Panel Discussion Session

Dr. Zehra Habib
She has a Ph.D. in Education from George Mason University, USA, where she received a dissertation fellowship award in 2011 for conducting research in Pakistan regarding underprivileged women’s participation in peace in the country. She also holds a Master’s in TESOL from American University, USA. Besides, she has a Master’s in English Literature from the University of Karachi, Pakistan. She has three decades of teaching experience and is the recipient of an academic excellence award in 2003 from the Governor of Sindh. Her focus is specifically on gender, relating to the prevention of violence against women. Of specific interest to her are women, peace and security issues, and women’s contribution to peace, both in the Pakistani and international contexts.

Dr. Kathryn Richardson
She is Professor of Language Education, Head of the Language Centre Department, and Head of the School of Languages, Linguistics and Film (SLLF), one of the eight schools in the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences at Queen Mary University of London. As a specialist in education, Kathryn serves on a number of Queen Mary committees which aim to improve student engagement, student experience and student success and exerts influence on the education policies and strategies across the University.

Dr. Arfa Sayeda Zehra
She is a Pakistani educationist and Urdu language expert. She is Professor of History, with over 50 years of teaching and research experience in various institutions in Pakistan; member of History faculty at FCCU since August 2009; served as visiting faculty member at Lahore University of Management Sciences, National College of Arts, National School of Public Policy, National Institute of Management, Government of Pakistan. Her research interests lie in the areas of Historical Analysis and Critique, Human Rights, Gender Literature and Social issues.

Dr. Huma Baqai
Prof. Dr. Huma Baqai is the Rector of Millennium Institute of Technology and Entrepreneurship, Karachi. She has previously served as an Associate Professor of Social Sciences & Liberal Arts, and was also former Associate Dean, Faculty of Business Administration, at IBA Karachi. She has been working with both national and international media as an international relations expert and political analyst since 1999.

Dr. Tariq Rahim Soomro
He is a Professor of Computer Science, Dean at College of Computer Science & Information Systems, and Acting Rector at Institute of Business Management. He has served as Coordinator, Head of Department, Head of Faculty, Dean of Faculty, Head of Academic Affairs, Acting Rector and having wide experience in accreditation related matters, including ABET, HEC Pakistan and Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, United Arab Emirates (UAE). His Research focus on GIS, IDNs, Distance Education, E-Commerce, Multimedia, UNICODE, WAP, P2P, Bioinformatics, ITIL, Cloud Computing, Green Computing, Big Data, IoT, Cybersecurity, Quality of Software, Telemedicine, VoIP, Databases, Programming and Higher Education. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers.

Dr. Amanat Ali Jalbani
Prof Dr Jalbani is currently working as a Vice Chancellor at Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University, Benazir Abad/Nawabshah. He has been the Advisor (Academic and Research) to the President as well as the Director of ORIC & OGS at IoBM, Krachi. His career spans over more than 30 years of experience related to higher education leadership and management, tertiary level teaching and research, publishing diverse research work at national and international level, academic administration and business consultation in both public and private domains. Previously, worked as a Faculty Member at ITU CA, San-Jose, CA (w.e.f 2014), Dean Management Sciences, and Vice President Academics, at SZABIST Karachi, Sindh w.e.f 2002 to 2014.

Mr. Ghulam Akbar Laghari
He is a Secretary Education & Literacy Department, government of Sindh Pakistan. He has authored many books about history of Sindhi literature and criticism. His books Sindhi Adabi Jo Mukhtasir Jaezo, Falsafey Ji Mukhtasir Tareekh, it’s Urdu version Falsafey Ki Mukhtasir Tareekh and Adabi Tanqeed ki Tareekh can be counted as his main literary contribution. He serves as chairperson of Sindhi Language Authority, Hyderabad as well as secretary of Culture, Tourism and Antiquity department of Sindh.

Dr. Sajid Ali
He is the Director, Research and Publications; and Associate Professor at AKUIED. The thematic focus of Dr Sajid’s research revolves around the issues of education policy, governance and leadership. He is keenly interested in leadership processes; policy development and implementation processes; and changing forms of educational governance involving multiple stakeholders. He pursues a mixed-methods strand of educational research and has carried out several qualitative research studies, surveys and evaluations.

Ms. Sadaf Anees Shaikh
She is a career civil servant from Pakistan Administrative Services having more than 20 years of experience in public administration, public finance & budgeting, and development sector including education. She has also worked on poverty reduction programs and was amongst the pioneering team who launched the Education Management Organizations model evolved under the Sindh Basic Education Program of the USAID under the Public-Private Partnership law of the Government of Sindh. Ms. Sadaf Anees Sheikh also possesses a rich experience of working with the Federal Board of Revenue, Pakistan and has served in different provinces of the country.
Presently, she is working as the Deputy Managing Director (Operations) at Sindh Education Foundation and handles the largest portfolio of Public-Private Partnership schools in Sindh having more than 840,000 enrollments through around 1200 partners operating some 2700 schools / centers in Sindh. She has also been overseeing the portfolio of Training and Assessment and Advocacy and Communications at SEF. Under her auspices, the Training Unit has organized training programs for more than 5000 teachers and school administrators in the last year alone, while the Assessment Unit has conducted assessment of around 120,000 students in the past year.