Bigwigs feature at ‘A World of Tomorrow’ event

LAHORE

The second day of “A World of Tomorrow: Seeking Inspiration and Equilibrium in a New Age”—a Beaconhouse School of Tomorrow (SOT) event—on Saturday featured bigwigs from politics, entertainment world, and influential personalities in the field of education and arts.

Speaking at one of the panel discussions, Federal Minister of Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal reaffirmed his hope for a bright future and mentioned some of the projects the government had initiated as part of its vision for the future. 

Ahsan Iqbal termed commitment and strong determination prerequisite to materialise dreams into reality. Saying that Pakistan has a lot of potential, the federal minister observed that stability and continuity were essential for ensuring development in the country. 

Earlier, the day began with a conversation with celebrity Fawad Khan who as a guest speaker was warmly welcomed by a huge crowd.

This was followed by simultaneous panel discussions and talks on topics ranging from entrepreneurship to children’s health, parenting, history and challenges vis-à-vis out-of-school children, globalisation and the arts, sports, media engagement and safety in schools etc. Addressing the jam-packed hall, Fawad Khan underscored the need for the younger generation to experience and understand life by reading and traveling instead of relying on social media, which he termed a “Virtual Hyde Park.”

He also announced that he would be returning to music soon. Another popular session was one in which FS Ijaz-ud-Din had a candid one-to-one conversation with former Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar in an engaging blend of personal and political. She touched upon topics from Zarb-e-Azab and CPEC to the recent furor over Donald Trump’s opinion and the American elections. 

In a session entitled, “Language and Identity: Hamari Zuban Hamari Pehchan”  eminent writer and poet Amjad Islam Amjad strongly spoke about the use of Roman characters for writing in Urdu and pleaded to the government to replace English with Urdu in Pakistan as the language of social media.

Besides the main venue Royal Palm Golf and Country Club, there were concurrent sessions at three other venues, including a foreign film festival at Beaconhouse-Newlands, a Hackathon at TNS Beaconhouse and the Heritage Awareness Programme workshop at the Beaconhouse Liberty Campus. The event was attended by a large number of people who participated enthusiastically in the various sessions. Speakers included eminent national and international speakers who spoke passionately about their areas of expertise.  Today (Sunday) will be the final day of this three-day event. The event is free and open to the public.