Oxford Town Hall
Pakistan Youth Leadership Conference (PYLC) is taking place in Oxford University this year, arranged by NUPSA, and hosted by Oxford University Pakistan Society. And I travelled all the way from Newport, South Wales to attend this event. How I reached here is a different story and I might share it on Azlan Ka Blog. Anyhow, on the way I met the delegates who came from Pakistan exclusively for this event. This bus carrying us reached here in oxford at 1:48 pm. All the delegates have been accommodated in YHA. Therefore, the first checkpoint for us was YHA (Youth Hostel), as soon as I got my room, I made my way to it and got ready for the oxford city tour.
A would be Engineer from Oxford university (I have forgotten the name of his college by now); Ali and Student of Physics Noor were our guides in this small tour of this city. This is not a big city, what I can say – it is a university, which has expended itself to accommodate many things, such as a city centre, some clubs, some shopping areas, and other places and notably the 36 colleges in it. Yes, oxford consists of 36 colleges and every college have their own separate system. The detail of this journey might increase the length of this post that might make it quite uninteresting for many. Therefore, I will be sharing the pictures here and will share my views and experience later (most probably on Azlan Ka Blog).
The main event of today was the opening session of PYLC; it took place in the town centre of Oxford city. Right after the tour of the city, we were in the town centre for the opening session. It started a little late, management issues or the chief guests were late whatever the case may be, but I got chance to network and met people. In this whole process, I met Ali Yaqoob and Jabran Rafique for the first time in life though I know them for more than a year.
President of Oxford University Pakistan Society, Ayyaz, and the heads of NUPSA made the opening notes. The chief guests made their speeches next. Mr. Wajid Shams ul Hassan, Pakistani Ambassador to the UK made his speech first, he talked about the role of Pakistanis in the development, natural resources, technical and defence technology achievements, along with the potential that Pakistanis have. His speech was quite predictable and obviously, he mentioned Bhutto and Benazir income support in his speech.
Mr. Faisal Mian, Director of British Pakistani Foundation (BPF) made his speech next; he spoke about the achievements that he and his foundation have made especially with regards to Pakistan’s Flood disaster. The third and last speech was by Mr. Salman the CEO of ARY digital. I found his speech the best among all as he talked about the concept of change and he try to evoke the hope among us. In addition, he also talked about the misconceptions that we have about media. He said:
“If MD of PIA has resigned today it is not the power of media, it is power of people.”
Later on, an interesting skit was presented that was satirical skit about that how a watchman wants to get loan on the behalf of the homeowners. The concept was that how a dictator uses the things around to show that why he is the best choice out there. Later on there was a music session, Jahan Ara, that is the best I know about her, sung some English songs and obviously, I did not get much about it. Next was a band who started with Jeevy jeevay Pakistan, and ended with Dil Dil Pakistan, whereas, in between they presented a beautiful poem by Faiz.
The final round of this session was dinner. Food was awesome and I was not expecting gajar ka halwa to be that Yummy. Along with nice food, it was nice networking session too. Got chance to meet many people most notably all the chief guests, delegates from different places, and Mr Rauf Khalid (Angar Wadi Fame). Mr. Rauf talked about his new project, and I will share the details soon.
The time I am writing this it is half 2 am and I am feeling sleepy and hoping to have an even more splendid day tomorrow. The session today was more awesome then what I expected and now expectations are higher for tomorrow.
It is nice to see that our youth abroad Pakistan is taking part in activities such as PYLC. I wish all the very best and hope that the delegates, and participants attain the aims and objectives of this forum.