On May 30, 2022, UNESCO-ICHEI participated in the second IIOE national event in Pakistan, held by the IIOE National Center Pakistan. The main agenda included: the introduction of IIOE National Centre in Pakistan for 3 newly-joining-IIOE Pakistani universities and its focus as well as the future plans, the signing-agreement ceremony of 3 newly-joining IIOE partner universities from Pakistan, and IIOE Courseware Competition certificates and awards granting ceremony for Pakistani winners. As the host university of IIOE National Center Pakistan, University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore conducted the event on its main campus, with the participation of different Pakistani HEIs and the recipients of IIOE certificates, awards and gifts.

Prof. Dr. Syed Mansoor Sarwar gave an overview on UET Lahore's partnership with UNESCO-ICHEI and congratulated on the official launch of the IIOE platform in UN 6 languages at the World Higher Education Conference 2022, which was held in May 2022 in Barcelona, Spain. He also proposed that, as the national hub of IIOE in Pakistan, UET Lahore will encourage more domestic universities, teachers and students to join IIOE momentum to access world-class resources and learn about implementation of frontier technologies in higher education from the experts around the world. UET Lahore will gradually form Pakistani teachers' community of IIOE, and contribute to quality higher education in Pakistan.

On behalf of the Director UNESCO-ICHEI Prof. LI Ming, Mr. LYU Feng, Assistant Director and Chief of IIOE Management Centre, congratulated the successful conduct of IIOE national event in Pakistan. He also emphasized that UNESCO-ICHEI has always attached great importance to the cooperation with Pakistani universities. UET Lahore is not only the national center of IIOE, but also the rotating Presidency Unit of IIOE in year 2021, which has set an excellent example for rest of partner universities at global stage and assisted in empowering university teachers with digital capacities. He hoped that in the future, more Pakistani universities will participate in IIOE-related events through IIOE National Center Pakistan, and more Pakistani universities will be ready for the digital transformation in higher education systems.

Speaking online from Shenzhen, China, Ms. LI Fan, Assistant Director and Chief of Asia-Pacific Programme Office at UNESCO-ICHEI, introduced the development and current framework of IIOE National Centers, as well as the deployment and achievements in the Asia-Pacific region for the newly-joined IIOE partner universities. Prof. Dr. Waqar Mohmood, Director of Al-Khawarizmi Institute of Computer Science (KICS) at UET Lahore, thoroughly introduced the positioning, implementation strategies and the proposed main activities of IIOE National Centre Pakistan in 2022-2033.

Prof. Dr. Zubair Shaikh, President of Muhammad Ali Jinnah University (MAJU) - named after the father of Pakistani nation "Muhammad Ali Jinnah" and a reputable university from the Sindh province of Pakistan - also attended the event online from Karachi and had the IIOE agreement signed to formally join IIOE network. During his speech, he also pointed out that the effective implementation of online learning, including effective learning evaluation, is the key challenge currently faced by most of Pakistani universities. He believed that IIOE has great potential and value for Pakistan in solving the educational challenges. He stressed that Muhammad Ali Jinnah University is also willing to serve as a supporting point in southern Pakistan to help IIOE be implemented smoothly at the national level.

Dr. Aisha Mehmood, Assistant Professor from Department of STEM Education Team Lead for Digital Transformation and Learning Engineering (DTLE) at University of Education, Lahore, represented Prof. Dr. Talat Naseer Pasha, Vice Chancellor of University of Education, Lahore. Dr Aisha Mahmood expressed that University of Education, Lahore, is really thrilled to join the IIOE network as an official partner HEI. She also said that teachers as well as students from the University of Education Lahore have benefited a lot from the IIOE trainings and feels excited that one of the participants from her university has won the first prize in the IIOE course competition.

Prof. Dr. Bushra Mirza, Vice Chancellor of Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) who was physically present at the venue, said the university is very honored to join as IIOE network member. She indicated that the teachers of her university have great demand for capacity building in reference to online teaching and learning modalities while teachers do cherish such platform and opportunities. Prof. Dr. Bushra Mirza specifically mentioned that her university is not only the largest women-only institute in Pakistan, but also one of the largest among women-only universities in South Asia.

As the next agenda item, IIOENC Pakistan formally signed the IIOE agreements with Muhammed Ali Jinnah University, University of Education Lahore, and Lahore College for Women University respectively, making it a significant milestone of 3 Pakistani universities officially joined the IIOE newwork as formal members at once. The leaders, teachers and representatives reiterated that they will jointly contribute to the digital transformation of higher education in Pakistan.

Finally, the certificate conferring and award plus gifts distribution ceremony of the first phase of the IIOE Courseware Competition brought an end to this successful event. Under the sponsorship of seewo, a top-notch Chinese enterprise from China, seven teachers from Pakistan were announced as winners and the recipients of the awards came to the event site. Under the witness of all parties, Mr. Hassan Adeel Shehzad, Senior Programme Specialist of UNESCO-ICHEI and Prof. Mansoor, Vice Chancellor of UET Lahore, presented certificates of honor and competition prizes. All the winners expressed their excitement and one of the winners exclaimed with utmost delight: "This is the first time ever I have won an award and certificate organized by an international organization, and everything is so incredible here! Not only did I get a prestigious certificate, but I also received a prize came all the way from China! With high spirits, I will also invite my peer teachers and colleagues and friends to participate in IIOE activities together in the future!"