Oxford: The Oxford Pakistan (OPP) program celebrated an important step during its annual fundraising dinner at Lady Margaret Hall, obtaining transformative promises for three new scholarships and an endowment of £ 100,000 to empower Pakistan’s most brilliant students.
The main exporter of Pakistan Interloop Ltd, represented by the businessman and philanthropist Musadaq Zulqarnain Ti, has initiated funding for a scholarship for the next three years.
British Pakistani philanthropes Munnir Hussain, which manages one of the largest food chains in the United Kingdom and Anel Musarrat has each promised support for a graduate scholarship for the next five years. This additional funding will allow the most deserving and most talented researchers in Pakistan to continue higher education on the competitive courses of the University of Oxford, in particular advanced IT, theoretical physics, mathematics, genome medicine and many other cutting -edge fields.
Adding momentum, Professor Sarwar Khawaja announced a generous gift of £ 100,000 to the FUNTATION Fund for the OPP, contributing to sustainability and long -term institutionalization of the OPP.
Sponsored by Oxford alumni, Dr Omer Suleman and Shamyl Malik (co-founders of the Haruko financial technology company), dinner brought together donors, academics and PPO supporters to celebrate the impact of the program.
Since its creation, the OPP has granted nearly 1 million pounds to support students to 52 researchers, including many badly served regions in Pakistan such as Sindh, Balutchistan and southern Punjab, to study in Oxford.
The co-founders of the OPP underlined the demographic emergency of Pakistan, noting that two-thirds of its population are less than 30 years old, fueling unprecedented demand for educational opportunities. Among this generation, there are brilliant minds that could be future opinion leaders and foreign exchange manufacturers in Pakistan, to whom PPO offers opportunities as well as hope.
Throughout the evening, a concentration was also devoted to the need to develop an educational aspiration and an achievement among the British Pakistani community, to allow them to contribute positive to British society and public life.
The winner of the Nobel Malala Yousafzai, a long -standing defender of the OPP, made an opening speech stating: “When you support the OPP, you invest in the largest resource in Pakistan: its young people. These academics will return to the head industries, to shape policies and to transform communities – creating undulations of progress for generations.”
Participants included the High Commissioner of Pakistan in the United Kingdom, Dr. Mohammad Faisal, Ms. Naz Shah MP, director of Lady Margaret Hall, Professor Stephen Blyth, Professor Sir Aziz Sheikh, as well as the commercial, professionals and academics of the United Kingdom.
The event presented testimonies of the scholars of the OPP and gratitude to the donors of Cornerstone, in particular Malala Yousafzai, Ali Tareen, the government of Balutchistan, the Cosaraf Foundation, the Dunya Foundation and a growing community of Philanthropes supporting partial scholarships.
These include: Suleman Raza, Hamid Ismail, Professor Stephen Blyth, Areeb Azam, Ammad Ahmad, Syed Babar Ali, Syed Sheharyar Ali, Pir Muhammad Sadiq, Farouq Sheikh Obe and Haroon Sheikh via the Cosaraf Foundation, Amir Hashmi, Mian Amer Mahmood Dadabhoy, Mohammad Khaishgi, Professor Sarwar Khawaja, Dr. Tariq and Abida Zaman, Ahmed Owais Pirzada, Sheraz Mehmood, Areeb Azam, Omar Ghauri and Asad Ghauri.
Dr Adeel Malik commented: “With these new promises, the OPP is getting closer to its founding mission: to ensure that no Pakistani or British Pakistani student has offered a place to Oxford is never repressed due to financial barriers. OPP is a pioneering access initiative, creating Pakistani talented paths and British Pakistan students. Myself, Dr Talha J Pirzada, speaker in materials science, Haroon Zaman, company lawyer in London and Minahil SAQIB business manager. »»