2nd Youth in Governance Convention 2010

Held at Regent Plaza Karachi
On 24th & 25th September 2010

A two day convention was organized by Transparency International – Pakistan (TI-Pakistan) on 24th & 25th September 2010 at Regent Plaza Karachi. There were 200 participants from 60 different Universities of Pakistan

Inaugural Session:
The event started with recitation from the Holy Quran by Mr. Talish a student of University of Agriculture Faisalabad; this session was chaired by H. N. Akhter, former federal secretary to the Government of Pakistan who was the Chief Guest.
Director Projects TI Pakistan Dr. N.I. Khowaja briefly introduced Transparency International Pakistan which was followed by address of the Chief Guest. He said that corruption can be eradicated from the society only if we start reforming ourselves. We can bring change if we believe in ourselves and try to understand the true meaning of a patriot and be honest in our thoughts and our actions.
After the speech the Pledge taking ceremony took place in which all the participants stood up and took the pledge. This session ended with the presentation of Plaques.

Second Session:
The second session was chaired by Mr. Shabbir Kazmi a senior Journalist from Financial Daily. This session began with a speech of a senior Professor from Institute of Business Management Prof. Moinuddin Ali Khan. His topic was “malpractices in secondary education sector”.
He said that local education boards have made blatant mistakes in their curriculum but still they’re taught everywhere. The students, just to obtain marks, continue to learn and record the wrong answers. This is like playing with future of our children; he further said that the children should be taught on the basis of equality regardless of their back ground or area of residence. The question / answer session took place which cleared a lot of ambiguities in the minds of students. This session ended with the Plaque distribution ceremony.

Third Session:
The third session was chaired by Dr. N. I. Khowaja Director Projects Transparency International Pakistan, Dr. Talat A. Wizarat a senior professor of Institute of Business Administration was the speaker for this session. Her topic was “The impact of foreign aid on corruption”.
In her speech Dr. Wizarat asserted the Importance of self dependence. She was of the opinion that weaker institutions and stronger individuals result in increase in corruption. According to her although aid is a blessing but it creates a sense of dependency which can be used by certain unscrupulous donors to achieve their ulterior objectives. Her thoughts were well comprehended by students which was visible in the question answer session.

Last Session:
Topic for the last session of the day was “Role of media in exposing corruption”. News Producer from ARY News Mr. Abdullah Jamal was the speaker of this session while this session was chaired by Syed Salim Ahmed, member Advisory Board, Transparency International Pakistan.
Speaking on the topic he discussed various aspects of media coverage of corruption and said that it will take some time before the local electronic media can bring maturity to its style of coverage. Chair of the session Syed Saleem Ahmed in his speech said that Media forms opinion according to public’s interest so masses need to reform their opinion if they want media to change its attitude towards state affairs.

Second Day First Session:
Second day began with Chief Executive and Director of Razzaque Steels Ms. Farhana Mowjee’s speech on “corruption in business sector”.
In her address, she said that extortion and nexus between businessmen and government officeholders are the two main forms of corruption in business sector and that a zero tolerance attitude towards corruption from government is the only remedy. She also gave concrete examples like introduction of e government on a large scale in Bangladesh and some other developing countries where it had helped in decreasing the contact between the public and government officials and thus resulted reduction of corruption.
This session was chaired by Justice (R) Ghous Muhammad who in his speech also shed some light on the issues of corruption in the business sector and the judiciary. In the end Plaques were presented to the honourable speaker and the Chairperson.

Second Session:
This session was chaired by Colonel Akber Husain Chairman ( R) Export Processing Zone Authority while Prof. Dr. Moonis Ahmer Ex-Chairman of Karachi University’s IR department was the speaker for this session.
He spoke in detail about how youth can play a role in bringing about a positive change. He said that youth needs to identify its skills and to work on them for only this can result in changing the direction of tides. The youth has the power to beat every calamity every disaster we just need to join hands and form an unbreakable change.

Third Session:
Chairman, TI Pakistan Syed Adil Gilani while addressing concluding session of the event said that elected representatives are not serious in eradicting corruption. He said that judiciary is also not a corruption-free institution in Pakistan but now it’s playing its part in fight against corruption. Mr. Gilani also said that only Transparency International Pakistan is the only body has exposed corruption in the country.
In this session students were also invited to present their views about the event and their practices against corruption. The first prize was won by Mohammad Ali Jinnah University, Karachi, second prize was won by University of Gujrat the third prize by Mirpur Azad Kashmir University and the consolation prize by Liaquat University.