ISLAMABAD: Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD) Pakistan, under its flagship Leadership Development Programme (LDP), has announced successful Fellows for Cohort 19 on ‘Urban Resilience and Sustainable Cities’. LEAD’s fellowship programme exclusively aims to build the capacity of professionals from various sectors across Pakistan. This year, the theme of Cohort 19 focuses on cities and their sustainable development. Urbanisation has increased manifold and cities have become vulnerable to extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, cloud bursts, flash floods and cyclones. The training programme comprises four learning sessions on sustainable urban planning, urban resilience, low carbon development and role of cities to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). “This year, we received a large number of applications, which went through a highly competitive, objective and transparent selection process. The finally selected 17 fellows comprise 12 males and five females. Regarding their diverse sector specific representation, 35 per cent of them are from the government, 23 per cent from academia, 29 per cent from development sector, five per cent from corporate sector and five per cent from media,” LEAD Pakistan CEO Ali Tauqeer Sheikh said. The selected fellows are Abdul Rahim, Aneela Bibi Rajpoot, Harmain Rukh, Imran Inam, Dr Khushbakht Hina, Mohammad Zeeshan Mahr, Muhammad Amjad, Muhammad Amin Noor Baksh, Muhammad Fahim Ahmed, Murad Rana Khan, Nasrullah Thahim, Nelofer Jamil, Sardar Bahadur Khan, Rafiul Haq, Saba Sarfaraz, Shahzada Irfan Ahmed, Shoaib Ahmad Goraya and Dr Zahid Asghar.