Namal University founder and PTI chief Imran Khan poses with the graduating students and faculty. PHOTO: INP
Sixty engineering students were awarded BSc degrees by Namal College during the institution’s first convocation ceremony, chaired by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan.
Speaking on the occasion, Imran Khan stressed the need to provide equal opportunities in education to all citizens, saying a double standard of providing a high quality of education in English to children of the wealthy and a lower quality of instruction in Urdu to poorer children is prevalent in the country.
Imran Khan said the standard of education offered at the college rivalled that of British universities and the degrees awarded met international standards. He said a school would soon be set up in the area which would be developed as Namal Knowledge City.
Imran Khan serves as chairman of the board of governors of the Namal Education Foundation which is the sponsoring body of Namal College, Mianwali. Since the college is affiliated with the University of Bradford, London, the students get this university’s degree.
He emphasised that the college, inaugurated in 2008 following a two year construction period, was not a political project, but a personal one, and thanked the Punjab government for allotting the institution’s land to him, despite his position as a political rival. Namal College is spread over a 40-canal piece of land bordering a lake besides the Dhak mountain range.
“Pakistan is among the five countries of the world where people generously contribute to good causes for Allah’s pleasure and, as a result of this practice, 90 % of students get a good education free of cost,” he added.
The PTI leader was accompanied by party secretary Jahangir Khan Tareen and Abdul Razak Dawood, who commented that Namal College would soon be considered one of the world’s top educational institutions.
The convocation was also addressed by Amjad Ali Khan. Member Punjab Assembly Salahuddin Khan, Malik Ahmed Khan Bhachar, Nawabzada Malik Waheed and other political leaders and educationists also attended the convocation which was organised under strict security arrangements.
More than 300 students are studying at the college, which offers a two-year and a four-year honours degree and BSc programmes in Computer Sciences and BE (electrical and electronics).
Published in The Express Tribune, December 16th, 2013
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The land allotted for the Namal Knowledge City is not the personal property of Shahbaz Sharif or for that matter belongs to the Sharif family. It is owned by the government of Punjab. Any one who would have been running the govt. of Punjab would have allotted this land for a noble cause anyway. It was Imran Khan's magnanimity that he said so much to thank Shahbaz. Imran Khan did not ask for this land for himself, it was for a great cause which many political leaders cannot even dream of imagining.
mr Muslim Leaguer namal university is also developing Namal Knowledge City in that same area.
The land allotted by CM Shahbaz Sharif to Imran Khan can accommodate 200 such campuses http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-205587-Shahbaz-grants-1000-acres-to-Imran-university-in-Mianwali Imran Khan should show some moral courage to acknowledge this magnamity in the same tone!