Latest news with #Saleem
Business Recorder
2 hours ago
- General
- Business Recorder
Communicable diseases: Need for collaboration to create awareness stressed
ISLAMABAD: The Director General (DG) Health of Federal Directorate of Immunization (FDI) has stressed the need for close collaboration between the government agencies and the civil society organisations (CSOs) to create awareness on various communicable viral diseases including poliovirus. Speaking at an event, Dr Shabana Saleem, DG Health FDI here on Tuesday said that SCOs engagement will help bridge remaining gaps in routine immunisation coverage, especially in remote and underserved areas through advocacy, demand generation, and service delivery. The meeting marked the beginning of a transformative phase in Pakistan's Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), highlighting the significant role CSOs can play in reaching underserved populations. Dr Saleem welcomed representatives from CSOs, partner organisations, and the EPI community, expressing gratitude to Gavi, Mannion Daniels (MD), Oxford Policy Management (OPM), and the 17 selected CSOs from all the four provinces for their commitment and participation. 'CSOs bring community trust, local knowledge, and grassroots presence, making them essential partners in strengthening our immunisation programme,' said Dr Saleem. These CSOs will play a pivotal role in identifying 'zero-dose' children, mobilising communities, and extending EPI services where they are needed most. The CSOs will operate as a vital extension of national and provincial EPI systems. Federal and provincial governments' leadership in CSO engagement exemplifies how strategic collaboration can drive higher immunisation coverage. Through the government's strong commitment to work closely with CSOs at the provincial level, the immunisation programme will be further strengthened to reach more children, especially those that have proven hardest to reach, stated Carrie Madison Gheen, Senior Country Manager, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Karen Stephenson, Team Lead for the CSO Fund Manager Mechanism at Mannion Daniels stated: 'We are delighted that thanks to the collaboration with the FDI and Provincial partners, a diverse range of civil society organizations are now able to support Pakistan's efforts to increase immunization coverage. Civil society organizations will be able to deliver meaningful results together with the communities they work in.' Under Gavi's CSO Fund Manager Mechanism, Mannion Daniels and Oxford Policy Management are responsible for delivering fund management services. To date, this has involved a rigorous independent shortlisting and due diligence process including consultation with federal and provincial EPI leadership. This resulted in the selection of 17 CSOs to support immunisation efforts across Pakistan. Following this shortlisting and selection process, the CSO Fund Manager Mechanism in Pakistan now enters the grant implementation phase. At this point, Dr Saleem emphasised the importance of coordination between CSOs, the FDI, Provincial EPIs, and development partners. 'Clear KPIs and robust monitoring frameworks will guide this initiative to ensure transparency, accountability, and measurable results,' she stated. 'I urge all CSO partners to embrace this responsibility with integrity and commitment.' Dr Saleem thanked all participants for their dedication. 'Together, let's make this partnership a model of how governments and civil society can work hand in hand to ensure every child in Pakistan receives life-saving vaccines, regardless of geography or background.' Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Entrepreneur
a day ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
What Does Purpose Bring to the Table That Strategy Can't?
