Islamabad: Former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said education sector should be main focus of commercial organisations willing to invest in community development in Pakistan under their corporate social responsibility goals.

Addressing 16th Annual CSR Summit and Awards-2024 organised by National Forum for Environment and Health (NFEH) he said companies under their CSR obligations should invest to spread education, improve quality of education and build education systems in country as their top priorities.

“Companies under their CSR drives could do lot to improve education sector in Pakistan while keeping in mind latest technological innovations being adopted globally including artificial intelligence,” he said.

He lamented that capacity of public sector organisations had been phenomenally squeezed to practice CSR due to bad shape of national economy and related issues like circular debt. He said government was under an obligation to provide an enabling environment with improved economic conditions to let companies grow their businesses. High Commissioner of Sri Lanka in Pakistan Admiral Ravindra C Wijegunaratne said deserving Pakistanis becoming top beneficiaries of his country’s global welfare initiative of eye cornea donation after death stood as testament to exemplary friendship ties between two nations.

He said that out of 88,000 eye cornea donated by people of Sri Lanka, some 35,000 were used to benefit Pakistani people having impaired vision showing strong bond between two countries.  He appreciated unwavering support Sri Lanka received from Pakistan during its years-long deadly civil war that went long way in keeping his country intact. Ambassador of Denmark to Pakistan Jakob Linulf shared with audience Danish success story of effectively tapping renewable energy sources in country to decrease its reliance on fossil fuels for power production. He said that Danish companies took with them same vision of protecting environment and fighting issue of climate change when they went overseas to do business.

Danish companies stood for protecting health of employees and their families in best possible manner in pursuance of their CSR principles.

He said companies from Denmark also did their best to promote cause of women’s empowerment as they were equal opportunity employers no matter where they operate in world. Speaker of Azad, Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly Chaudhry Latif Akbar said CSR initiatives by corporate sector could go long way in promoting causes of community uplift, poverty alleviation, environmental protection and slowing down phenomenon of climate change to serve needy people in Azad Kashmir.

He said CSR initiatives should address issues of deforestation, environmental damage and climate change that have threatened survival and livelihoods of vulnerable communities in hilly north of Pakistan. MNA Nafisa Shah called for adopting legal framework to formalise CSR initiatives in Pakistan. She assured audience that relevant standing committees of new house of National Assembly would hold formal hearings to encourage and promote CSR work in Pakistan. NFEH President Naeem Qureshi said CSR summit organised every year went long way in promoting causes of community uplift, reforestation, poverty alleviation, skill development, healthcare and educational projects for deprived people. He urged corporate sector to combine their CSR resource and initiatives to serve underprivileged communities in best possible manner. NFEH General Secretary Ruqiya Naeem and Vice-President Nadeem Ashraf also spoke.

Published in The Daily National Courier, March, 12 2024

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