KARACHI: The organising committee of the Sindh Madressatul Islam University (SMIU) at a meeting on Thursday finalised all arrangements for the three-day national media conference being held at a local hotel beginning from Feb 3.

The meeting was chaired by SMIU Vice Chancellor Dr Mohammad Ali Sheikh. The participants in the meeting reviewed arrangements for the conference.

Speaking at the meeting, the vice chancellor said that besides inaugural and concluding sessions, there would be seven technical sessions in the conference where prominent media professionals, research scholars, media organisations, academicians and university professors would present their views, research papers and deliver speeches on various subjects relating to the media.

“The inaugural session will be held on Monday at 9am at a local hotel, which will be presided over by distinguished analyst I.A. Rehman. Former information minister Javed Jabbar will be the keynote speaker and SMIU vice chancellor will deliver the welcome address. On the same day, there will be two technical sessions on the subject of media and national integration and contemporary print media. Former federal minister for information and broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira and deputy secretary general of PPP Senator Raza Rabbani will chair the session jointly.

“Senator Afrasiab Khattak, Senator Mir Hasil Khan Bazenjo, Senator Nasreen Jalil, Senator Saeed Ghani and former senator Taj Haider will speak on the occasion. Senior journalist Zubeida Mustafa will chair the session on contemporary print media, while senior faculty member of department of media studies of Institute of Business Management of Karachi Prof Dr Shahida Kazi will be the co-chair. Shazia Shahab Sheikh of the University of Sindh, Aqsa Iram Shahzadi of BZ University of Multan, Nayyara Rehman of FOSWAL Pakistan chapter and Samreen Razi and Nosheen Hussain of SMI University will present their papers.

“On Tuesday, the second day of the conference, Dr Murtaza Jaffery, principal of National College of Arts of Lahore will chair the session on media and art and culture while Durriya Kazi, director of Institute of Audio and Visual Studies of University of Karachi will be the co-chair. On this occasion documentaries prepared by students of the SMI University on historical sites of Sindh will be screened. Sultana Siddiqui, president of Hum TV will be chief guest of the session on trends in electronic media while Ali Kazi, chief executive of KTN and editor of Daily Kawish and Prof Dr Nisar Zubari, department of mass communication of Karachi University will chair the session. Najia Ashar of GEO, Danish Saeed of Express Media Group, Atique Rafique Memon of SZABIST of Karachi and Qurat-ul-ain Farhan and M. Kamil Lakho of the SMI University will be among the speakers.

“On the same day Sarmad Ali, managing director of Jang Group of Karachi will chair the session on media and society while Prof Dr Tahir Masood, chairperson of department of mass communication of Karachi University will be the co-chair. Erum Hafeez Aslam of IBA Karachi, Kamran Ahmed Soomro of Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, China, Zafarullah Khan of Centre for Civic Education, Zulfiqar Qureshi of University of Sindh and Dr Syed Azfar Ali of the SMI University will be among the speakers.

“On Wednesday, Prof Dr S.M. Aqil Burny of College of Computer Science and Information Systems of Institute of Business Management will chair the session on digital media while Prof Dr Shakeel Khoja of the Institute of Business Administration will be the co-chair. Samina Qureshi of Karachi University, Hasan Zuberi of Mensa Pakistan and Rakhshanda Kaukab, Abdul Hafiz, and Zahid Islam of the SMI University will present their papers.

“The seventh and last technical session of the conference will be on regional media with Kazi Asad Abid, chief editor of Daily Ibrat Karachi in the chair. Dr Fahmida Hussain, chairperson of the Sindhi Language Authority Hyderabad will be the co-chair. Taj Joyo, secretary of Sindhi Language Authority Hyderabad, Usman Sathi, chief editor of Vatan (Gujrati newspaper), Muneer Ahmed Baloch, chief editor of Daily Nawa-e-Watan (Balochi newspaper), Zulfiqar Halepoto and Baloch Khan of the SMI University will be among the speakers. On the same day, the concluding session would be held at 2:30pm at the same venue”. —PPI