His Excellency Dr. Omar Zakhilwal, the Ambassador of Afghanistan to Pakistan, visited LUMS on April 6, 2017. The Ambassador was welcomed by Prof. Dr. S. Sohail H. Naqvi, Vice Chancellor LUMS and Ms. Sarah Karim, Manager Marketing and Communications, LUMS.
Dr. Naqvi welcomed Dr. Zakhilwal and talked about the long term association of LUMS with Afghanistan and how it has evolved over the years. They also discussed the Afghanistan Scholarship Programme (ASP), an exclusive scholarship for talented Afghan students to study at LUMS in its undergraduate and graduate programmes. This scholarship is a partnership with the Afghanistan government, which allows the best and brightest Afghani students to gain admission to LUMS on merit, with the support of the Afghan government.
This initiative, ASP is the result of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed on February 2015 between LUMS and the government of Afghanistan, which was announced by H.E. President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani during his first visit to Pakistan.
Later, a tour of the campus took place, which included a visit to the Gad & Birgit Rausing Library, the Rausing Executive Development Centre (REDC), and the Syed Maratab Ali Sports Complex covering the Coca-Cola LUMS Aquatic Centre.
The visit was led by a talk delivered by His Excellency, Dr. Zakhilwal on Pakistan Afghanistan relationship at the LUMS Model United Nations (LUMUN) Ambassadors Forum. The forum was an interactive session, which highlighted the emerging trends and future prospects of Pak-Afghan relations.
