Karachi and Larkana: 400 degrees for SZABIST’s finest minds

KARACHI:

Dressed in a robe of blue and silver, 35-year-old Kashif Ejaz held on to his two-year-old son Muhammad Bilal’s hand tightly before he walked up on stage to collect his M.Sc degree in Computer Science. His wife Noreen looked on with pride. Ejaz laughed heartily and said that he had survived all the tough years in university because of the support of his loved ones.

Over 1,800 people gathered at the Karachi Expo Centre on Saturday to watch around 400 undergraduates and postgraduates from the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST) Karachi and Larkana campuses collect their degrees. “You have achieved what only a mere 6.3 per cent of Pakistanis can manage,” said SZABIST Vice-Chancellor Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho. “It is now your duty to work for the country and your fellow human beings.” She added that the university was well aware of the impact of the economic recession and sacrifices made by the parents to see their children graduate.

British Deputy High Commissioner Francis Campbell was the chief guest and said that as new graduates they would carry the wisdom of past generations. “Today, you’ll leave this place not only as graduates but as hope to change the world,” he said.

As the keynote speaker, Sindh Agriculture University Vice Chancellor Dr A Q Mughal congratulated the graduates and said that at this point in time they were about to make the most important decision of their lives - so try and make the right choice.

With a cheerful racket in the background, students were grinning cheek to cheek as they made their way up to the stage to collect their degrees faculty by faculty. From the graduating class of 2011, the management sciences students clinched three gold medals. Zoha Raza Jivani got the first one with a 3.84 CGPA, Yasir Ali from the Larkana campus got the second and Noman Ahmed got the third with a 3.77 CGPA. Nearly 70 other students received corporate gold medals that had been sponsored by different organisations. “I’ll miss some of the camaraderie that existed here [Szabist], it is something won’t be there in the corporate world,” said Management student Aman Arsalan. Business Administration student Zafir Zia Siddiqui, who received a distinction in corporate finance, said that he was satisfied with the fact that he had a degree he identified with. Dressed smartly in a beige safari suit, Payam Siddiqui stood proud with a smug grin on his face as his daughter Maheen received a medal. “I believe I have achieved a milestone in my life today.  All three of my children have graduated and I did whatever I could to give them the best education,” he said.

For most of the graduates, the convocation was a wonderful day to look back on the time spent at the university and to think about what the future held for them.

The vice-president of the academics department, Dr Amanat Ali Jalbani said that SZABIST had five campuses which in total, including one in Dubai. “Our university has been upgrading the faculty and quality, we now have four mechatronics laboratories, a bio-science laboratory and a large studio,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2011.