Training programme launched for fresh pharmacy graduates

Announcing the launch of the Bano Qabil Pharmacists programme to enhance the capacity of fresh pharmacy graduates, Al-Khidmat on Saturday said they are going to establish 200 more pharmacies across Karachi to provide quality medicines on subsidised rates to residents and to provide employment to as many pharmacists as possible.

The announcement was made by Jamaat-e-Islami Karachi chief Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman while addressing the launching ceremony of the Bano Qabil Pharmacists programme at a local hotel.

Under the programme, fresh graduates of pharmacy will be offered free technology-based courses to enable them to enhance their skills in the field and make them valuable in the pharmaceutical industry.

Rehman also announced the establishment of an IT university in the city under the JI’s welfare and social development arm, Al-Khidmat, following its Bano Qabil programme.

The Bano Qabil programme is a youth education initiative aimed at empowering Karachi’s youngsters through latest technologies by offering them 100 free advanced IT courses to prepare them for employment and freelancing.

“Our first batch of Bano Qabil has already graduated, and many of them are now in the field. During the last one and a half years since we envisaged this idea, we’ve realised this city and its youngsters have immense potential,” said the JI chief.

“But majority of the youngsters can’t afford quality education because public universities don’t offer quality education any more, while the private ones are just too expensive,” he lamented.

“So we, under the banner of Al-Khidmat, are going to set up an advanced IT university in Karachi which will offer quality education for nominal fees, while a major percentage of the students will be offered scholarships.”

He said that over 117,000 male and female youngsters took the entry test for the second batch of Bano Qabil last month, and courses for those who qualified would begin very soon.

He also said that after meeting industry people and field experts, he and the Al-Khidmat team decided to start a separate Bano Qabil programme for fresh pharmacy graduates to address the needs of the pharmaceutical industry and the employment needs of the young graduates.

“We have faith in the abilities of our youth. We have 6.5 million people here in our city who are aged between 14 and 25 years, and 40 to 50 per cent of them are educated. They’re our assets. We’ll empower them.”

The IT courses in Bano Qabil 2.0 have been increased from the six courses that were offered in Bano Qabil 1.0 to 15 courses, resulting in a two-year diploma.

Syed Jamshed Ahmed, director pharmacy of Al-Khidmat, shared the brief details of the Bano Qabil Pharmacists programme, explaining how the young trained graduates under the initiative would help reform the basic needs of the health system.

“Currently there are 11 pharmacies of Al-Khidmat in Karachi which are offering medicines at very nominal rates. Only last month we sold medicines worth Rs550 million from these 11 pharmacies,” said Ahmed.

“This reflects the need for more such facilities that can help the poor, lower and lower-middle classes so they can meet their crucial health related needs. So we’re hoping to expand our network and set up some 200 pharmacies across Karachi over the next few years.”

Al-Khidmat CEO Naveed Baig said people have so much faith in the welfare activities of Al-Khidmat that well before an appeal for the collection of donations for the people of Gaza, they have started sending in donations, adding that Al-Khidmat has been working in the occupied territory for the past several years.

Representatives of the local pharmaceutical industry, including Tauqeer-ul-Haq, Shaikh Qaiser Waheed and PharmEvo Managing Director Haroon Qassim, said they are looking for trained and qualified graduates to work for them in their factories as well as in sales and marketing teams.

They said the Bano Qabil Pharmacists programme would not only provide the required workforce to the local pharmaceutical industry but would also help overcome unemployment in the city.

Pakistan Society of Health-System Pharmacists President Abdul Lateef Shaikh, National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases Chief Pharmacist Jibran Yousuf, Umaima Muzammil and others also spoke on the occasion.