ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to hold summit of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in befitting manner on 11th of November this year. It would be third summit of the OIC, Pakistan will be hosting. The last summit was first extraordinary summit of the OIC and it was also held during Nawaz Sharif as Prime Minister in March 1997. The slated conference would be addressing the subject of Science and Technology. Highly placed sources told The News here Monday that the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Saudi King, Salman bin Abdel Aziz, President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President Iran Dr Hasan Rouhani, President UAE Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Indonesia President Joko Widodo, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razzak, Qatar’s Emir Shaikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, Egyptian President Field Marshal Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Iraq President Fuad Masum, Algerian President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika, Jordanian King Abdullah II, Kuwait Emir Shaikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jabar Al-Sabah, President Palestine Mahmoud Abbas, Azerbaijan President Ilham Alyev and Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said and Nigeria’s new President Muhammad Buhari have accepted the invitation to attend the summit. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid’s reply is still awaited. Secretary General United Nations Ban Ki-moon will also attend the summit to be held here in Jinnah Convention Centre. The sources said that President Mamnoon Hussain would inaugurate the summit while Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would be the chief guest in the concluding session of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to make befitting arrangements for the summit. An amount of rupees five billion has been allocated to the CDA for the beautification of the federal capital. The Summit on Science & Technology was approved by the Twelfth Session of the OIC held in Cairo in February, 2013. The Summit will be preceded on 9-10 November, 2015 by meetings of the General Assembly and the Executive Committee of COMSTECH. The Summit would review progress in the fields of emerging sciences and technologies and also approve recommendations for the period 2016-25 that require more emphasis. The observers are of the view that science and technology will play a critical role in addressing contemporary challenges of development across multiple dimensions including poverty alleviation, better health, preservation of the environment, and ensuring food, water, and energy security, today and in the years to come. Knowledge and critical thinking, of which science and technology are the most visible symbols, will be key drivers of change, not just in terms of economic growth and development, but all in human enterprise in this century, which includes creating change and managing the tools for change, the said. With this view, COMSTECH has prepared a working documents after extensive consultations over seven weeks in different fields with 157 scientists and technologists drawn from twenty Member States and as well as the EU and USA. Based on these consultations and advice, recommendations have been prepared and included in the Summit working document, which has been further refined after receiving comments from member states and various OIC standing committees and organs. These cover the basic sciences, biotechnology, chemical sciences, plasma physics, lasers and photonics, energy, climate change, astronomy, space, oceanography, earth sciences, cyber security and managing of big data, high performance computing centers and consortia for laboratory teaching equipment, etc, the sources added. The recommendations so formulated would form part of the Islamabad Declaration which will reaffirm the political and financial commitments of member states and thus lead to building collective competence and sharing of expertise. The member states will be at the heart of the implementation process which will be executed by a Steering Committee comprise country experts as well as various OIC organs and the IDB. Timelines, costs and key performance indicators (KPI) have been drawn up.
