HYDERABAD: Speakers on Wednesday stressed the need for fresh ideas and new thinking for the country’s progress and urged the youth to come forward to ensure Pakistan’s bright future.
They were speaking at an academic and intellectual session organised by Afkar-i-Taza ThinkFest at Sindh University.
The session was chaired by Prof Dr Javed Ahmed Chandio, dean of the Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration, who welcomed the participants and congratulated Afkar-i-Taza ThinkFest on organising a programme on such an important subject.
Dr Yaqoob Khan Bangash, founder of Afkar-i-Taza ThinkFest, thanked Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Fateh Mohammad Marri and Prof Amar Sindhu for their cooperation in organising the event at the university. He said Pakistan’s progress required fresh ideas and new thinking, for which the youth must come forward.
Prof Daanish Mustafa of King’s College London, the keynote speaker, shared his views on colonial influences on water systems and on climate and environmental change. He said water could not be understood merely through scientific equations or technical parameters, as it was also a human and cultural concern.
He said a fundamental shift in thinking was needed to address water-related issues. He observedthat statistics did not reflect the complete reality, as river flows were not uniform every year, with some years seeing severe floods and others relatively less intense ones. Artificially controlling the natural flow of rivers, he said, created unusual situations andled to adverse consequences.
Another key speaker, Dr Sven van Mourik, a historian of modern Europe and the global economy at the University of Vienna, spoke on the global debt crisis, austerity policies and possible ways for developing countries to escape the debt trap. He said many developing countries were caught in such a trap and found it difficult to pull out.
He stressed the need to adopt alternative mechanisms for financial assistance and lending based on fairness and equality. In this regard, he described the establishment of an Independent Sovereign Debt Arbitration Mechanism as a step in the right direction. He appreciated Pakistan’s efforts and role in bringing borrowing countries together on a common platform.
A dialogue between journalist and writer Owais Tohid and Prof Amar Sindhu was also held, focusing on colonialism, its impacts, the situation in Pakistan and the performance of its institutions.
They said that although the British had left the subcontinent nearly eight decades ago, the effects of their system had yet to disappear.
Better results could not be achieved unless the colonial mindset was changed,they observed.
They emphasised the need to highlight memorials to those who sacrificed their lives in the 19th-century War of Independence, saying such memorials could inspire the younger generation. They also discussed the disparity in the provision of facilitiesbetween the rich and the poor, observing that inequalities across various sectors promoted feelings of deprivation and superiority, which had to be eliminated.
Prof Dr Arfana Mallah appreciated the VC’s efforts to promote academic and intellectual activities at SU. She said such dialogues were among the university’s core objectives, and suggested that similar programmes be organised in all languages, including Sindhi, Punjabi, Pashto and Balochi.