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. I didn't set out to build a startup. I just wanted to buy an apartment and not feel like I was getting hustled by agents with their own agendas. It was the spring of 2022, and I was ready to purchase my second investment unit. Property prices had started to rebound after Covid-19, and I was ready to pounce — but I couldn't see the forest for the trees. Licensing rules had loosened post-Covid, and it felt like every other person in Dubai had become a property agent overnight. On top of that, a massive surge in fake listings on property portals made the search experience so disorienting that even I, born and raised in Dubai, felt like I'd just landed in the city. According to Khaleej Times, 54% of readers on a poll with over 2,800 responses experienced bait-and-switch tactics with real estate agents. At the same time, my now co-founders Saleem and Nicole were facing similar issues. Saleem, a friend who I'd met in London, was moving to Dubai from Abu Dhabi for a legal gig, and he ran into the same pain points trying to rent an apartment. We sat down with my sibling Nicole, who was always passionate about real estate, and thought: How can we use our experience to simplify this journey? That question soon became Sakani, and the three of us became co-founders. Those early frustrations with unlicensed agents and fake listings weren't just personal — they revealed a systemic problem. And from that problem came our purpose. We didn't want to build just another property portal. We wanted to reimagine the experience of interacting with listings and agents — one grounded in trust and transparency. Those two values still guide us today. So what does purpose bring to the table that strategy can't? Here's what we learned. Related: How Defining Your Purpose Can Help Attract the Right Clients, Build Culture and Drive Success 1. Fuel — For when your plan breaks down There will be decisive moments in your startup journey — the kind where a major obstacle forces you to choose: climb, go around or give up entirely. The strength of your purpose plays a big part in which path you take. I remember one of those moments clearly during Sakani's beta launch. The property platform space had a reputation, littered with false starts and fizzled-out promises. Investors were wary. The industry was skeptical. We were the new kids on the block, daring to try again. The easy path would have been to walk away, and many expected us to. But our purpose — to transform the real estate experience — became our fuel. According to Harvard Business Review, purpose plays two important strategic roles: redefine a company's playing field and reshape their value proposition — and that's exactly what we did. What started as a mission to clean up listings is evolving into a growth engine for brokerages — saving time, reducing costs and freeing teams to focus on quality over chaos. 2. Empathy — To understand your customers better Empathy is one of the most powerful tools in your startup toolkit. In our early days, we ran design thinking workshops with a few of our personas, but we were missing a key one: the real estate agent. I remember our early attempts to map their pain points. We tried, but we'd barely scratched the surface. Thankfully, purpose kept us moving. We were determined to understand this persona on a deeper level. So we built real relationships, asked better questions and ran more workshops. It was like the iceberg that sank the Titanic — what we could see was only a fraction of what lay beneath. Understanding our customers helped us understand how to serve them better. And when you start adding real value, success becomes a low-hanging fruit. Related: Why Empathy is Crucial to Your Success in the Business World 3. Clarity — For when decisions get muddy As a founder, you make 100 decisions a day — some small, some big and some you can't walk back. We've already faced thousands: defining our strategy, choosing what to build, figuring out who belongs on the team or what to include in a pitch deck. To make those calls effectively, you need clarity, and clarity comes from purpose. After I pitched at the first REES event — an initiative launched by the Dubai Land Department to develop a global roadmap for real estate technology — I met a lot of local and international peers over coffee. One of them offered an API, packed with listings scraped from another platform. I asked them just one question: Will my customers trust me if I take their listings without their consent? I stuck to our core values — trust and transparency — because that was the very problem we set out to solve. Startups are messy. Strategy changes, markets shift and plans fall apart. But purpose, when it's real, holds. It's what gives you the resilience to keep building when things go sideways. It sharpens your decision-making when the options blur. And it's what turns customers into believers and teammates into true co-builders. So if you're in the thick of building, don't start with what you're building. Start with why. Then keep coming back to it. Because in a world full of pivots, pressure and noise, purpose is what cuts through.
The Hindu
3 days ago
- The Hindu
Karnataka: State police chief asks personnel to refrain from random vehicle checks
The new State police chief, M.A. Saleem, on Saturday, issued directions to police personnel across the State to refrain from random vehicle checks without valid reasons. In the circular issued on Saturday, May 31, he cited two cases - a toddler being killed and a couple injured while trying to avoid random checks by traffic police in Mandya on May 26 and another incident from Davangere where a constable was mowed down by a speeding goods vehicle in an attempt to skip being caught during a random check on May 13. He said in both incidents, traffic police had failed to take preventive and precautionary measures during checks endangering their own personal safety and also safety of motorists. Mr. Saleem directed the traffic police to check only if they come across visible violations and refrain from confronting and trying to stop vehicles moving fast. He directed the officials on traffic duty not to stop speeding vehicles on highways and, in case of inspection drives, to 'use reflective rubber cones 100-150 metres away, so the vehicles have ample time to slow down'. He also barred the use of zigzag barricades for enforcement, pulling the rider or pillion rider from the bike while they are on it or taking away the vehicle keys. He also directed the law and order policemen to try and limit holding nakabandi on highways and to use the help of traffic policemen wherever needed. Traffic policemen are required to wear reflective jackets during checks and use LED batons in the evenings and nights, he further said. 'Body worn cameras should be compulsorily worn during physical vehicle inspection, and the special drives should be carried in the well lit areas,' Mr. Saleem added. Referring to contactless enforcement, Mr. Saleem directed the traffic policemen not to chase vehicles violating norms but to note down the registration numbers and inform the necessary control rooms. In zones where traffic management centres of Intelligent Traffic Management Systems (ITMS) are established, he advised the policemen to use contactless enforcement through ITMS.
