By Syed Mussarat Khalil
JEDDAH — Pakistani youth has lots of talent, especially in the field of Information Technology (IT), education and research. They have knowledge, skills, and abilities to be productive, said Rukhsana Zubairi, president TEC Education Foundation, chairperson of Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) women wing and ex-senator.
She was speaking at a reception hosted in her honor by Altaf Hussain Mian, noted engineer and social activist of Pakistani community here recently.
Zubairi said, “TEC has shaped IT training & certification as the first Microsoft, first Lotus, Word Star and AT &T training partner in Pakistan.
TEC also has introduced computer-based testing on the Prometric & Pearson VUE platforms. TEC Education Foundation is associated with Certiport as country focal organization and facilitator for Pakistan’s youth participation in IT World Championship 2014. This association gives TEC Education Foundation access to immense training resources of Certiport; enabling the foundation to offer leading technological career options to the future workforce in Pakistan. It has also introduced Microsoft certification and Prometric online testing for which one had to travel overseas.”
“In 2015 one student participated and got a prize out of 18 from 114 country. Then in 2016 five went and two students received awards in the annual IT exhibition held in USA. This shows that Pakistani youths are as good as others,” she added.
She said PEC is taking special initiatives to promote and popularize use of solar energy in Pakistan and for this pilot project we have installed 100 solar energy units in Pakistan. The PEC building in Islamabad is now 100% powered by solar energy with assistance from JICA Japan International Cooperation Agency.
Earlier Asad Akram welcomed guests and gave a brief introduction of Rukhsana Zubairi, the first lady mechanical engineer of Pakistan.
He said Zubairi served Pakistan as senator, member provincial assembly Sindh and was also a board member of NUST, Engineering Development Board and Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan and currently she is a member of the President’s Steering Committee on Alternative Energy Options for Pakistan.
Choudhry Shahbaz Hussain, former federal minister, Syed Riaz Hussain Bukhari, convener Pakistan National Solidarity Forum (PNSF) and other prominent members from Pakistani community including Tasawar Hussain Choudhry, Munir Gondal, Khalid Nawaz Cheema, Umer, Aizaz Saad, and Mutahir Rizvi were present at the reception.
Mian thanked guests and congratulated Zubairi on performing Umrah and visiting the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah.
