Kamal Mian, Director Fast Cables, accompanied by Anwar Murad, Head of Human Resources, signed two Memorandums of Understanding with the Vice Chancellor of LUMS, Dr. Arshad Ahmad on May 3, 2019. Other members present at the meeting were Dr. Shahid Masud, Dean of Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering; Dr. Tariq Mahmood Jadoon, Associate Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and representatives of the Office of Development—Imran Nadeem, Ahmad Saad Qureshi and Zainab Tayyab.
Fast Cables has been sponsoring an excellence award for the highest performing, graduating student since 2017 in order to appreciate their efforts, and encourage other students to also aim for excellence. With this award, the organisation aims to encourage the study of engineering as this will bring change within the industry and also within Pakistan, fulfilling the dire need of skilled engineers in the country. Furthermore, the organisation also wants to support the LUMS National Outreach Programme (NOP), since they feel it is an exemplary model and has been replicated by some universities including Akhuwat University. Mr. Mian shared that he wants to support one NOP scholar in the upcoming year in order to help the students and their communities.
Dr. Ahmad added that the NOP is very extensive, covering up to 162 cities in outreach activities and supporting close to 100 scholars every year. Mr. Mian was very interested in knowing more about this programme, as well as the research and development (R&D) initiatives that LUMS is currently undertaking.
Speaking about his organisation, Mr. Mian shared that their interest lay specifically in the CCV line plants, since they are the first of their kind in Pakistan, introduced by Fast Cables. He added that the majority of the world's population has long shifted to CCV line plants, which shows that massive efforts towards R&D are currently needed in order to uphold Pakistan’s standards as compared to the rest of the world. It was unanimously decided that Fast Cables and LUMS should meet and think of new ideas that can be implemented, so the Pakistani industry could also develop itself.
The ceremony concluded with the signing of two MoUs and it was decided that the Fast Cable Excellence Award will be distributed during the Dean's Honours List Ceremony. Towards the end, Mr. Mian commented on how LUMS and Fast Cables should continue collaborating in order to build a consortium within the industry, in order to bring a change that can be beneficial for the country.
