168 DUET students receive laptops in second phase of PM’s scheme

Chief guest Senator Nehal Hashmi awards laptops to top students from each dept

KARACHI: Students from Dawood University of Engineering and Technology (DUET) were given 168 laptops on Friday in the second phase of the Prime Minister’s Laptop Scheme at a ceremony held at the varsity’s Jinnah campus.

The university administration distributed 107 laptops during a private ceremony while the remaining 61 were awarded by chief guest Senator Nehal Hashmi to the top five students from each department.



Laptops with bags and internet devices were awarded to students of the electronic, chemical, energy, telecommunication, architecture and planning, industrial management, petroleum and gas, computer system and material engineering departments.

Senator Hashmi congratulated the students and encouraged them to use the technology for the country. The government and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif have placed their trust in you, he said, adding that ‘now you must pledge never to portray your country in a bad light’.

“Our generation has only built ourselves but the coming generation should build the nation,” he said, speaking of his own generation. Senator Hashmi encouraged students to take part in student politics but said education should be their top priority. “You all should start preparing to make your country proud and practice positive politics yourselves,” he said, adding that he had never received any award from the government when he was a student but the students have received laptops that they should use for better opportunities in their fields of expertise.

“Being the youth of the country, it is your responsibility to make your country better and proud,” he said, adding that many of the students before him will hold managerial posts in the near future and should prepare themselves for the upcoming challenges.

The chief guest advised students to keep applying for Higher Education Commission scholarships in order to complete their Master’s. “Always read and remember your history, it makes you strong,” he added.

“One should always value their own as well as others’ time,” stated DUET vice-chancellor Prof Dr Faizullah Abbasi. There are 2,058 students enrolled at the university, of which 300 were awarded laptops in phase one of the scheme, while 168 students have been awarded laptops this year in phase two.

“The university only provides the merit list to the Higher Education Commission and they award the laptops according to their own criteria,” Dr Abbasi told The Express Tribune.

Naima Urooj, a third-year computer systems student, was happy to receive a laptop, which she said was ‘much-needed’. “I am a computer system student and I needed this so that I can check different software [that] we make or work on,” she explained.

Another student from the industrial engineering department, Fazle Dayan, was excited that he is among the few students who received the laptops.

“They should make the process faster because it took almost two years to get this since I applied,” he suggested.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22^nd, 2016.