LSE debates: LUMS-A, UCL-B in the final

Politics, extremists’ contribution debated over in English quarters, semis.

LAHORE: A team each from the University College Lahore (UCL) and Lahore University of Management Sciences (Lums) on Monday made it to the finals of the Lahore School Debate and Declamation 2011 that will be held today at the Lahore School of Economics.

The quarter finals and the semi finals of the English debates were held on Monday where participating teams from Lums (3), UCL (2), FAST (2) and Salamat ICAS (2) spoke on issues of extremism and the political situation in Pakistan.

In the quarter finals, the teams could talk about: the contribution of extremists to the market place of ideas, the portrayal of fallen regimes as evils in history and textbooks. A majority of the participants chose to talk on the former.

The side providing the propositions had the stronger line of arguments.

Saram Israr, a participant from UCL, represented the government and said that the clash between orthodox and extremist views had generated new ideas and challenged thoughts prevalent in society. “Being the opposition to a system provides new insights to various concepts within a society and a broader vision to law and society in general,” she said.

Most of the audience supported the government’s line of argument.

The opposition failed to raise a convincing argument to oppose the idea.

Tazmeen Abdul Jabbar, an LGS participant representing the opposition, said that an open exchange of ideas should take place in an open market.  “Where extremists step in, we see that this fails to happen, since they do not have tolerance for other people’s ideas,” she said.

Two teams each from UCL (A and B) and Lums (A and B) succeeded to the semi finals. During this round, the speakers talked about the present political situation in Pakistan, and youth participation in politics.

Lums-A and UCL-B made it to the finals and will compete today for the championship trophy.

Syed Ali Akbar, the president of the LSE debating society, LSEAD, said that both the listeners and the speakers had been enjoying the debates.

He said, “We ensure the comfort of the participants so that we can get the best arguments from all of them. It is important to communicate on all subjects, from the most common to the taboo.”

Shahraiz Chishti, the LSEAD general secretary, agreed that extreme ideas provided something to the market place. He said, “Ultimately even if there is a negative idea, there is some sort of criticism for it, consequently extracting a positive contribution from the society.”

The finals of the Urdu debates will also be held on Tuesday. Today is the last day of the event.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8^th, 2011.