Express Tribune
4 days ago
- Express Tribune
Armed marauders out to loot sacrificial animals
The snatching of sacrificial animals at gunpoint continues unchecked in the plagued by crime. As if wails of people for being robbed of cell phones and motorcycles were not enough, the robbers have now taken up hauling away hundreds and thousands rupees worth of cows, bulls, goat and sheep. In a similar incident which laid bare the performance of law enforcers, gun totting robbers looted a rickshaw, three sheep, and a mobile phone from a man who had raised the animals at his home with the hope of making profit from sale on Eidul Azha. Muhammad Rashid Saleem , a barber, was left devastated from the heist on the main road near Aisha Manzil within the limits of Azizabad police station late on Thursday night. Police have registered a case and started an investigation. Saleem, a resident of FC Area Liaquatabad, told police that he occasionally buys and sells sheep for Eidul Azha to supplement his income. On May 29, after finishing his work near Pyala Hotel, he was heading home in his rickshaw with three sheep when four armed men on two motorcycles intercepted him near the overhead bridge in the Aisha Manzil area. They snatched the sacrificial animals and his mobile phone at gunpoint and fled. SHO Azizabad Amir Azam confirmed that an incident of snatching sheep from a rickshaw near Aisha Manzil has been reported by a citizen named Rashid Saleem after which a case under sections 392/397/34 has been registered at Azizabad police station. The police have inspected the crime scene, obtained CCTV footage, and initiated action. Azam added that police mobile and motorcycle patrols have been increased in Azizabad limits, especially in view of Eidul Azha. Meanwhile, on Thursday, armed robbers entered a livestock farm in Orangi Town, taking employees hostage and stealing seven sacrificial animals worth approximately Rs20 lac. The incident occurred on Thursday morning in the Iqbal Market station area. Police registered a case and collected evidence from the crime scene. An investigation is underway to identify the culprits, with efforts to obtain CCTV footage to track down the suspects and their vehicles.
Hans India
5 days ago
- Hans India
Eight held for smuggling hydro ganja from Thailand
Koppal: In a major crackdown on narcotics smuggling, police in Gangavati, Koppal district, have arrested eight individuals for allegedly bringing hydro ganja illegally from Thailand and attempting to sell it in the region. The seized contraband includes 1,806 grams of high-grade hydro ganja valued at around Rs 18 lakh, along with multiple mobile phones. The accused have been identified as Soujesh, Saleem, B. Durga, Badshah, Madan, Surya Pratap Reddy, Ameed, and Manikanth. Among them, three individuals — Soujesh, Saleem, and Badshah — are said to be natives of Kerala. Speaking on the incident, Koppal Superintendent of Police Ram Arasiddi said this is the first time hydro ganja has been seized in the district. According to the SP, Saleem had illegally transported the contraband in two cars from Thailand to Gangavati, allegedly to supply it for parties. The bust occurred near the Government ITI College in Gangavati city, where police found the narcotic substances during a search operation. The authorities suspect this was a well-organized smuggling network. Ram Arasiddi clarified that there is no connection between this ganja case and the recently reported rape case in the area. However, the police are still investigating the purpose of the accused's visit to Gangavati and their intended destinations after the drop-off. The educational backgrounds of some of the accused were also revealed — Madan is a BE graduate, while Durga Prasad holds a degree, indicating that even educated individuals are being drawn into the illegal drug trade. In a separate operation, authorities in Bidar district destroyed a huge quantity of seized ganja. Approximately 183 kg and 285 grams of illegal marijuana, worth around Rs 53.30 lakh, were incinerated in Dhannur village of Bhalki taluk. The seized contraband was collected under various NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act cases from multiple police stations in the district. The disposal was carried out at the Invero Biotech waste management facility under the supervision of the District Drugs Disposal Committee. The series of crackdowns across north Karnataka signals intensified efforts by law enforcement agencies to curb the growing drug menace in the region.
