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CE to inaugurate symposium on Akhtar Hameed today

ISLAMABAD: Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf will inaugurate a two-day symposium on 'Life and times of Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan' here on Saturday.

The symposium is being organised by the National Rural Support Programme (NRSP) to highlight the work and achievements of Hameed Khan in the development of the less developed areas.

The symposium will have three sessions each on Saturday and Sunday where experts will dilate on various accomplishments of Hameed Khan.

The symposium will also be addressed by Minister for Environment, Local Government and Rural Development, Umar Asghar Khan and Minister for Education, Social Welfare and Women Development Zubaida Jalal.

A documentary film on the life of Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan will also be presented on the occasion.

Akhtar Hameed Khan is one of Pakistan's most well-known social scientists, who has proved his class by developing rural areas and low-income urban settlements through Komila project in former East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and Orangi Pilot Project in Karachi.

He also wrote the monograph for the department of agricultural economics of the Michigan State University in 1978 and had been a visiting professor at the university. The university also awarded him an honourary LLD.

Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan resigned from Indian Civil Service to devote himself to the well-being of the poor and the downtrodden.

He was also awarded the Sitara-i-Pakistan and again distinguished himself by bagging the Magsaysay Award of the Philippines. APP