PIA Meeting with stakeholders
PIA Policy on donations
Congrats to Prof. Samina Yasmeen and APMA
Best Wishes to Arif Wattoo and Ahmed Yousuf
ISOC Quran Memorisation competition
Business networking lunch
PIA Meeting with stakeholders
PIA Policy on donations
Congrats to Prof. Samina Yasmeen and APMA
Best Wishes to Arif Wattoo and Ahmed Yousuf
ISOC Quran Memorisation competition
Business networking lunch
PIA Meeting with stakeholders
PIA Policy on donations
Congrats to Prof. Samina Yasmeen and APMA
Best Wishes to Arif Wattoo and Ahmed Yousuf
ISOC Quran Memorisation competition
Business networking lunch
Following attack at Jinnah International Airport, Pakistan Army has launched a full scale Operation #Zarbe Azb and like the whole nation Pakistanis in Australia standby its defence force. Our prayers and best wishes are with all those who are on a very important mission to protect their homeland and for their families. This will also lead to a huge number of Internally Displaced Persons in the KPK province and we are ready to support as and when required. The report of the meeting with different stakeholders held last week is also included in the newsletterwhich was attended by a group of community members. Our grant proposal has been successful and City of Melville is our main sponsor for the event on 17 th August to showcase Pakistani culture to be held at Melville Civic Centre. We are currently finalizing the details and the full details will be available as soon as the agreement is signed. We expect that early bird tickets will be up for sale from 10 th July onwards. Finally in less than one week Muslims around the world will be celebrating the holy month of fasting so Ramzan Mubarak to you all. Best Wishes and Stay Safe.
22nd June 2014
Contents: Page 1: From the Desk Page 2: Meeting with Stakeholders PIA Policy on Donations Page 3: Congratulations Page 4: Best Wishes Page 5: ISOC Qirat Competition Page 6: Business networking lunch in Melbourne
46 Kanangra Crescent, Greenwood WA 6024. Ph. 0434841705, pakistanis.in.australia@gmail.com Office bearers President: Dr. Zarrin Siddiqui Secretary: Ms. Fatima Khushnud piasecretary@hotmail.com Treasurer: Ms. Maria Farooq piatreasurer@hotmail.com https://www.facebook.com/groups/paki stanisinaustralia/ Twitter @piainc
Vol.4 Issue 13 Pakistanis in Australia Inc. is an incorporated group to support students and migrants in their settlement and to initiate projects in Australia and Pakistan that promote mutual collaboration between two countries and promote a positive image of Pakistan and Australia. For membership, please submit your details at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YM66H9Q
MEETING WITH STAKEHOLDERS As you all are aware that three young Pakistani students lost their lives on WA roads. All of them have similar profiles under 21, studying for less than a year and died in car crashes. The last incident led the young ones to take some action in order to stop any tragedies in future. PIA therefore contacted various stakeholders and Walter Golmes from Office of Multicultural Interests (OMI) convened a meeting on 12 th June. This meeting was attended by representatives from WA Police, Licensing branch (Department of Transport), Department of Immigration and Border Protection, Department of Consumer Affairs and OMI staff including the newly appointed Executive Director Ms. Rebecca Ball who has an extensive experience of working in South Asian Countries. Following action items were proposed. 1.A clear outline regarding insurance policies offered by different service providers reference OSHC may be developed and this is communicated back home to agents and services so they can suggest the right cover. 2. Development of a stepwise bereavement guide in case a member dies and has no immediate family member around. There is lot of miscommunication happening which leads to mismanagement of a situation that can be easily handled. 3. It is a problem that community at large does not connect to new migrants and students and there is little guidance to newly arrived students. PIA has suggested that we prepare a directory of all the active Pakistani organisations in each state which is available publicly and we are confident that we approach Australia wide to Pakistani organisations to provide the first year of membership free so the new migrants and specially students are part of a wider network right from day one. Pakistani community was represented by Wasif Zia, Syed Naveed and Tamjid Aijazi with Zarrin Siddiqui. We are grateful to OMI and specially to Walter Golmes for their facilitation. PIA POLICY ON DONATIONS FOR FUNERALS AND FAMILY SUPPORT PIA receivesmultiple requests to collect donations especially in the last three cases for the funerals and to support families of the deceased in Pakistan. PIA as an incorporated group cannot endorse any requests for donations to any individuals account. Similarly PIA can only collect donations on someones behalf when the person for whom donations are collected has consented. Similarly it should be very clear that in the case of repatriation of dead body, Pakistan High Commission in Canberra immediately provides support provided it is established that the deceased did not have an insurance cover for repatriation and there is a written request from the immediate family of the deceased in Pakistan. In case of late Khan who passed away recently, the insurance company did not cover the cost and the next of kin did not agree to place the request from the parents despite PIA being ready to facilitate the process. At 3.40 pm on 11 th June, a request was received from the friends of deceased that the funeral company will not release the body unless the amount is paid in full and they are still short of 3
2500$. PIA through an anonymous donor immediately arranged a direct payment to the funeral company. This is all we can do in similar circumstances. INTRODUCING SERVICE BASED LEARNING IN PAKISTAN The project was submitted last Monday for Australia Awards Grant in collaboration with Hamdard University and we will be waiting for the outcome. CONGRATULATIONS Congratulations to PROF. DR. SAMINA YASMEEN on well-deserved Queens Birthday Honour as a recognition for her work. She was awarded a Member (AM) in the General Division, for service to international relations as an academic, adviser and social welfare advocate. The Honour follows a string of recent awards for Professor Yasmeen: in 2012 she was named a Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs and was inducted into the WA Women's Hall of Fame in the centenary year of International Women's Day. In 2011 Professor Yasmeen was recognised with the Sir Ronald Wilson Leadership Award in the 39th annual WA Citizen of the Year Awards. Congratulations to Members of AUSTRALIA PAKISTAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. A motion moved by Dr. Faruqi was passed in NSW parliament recently congratulating the organisation.
