pervaiz Elahi awarded her a gold medal and cash prize worth Rs100,000.
Zara also represented Pakistan in ‘Annual Disability Conference 2004’ held in Washington DC. Despite resistance from the organizers, she displayed a stall through personal efforts, using only the ‘Punjab University, Pakistan’ as a label.
Though her mother wanted her to go for Information Technology or Computer Sciences but she got an HEC scholarship and went to the United States for doing her PhD in special education.
Her hobbies include socializing, especially with those people who work for the cause of special persons. Much of her time is utilized sitting on the computer and browsing the Internet and writing proposals for well-being of the deaf community.
She has a plan to set up an institute for the deaf community after completion of her PhD, initially in Islamabad and Lahore and then to spread its branches across the country with the aim to provide level playing field to help them shine in their areas of study and contribute effectively in the national development.
The academic achievements of this brave and talented young student needs attention of the government that must acknowledge and encourage such youths that can become a role model for many others in the society.
Source: http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=223215
Showing posts with label the news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the news. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Sunday, April 5, 2009
HEC Scholars speak for their future
Paucity of funds puts future of students at stake
Friday, April 03, 2009
By By Perwez Abdullah
Karachi
The futures of over 400 students who were granted various Higher Education Commission (HEC) scholarships are at stake as the HEC has failed to provide the money pledged to these students. HEC officials, meanwhile, cite the financial crunch as the reason behind the funds being stopped by the government.
While the HEC is blaming the government, officials from the government claim that the global recession has reached Pakistan as well, resulting in a dearth of finances. HEC Director General Dr Sohail Naqvi told The News that the HEC received only Rs8 billion against the budgeted Rs18 billion.
"We are using the bulk of the eight billion rupees for scholars who are already enrolled in various programmes at home and abroad. We are not in a position to begin new programmes now," he explained.
Dr Naqvi denied that the HEC is spending lot of money on its countless employees. "We have about 700 employees and none of them can be called ‘white elephants’. We are not spending on ourselves."
Some students and senior professors of private and public sector universities criticised the government for appropriating the taxpayers’ money for its ‘personal’ use. "The government is buying bullet-proof cars, helicopters and a fleet of vehicles for an army of ministers, advisors and other VIPs who are clogging roads with their entourage. All this money should have gone into education. But no one cares," they lamented.
Mohammad Jamaluddin Thaheem is one of the 400 students who are waiting to receive the good news from HEC so that he can go abroad and resume his studies. "I applied for the HEC scholarship under their Universities of Engineering, Science and Technology of Pakistan (UESTP) Programme. The last date of application was January 10, 2008. After waiting for over three months, I was short-listed for an interview in April 2008 that was held at the HEC Regional Centre, Karachi, on May 15, 2008," he said.
Thaheem was provisionally selected for the scholarship in May 2008. With a guaranteed admission in Politecnico di Torino, Italy, the HEC scholarship was an added prospect for him. The HEC asked Thaheem along with 85 other students for the science, engineering and technology scholarship, to get their documentation in order. Thaheem’s documents had to be translated in Italian and other languages and verifications/attestations had to be done, which he duly completed despite the time, effort and money involved in the process.
Politecnico di Torino confirmed Thaheem’s admission in a four-year PhD programme in July 2008. He immediately applied for student visa which received on September 1, 2008.
"Everything was going according to plan, although there were rumours that the government had stopped funding. Meanwhile, the HEC chairman at the time, Professor Atta-ur-Rehman also resigned, which somewhat confirmed these doubts. But the repeated confirmations from HEC, that our scholarship was intact, kept our hopes alive," Thaheem said.
In November 2008, the HEC emailed all candidates who were government employees to either apply for a nine-year (four years of study plus five years of service) leave and NOC from their departments or resign. Many people resigned after this. Although Thaheem was not a government employee, he too resigned to prepare for his departure.
"On November 29, 2008, the HEC sent us an email informing us of that our scholarship has been put on hold, and we were advised not to proceed till further orders. We were extremely disappointed by this – almost one year of preparation and anticipation seemed to have gone to waste. We protested but the HEC has not done anything so far," Thaheem explained.
Thaheem and some other students, on their persistence, were finally allowed a meeting with Dr Sohail Naqvi and Project Manager, UESTP-Italy, Waseem Hashmi Syed on January 5, 2009. "I went to Islamabad to attend this meeting but both gentlemen made it clear that the funding issue was out of their hands," he said.
Thaheem and his group of students have written letters to the president, prime minister, speaker of the National Assembly, Punjab chief minister, Sherry Rehman (Federal Information Minister at the time) and most political leaders and prominent journalists. There has been no response so far.
