Let’s make knowledge fashionable: Aleema
dubai — There is no shortage of talent available across Pakistan, but what is missing is a centre of excellence where knowledge can be shared and turned into longterm sustainable business ideas, says Aleema Khanum, board member of the Namal Education Foundation and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s sister.
Speaking to Khaleej Times in an exclusive interview, Khanum looked back on the journey that saw the creation of Namal College and its evolution towards Imran’s vision of a knowledge city.
“We set up the Namal Education Foundation because of Imran Khan’s vision,” she said.
“He had been saying for many years that he wanted to set up a knowledge city; he felt that what Pakistan lacked was a centre of excellence, where you can do research and bring people and knowledge together,” Khanum said.
“In the beginning, I don’t think that we were even aware that we lacked this element. We felt that we already had several excellent universities across Pakistan, which created students who are able to make it anywhere in the world. But, this is exactly what he was talking about; the fact that students felt that they had to leave for places such as the UK or Canada for their higher education.” Khanum reminisced on the challenges that came with gathering support for the idea. “We noticed that people were so involved in supporting charities that target primary health and primary education, that by the time they looked at higher education, they were exhausted in their support. We realised that we had to make knowledge fashionable — unless it is fashionable, people are not going to respond to it,” she said.
Knowledge, she noted, is not a building; it is the wealth that is found in a person’s mind. “It is a great source of pride for me to say that Pakistan has a wealth of knowledge, to the point that we are one of the most enterprising nations in the world; what was missing was a platform for all this knowledge to come together.”
This is where the evolution of the concept into Namal Knowledge City began, she revealed. “It has been 10 years of learning for us. First, Namal was a college, and then we thought of it as a university, before we decided on a knowledge city. Then we realised that a knowledge city was a centre of learning that would be around for hundreds of years,” Khanum said.
“Our planning and targets have evolved from 10 years to 20 years to 200 years. It is difficult to imagine what the Knowledge City will look like at the end of those 200 years because it is beyond our lifetime,” she said, adding: “While we have set very ambitious targets for ourselves, we know that we have to leave behind a legacy and we need people to continue on this legacy,”.
Khanum said that the immediate target in the next 10-15 years is to build a strong membership base. She hopes to see the membership hit the 100,000 mark in her life-
It is a great source of pride for me to say that Pakistan has a wealth of knowledge, to the point that we are one of the most enterprising nations in the world; what was missing was a platform for all this knowledge to come together
We set up the Namal Education Foundation because of Imran Khan’s vision. Imran felt that what Pakistan lacked was a centre of excellence, where you can do research and bring people and knowledge together
Aleema Khanum, Board member of the Namal Education Foundation
time. At $100 per year, the membership fees, which mainly go into the college’s operational expenses, have been hailed as being sustainable.
“We must not take the scholarships away from the students, because the whole concept of Namal is that any student, with incredible talent, on their merit, is given admission,” Khanum stressed.
“We realise that as we increase the number of students, the scholarship fund will be stretched to the point that we might have to reduce the number of scholarships; obviously, we don’t want this to happen because we then lose access to the incredible talent that we have seen.” Namal Knowledge City will
be a platform with a focus on teaching as well as business ,” she said
“Food security is a global issue and governments have put it at the top of their agendas,” Khanum noted.
“In line with this, Imran Khan has said that new housing developments will not be built on our precious agricultural land. It is our responsibility to ensure that issues such as water pollution are tackled. We have some excellent agricultural universities in Pakistan that have a wealth of knowledge in terms of research. What we need to do is take this knowledge and turn it into a sustainable business model for the future,” she added.