Congratulations also to VIREN and DHAVAL for a successful concert by Adnan Sami and SAMRA KHAN for one of the best Ghazal nights in Perth. BEST WISHES Best Wishes to ARIF WATTOO whose research could help achieve greater efficiency in the farming of cotton, Pakistan's most important agricultural commodity. The production of cotton, which accounts for 46 per cent of all of Pakistan's exports, requires excessive water use. In many regions of Pakistan the water tables are rapidly dropping due to excessive pumping of groundwater for irrigation. Arif Watto, who earned his Master's with Honours in Agricultural Extension from the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (UAF), conducted his research across 172 cotton growers in the Punjab province. "The goal was to estimate the level of technical efficiency of groundwater- irrigated cotton farms and to examine the factors which affected that technical efficiency," Mr Watto said. "Research efforts aim to improve efficiency and productivity while making efficient use of the shrinking water resources." Most of the irrigation water is pumped from groundwater mainly through tube-wells operated by electricity or by diesel. Tube-wells are costly to install where water tables are deep, and the costs are likely to increase as the water tables become lower. Cotton farmers without tube-wells - typically tenants or smallholders - engage in groundwater trading. However, since the agreements are informal, water buyers have equity concerns. "Results of the data obtained from 92 growers who owned tube-wells and 80 who bought water indicate considerable technical inefficiencies, although generally the tube-well owners do better in this regard," Mr Watto said. "This may be because tube-well owners have more access to agricultural extension services and other information sources such as the radio, television and newspapers. Farmers who perceive the dangers of extracting too much groundwater are usually more efficient." His study proposes that, on average, tube-well owners could increase cotton production by 19 per cent and water buyers by 28 per cent, without increasing their water use. This could be accomplished by using improved seed for new cotton varieties, having access to better extension services regarding production technology, receiving education about the actual crop water requirements and being made aware of the status of the water tables. "A key policy implication of this study is that water access and entitlements matter in production agriculture, especially in dryland regions like Pakistan," Assistant Professor Amin Mugera, of UWA's School of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Institute of Agriculture, said. "Policies that ensure equity in water access can bridge the difference in technical efficiency among tube-well owners and water buyers." Mr Watto is supported by joint scholarship between UWA and University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF), Pakistan. UWA and UAF have an existing MoU and have been collaborating on research and postgraduate training since 2009. Upon completion of his PhD Mr Watto will return to UAF to take up his Faculty position. Source: UWA
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Best Wishes to AHMAD YOUSUF who is one of the nominees for VET CISA Excellence Awards Category by Council of International Student Australia. If you have not voted for him as yet, please do so immediately as the voting close on Monday. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=728022460576989&set=a.728022407243661.1073741850.3 71672536211985&type=1&theater Best Wishes to FATIMA KHUSHNUD, the secretary of PIA who is off to Rome to present her research and will be on leave for two weeks. RIDA AHMED who is leaving next week for Brisbane to present bid for Asia Pacific Model United Nation to be held in Perth. If successful this will be first time that this important and one of the biggest youth event will be held in Western Australia. Her team is fully supported by the Premier Hon. Collin Barnett and Mayor of Perth Hon. Lisa Scaffodi ISOC QURAN MEMORISATION COMPETITION ISOC is pleased to announce its FIRST QURAN MEMORISATION COMPETITION. All Muslim brothers are invited to participate in this competition. Also, all of you are invited to attend and witness the first Quran memorisation competition in the University of New South Wales. (So for this let the competitors compete) Suratu Al-Mutaffifeen, Ayah 26 [83:26] The competition will comprise of three categories 1. Half Juz' (from Surat Al-Alaa to Surat An-Nas) 2. One Juz' (Juz' 30) 3. Three Juz' (Juz' 28, 29 and 30) Dates and Times of the Competition:The competition will take place at the Square House at UNSW and will be daily from 1 to 3 pm on Saturday, Sunday and Monday (12, 13, 14 July), respectively.
This is a fortnightly newsletter to keep community informed of whats happening in Pakistan and in Australia with a special focus on Western Australia at this time. We acknowledge that this newsletter is disseminated from Noongar land. The earlier issues can be accessed through web by accessing http://www.scribd.com/PIAInc or through the group Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/groups/pakistanisinaustralia. Our Youtube channel can be accessed at https://www.youtube.com/user/PIAChannel1 . You can also follow our twitter account@PIAInc