The group also met the Italian Ambassador in Pakistan, Vincenzo Prati, and the Consul General of Italy in Karachi, Domenico Benincasa, and sought their help. The Italian Ambassador spoke to Prime Minister Gilani a few times but nothing has come out of it. The Italian delegates were sympathetic but expressed their inability to helping them. They (the diplomats) also told the students that the Italian universities could not provide them with scholarships. Unfortunately, January 23, 2009 was the last date for enrolment in the Italian universities.
Source: daily The NEWS
Friday, April 03, 2009
By By Perwez Abdullah
Karachi
The futures of over 400 students who were granted various Higher Education Commission (HEC) scholarships are at stake as the HEC has failed to provide the money pledged to these students. HEC officials, meanwhile, cite the financial crunch as the reason behind the funds being stopped by the government.
While the HEC is blaming the government, officials from the government claim that the global recession has reached Pakistan as well, resulting in a dearth of finances. HEC Director General Dr Sohail Naqvi told The News that the HEC received only Rs8 billion against the budgeted Rs18 billion.
"We are using the bulk of the eight billion rupees for scholars who are already enrolled in various programmes at home and abroad. We are not in a position to begin new programmes now," he explained.
Dr Naqvi denied that the HEC is spending lot of money on its countless employees. "We have about 700 employees and none of them can be called ‘white elephants’. We are not spending on ourselves."
Some students and senior professors of private and public sector universities criticised the government for appropriating the taxpayers’ money for its ‘personal’ use. "The government is buying bullet-proof cars, helicopters and a fleet of vehicles for an army of ministers, advisors and other VIPs who are clogging roads with their entourage. All this money should have gone into education. But no one cares," they lamented.
Mohammad Jamaluddin Thaheem is one of the 400 students who are waiting to receive the good news from HEC so that he can go abroad and resume his studies. "I applied for the HEC scholarship under their Universities of Engineering, Science and Technology of Pakistan (UESTP) Programme. The last date of application was January 10, 2008. After waiting for over three months, I was short-listed for an interview in April 2008 that was held at the HEC Regional Centre, Karachi, on May 15, 2008," he said.
Thaheem was provisionally selected for the scholarship in May 2008. With a guaranteed admission in Politecnico di Torino, Italy, the HEC scholarship was an added prospect for him. The HEC asked Thaheem along with 85 other students for the science, engineering and technology scholarship, to get their documentation in order. Thaheem’s documents had to be translated in Italian and other languages and verifications/attestations had to be done, which he duly completed despite the time, effort and money involved in the process.
Politecnico di Torino confirmed Thaheem’s admission in a four-year PhD programme in July 2008. He immediately applied for student visa which received on September 1, 2008.
"Everything was going according to plan, although there were rumours that the government had stopped funding. Meanwhile, the HEC chairman at the time, Professor Atta-ur-Rehman also resigned, which somewhat confirmed these doubts. But the repeated confirmations from HEC, that our scholarship was intact, kept our hopes alive," Thaheem said.
In November 2008, the HEC emailed all candidates who were government employees to either apply for a nine-year (four years of study plus five years of service) leave and NOC from their departments or resign. Many people resigned after this. Although Thaheem was not a government employee, he too resigned to prepare for his departure.
"On November 29, 2008, the HEC sent us an email informing us of that our scholarship has been put on hold, and we were advised not to proceed till further orders. We were extremely disappointed by this – almost one year of preparation and anticipation seemed to have gone to waste. We protested but the HEC has not done anything so far," Thaheem explained.
Thaheem and some other students, on their persistence, were finally allowed a meeting with Dr Sohail Naqvi and Project Manager, UESTP-Italy, Waseem Hashmi Syed on January 5, 2009. "I went to Islamabad to attend this meeting but both gentlemen made it clear that the funding issue was out of their hands," he said.
Thaheem and his group of students have written letters to the president, prime minister, speaker of the National Assembly, Punjab chief minister, Sherry Rehman (Federal Information Minister at the time) and most political leaders and prominent journalists. There has been no response so far.
The group also met the Italian Ambassador in Pakistan, Vincenzo Prati, and the Consul General of Italy in Karachi, Domenico Benincasa, and sought their help. The Italian Ambassador spoke to Prime Minister Gilani a few times but nothing has come out of it. The Italian delegates were sympathetic but expressed their inability to helping them. They (the diplomats) also told the students that the Italian universities could not provide them with scholarships. Unfortunately, January 23, 2009 was the last date for enrolment in the Italian universities.
Source: daily The NEWS
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