French Embassy in Pakistan, on Wednesday, honoured Forman Christian College (A Chartered University) Centre for Public Policy and Governance (CPPG) Founding Director, Prof Dr Saeed Shafqat with the Chevalier des Palmed Académiques.
The ceremony took place at FCC where His Excellency, Ambassador of France in Pakistan, Marc Barety, was present on the behalf of the French government to conduct the ceremony and confer the award.
The Chevalier des Palmes Académiques is a very prestigious award given to honour those with significant contributions to French education and culture.
Originally created by French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, the award has since evolved to an order of merit.
During the event, Barety said he was honoured to conduct the ceremony to commemorate Dr Shafqat’s substantial efforts in promoting educational exchanges between Pakistan and France.
By organizing conferences and expert lectures to promote French scholarship in Pakistan, Dr Shafqat had not only made invaluable contributions to the understanding of Pakistan and South Asia in France but also allowed French academics to experience Pakistan’s cultural and educational heritage.
Eminent scholars including Professor Jean Luc Racine and Professor Christophe Jafferlot were amongst the many who valued and cherished Dr Shafqat’s role in helping them achieve fruitful scholarly experiences in Pakistan.
Dr Shafqat also spoke on the occasion and expressed his gratitude and appreciation for receiving the award.
He fondly shared experiences about his association with French scholars, which began in the 1990s during his tenure at the Civil Services Academy in Lahore.
At a conference in Islamabad, he relayed that he was introduced to Professor Jean Luc Racine, who was visiting from MSH, Paris.
He invited him to Lahore and asked him to deliver a talk at the Civil Services Academy, Dr Shafqat maintained.
This, he claimed, led to a new beginning and durable academic partnership.
Consequently, a conference “Prospects of Democracy in Pakistan” was reportedly held at Sciences Po Paris in 1998, where he had also met Professor Christophe Jafferlot.
Eventually, this camaraderie also allowed Professor Jafferlot to travel to Pakistan and deliver a keynote lecture at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), the professor added.
These exchanges developed into several other occasions for Dr Shafqat to interact with French academics, including a conference on “Islam in South Asia” at Sciences Po in 1999; the chance to serve as MSH Paris Visiting Professor in 2000; a conference in the US on “US and South Asia” in 2002; the opportunity to organise a three-day international conference on Pakistan at Columbia University, in which five scholars from France and the Netherlands participated in 2003.
More recently in 2014, Dr Shafqat was invited to a conference organised by Professor Jafferlot at Sciences Po in Paris on the topic of the US and South Asia. Dr Shafqat had also been able to build mutually supportive ties with the Embassy of France, especially with the then Ambassador of France, HE Philippe Thiebaud; the then Counselor for Cooperation and Cultural Affairs Martine Herlem Hamidi and the then Attaché de Coopération Gilles Angles.
This allowed them to send one CPPG student Tauseef Khatana on a two-week course on Local Government at ENA.
Eventually, the very successful “Open Doors Program” was launched, for which Dr Shafqat played an instrumental role.
The Open Doors Program enables French scholars to visit educational institutes in Pakistan to deliver talks on a variety of socioeconomic and political issues. Between 2015 and 2018, 12 such French speakers visited Pakistan.
Dr Shafqat concluded his speech by saying he would like to continue to strengthen the relationship he had built with French educationists.
He would like to see more educational exchanges; opportunities for Pakistani PhD students to spend a semester abroad in France and possibilities of other short exchange programmes between Pakistani and French Universities, he continued.
FCC Rector Dr James Tebbe concluded the event with a vote of thanks. He appreciated Dr Shafqat’s contributions to CPPG and the larger FCC community. He noted that Dr Shafqat’s efforts in building a network of academics, public policy officials, development practitioners and civil society, both locally and internationally, had not only benefited CPPG but also FCCU.
The diversity and range of experiences represented at CPPG seminars organised by Dr Shafqat, the Rector maintained, had been a source of pride for the university and allowed students and faculty members to greatly benefit from the expertise of eminent scholars. Finally, Dr Tebbe thanked Barety and the Embassy of France in Pakistan for their presence and hoped they would continue to work together for the educational development of both Pakistan and France.
