Pakistan Tobacco Company Limited (PTC) was awarded five Global Diversity and Inclusion Awards in the Global Diversity & Inclusion Benchmarks (GDIB) conference held in Karachi. According to an announcement of the company here on Friday, the GDIB awards are conducted by Diversity Hub Pakistan on an annual basis and their core objective is to recognise organisations who fulfill GDIB's rigorous standards and benchmarks in Diversity & Inclusion (D&I).

In 2019, PTC received one progressive award in learning & development category, however this year, PTC won five awards, two in Best Practices and three for Progressive Awards in Diversity & Inclusion Vision, Strategy & Business case; Leadership & Accountability; Recruitment, Retention Development & Advancement; D&I Learning & Education; D&I Communication.

Speaking on the occasion, Head of Human Resource (PTC) Waqas Ahmed Khan said the strength from diversity was one of the key guiding principles for British American Tobacco group. "Our guiding principles imply what we stand for and form the core of our culture. We at PTC believe that people are at their best when they are challenged through diverse ideas and thinking and engaged through inclusion. Our diverse talent pool is our biggest competitive advantage and we will continue investing behind D&I, creating a culture which supports growth of diversity," he added.

Managing Director and CEO (PTC) Usman Zahur in his speech highlighted that the GDIB conference was a wonderful platform that brought brilliant minds together from different industries to share best practices and inspirational journeys that organizations in Pakistan had gone through to promote diversity & inclusion at all levels & fostering progressive mindsets and culture. "Our objective at PTC is to drive initiatives that demonstrate our continued commitment to strengthen diversity. We focus on overall diversity including gender, ethnicity cognitive, generational and cultural diversity where we value the diversity of thoughts and the individual mix of unique ideas and opinions that help us capitalize on different perspectives to make our business strong and sustainable," Usman Zahur added.