The Memon Medical Institute (MMI) will be extended with a nursing school. This and other good news was announced at a reception on Sunday held to honour notable members of the Memon community.
It is up to people in top positions of the corporate sector, particularly the Memon community, to improve the social sector, urged Arif Habib, the chief guest at the reception hosted by the Memon Recognition and Reception Council at the Arts Council of Pakistan. People were awarded shields in recognition of their services in public social welfare programmes. Author Usman Batliwala conducted the reception while Ahmed Jaffer Kolia gave a welcome address.
“Offering entrepreneurship opportunities to the youth is better than giving them alms and charity,” said Habib. “I am optimistic about the country’s future, provided that we fight corruption and give the people standard health and education.”
The Kings group of companies chairman, Abdul Aziz Memon, chose the forum to bring up the fact that Pakistan does not have a paediatric cardiac surgery facility.Two hundred children require cardiac surgery each year.
He said that the different groups in the community that are offering medical services should collaborate with other Memon philanthropists and establish a facility to avoid replication and wasting time.
MMI founder and Gatron Company chairman Pir Muhammad Deewan estimated the cost of sending the children to India for paediatric cardiac surgery at Rs400 million a year. The MMI, however, makes the surgery available at home.
Abdul Majeed Abdani, an educationist, said that being a Memon was once a humorous social stereotype. Today, their dedicated services to social services have proven they are more than that.
“The Urdu critics and intellectuals have recognised the Memon community’s role in the propagation of Urdu,” he said. “The Arts Council of Pakistan did not have any Memon members previously, but now there are 550 of them.”
Zakaria Bawani, Amir Tasty, Abdul Ghaffar Saboon Wala, Muhammad Younus Bagsra, Jaffer Kolia, Siddique Polani, Mehmood Parekh, Bashir Jan Muhammad, English Biscuit Manufacturers Executive Director Haji Abdul Ghaffar Katya, Haji Kasum Khahani, Dr Sharif Hashmani, Shoaib Ismail Mangrolia and ARY’s Razzaq Gandhi were among the notables who attended the reception.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 30th, 2011.
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