Rawalpindi-Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi (PMAS-AAUR) organized a northern budgerigar and cockatiel show yesterday with an aim to create awareness about the birds and remove misconceptions among students and general public.

The event was organized by PMAS-AAUR in collaboration with Northern Budgerigar Cockatiel Club and Department of Wildlife.

Vice Chancellor (VC) Prof Dr Rai Niaz Ahmad was the chief guest on the occasion in which budgerigar, cockatiel were put for the entertainment and awareness of public. A large number of people, including families, children, faculty members and students visited the show to watch more than 1000 birds that were displayed at the show.

Prof Dr Rai Niaz Ahmad while addressing said that birds not only add beauty to the environment but also have a positive impact on the moods of the people.  He said that such activities also made the minds of students healthy and fresh. He further added that Pakistan is suitable for producing birds but little attention had been paid to this sector so far.

He also appreciated the efforts of organizers for holding such an event to increase awareness among the people and students regarding the significance of birds.  Earlier, chief guest along with others had a round of show and saw the Budgerigar & Cockatiel arrangements of different participants.

Participants of the show also provide the information to the visitors, who wanted to adopt this as a profession regarding proper care of the birds, handling, nutrition, reproduction, diseases, selection of breed, maintenance and to establish standard birds.

Bushra Allah Rakha, a lecturer of the university, said that she is glad to be here in the bird show.

A panel comprising of specialists from universities and other institutions headed by Kees Bink from Netherland performed the duty to judge the show in a fair manner. At the closing ceremony, VC Prof Dr Rai Niaz Ahmad also distributed prizes among the winners of the show.

CCP holds seminar on competition law and policy at COMSATS

 Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) held a seminar at the COMSATS Institute of Science and Technology in which the participants including faculty members and students of management sciences, economics and law were briefed on various aspects of the competition law and policy. The seminar was held as part of the national campaign, ‘Competition Advocacy Academia Drive’, started by CCP to create awareness of the Competition Law among the students and faculty members of the universities.

The seminar at COMSATS was attended by the faculty members and students of university in large numbers. Afia Kamran, senior member of the Faculty of Law welcomed the guests while Dr Muhammad Tahir, Head of Department Management Sciences COMSATS in his speech appreciated the advocacy campaign for academia.

He said academia can benefit from that Competition Law which has emerged as an important discipline.

Dr Shahzad Ansar, Member Office of Fair Trade (OFT) and Advocacy, in his remarks urged the need for active collaboration between CCP and academia for creating awareness of the competition law. To strengthen the awareness, the CCP has developed a 16-week module on “Economics and Competition Law, which the CCP hopes to become part of the syllabus of various universities, he said.

The presentations by CCP included an animation on Competition Law, a brief overview of the evolution of Competition Policy and Law worldwide by Ahmed Qadir, the Director General Competition Policy and Research and International Affairs CCP, an outline of the Pakistan’s Competition Law by Syed Umair Javed, the Registrar and Director Legal CCP, and an interesting presentation on the role of the Office of Fair Trade (OFT) in curbing deceptive marketing practices by Dr Shahzad Ansar, Member CCP.

In the interactive session, the students and faculty members asked various queries relating to the Competition Law, which were responded by the Commission’s team.

In a detailed meeting held following the seminar, the CCP officials and COMSATS faculty members discussed the prospects of future collaboration for creating awareness and adopting the CCP’s Module in the syllabus of the university.