Szabist students to figure out ‘what Pakistan needs now’

KARACHI: The Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (Szabist) is looking for students to take part in an international dialogue event in March.

Several school and university students have approached the Szabist Social Sciences Society to participate in its two-day event, called Patriot’s Act 2011 in Pakistan and ‘Week of Dialogue’ at York University, Canada, where it originated. This year, Yale University, McMasters University, The University of Western Ontario and York University, will be participating in the dialogue.

The event will be held on March 4 and March 5 and every team of four members will have to pay Rs1,200 for the registration fee. Since a similar event will be taking place at the foreign universities around that time, the Szabist dialogue will be streamed live for them.

A member of the society’s executive body, Hamza Faruqi, said that they plan on selecting around 50 to 80 students. This event is a forum for many debaters, leaders and performers of Pakistan to express and compete on an international level.

The Social Sciences Society is busy selecting students from not only universities, such as the Institute of Business Administration, Dow University of Health Sciences and Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, but also A’ level students.

“It’s the first time they [foreign universities] selected a Pakistani and Asian university,” said Faruqi. “Our performance will decide future invitations to the dialogue process.”

The theme of the event ‘What Pakistan Needs Now’ is an attempt to revive the social scientists among students. The event will be divided into two sessions.

In the first session, students will engage in parliamentary-style debate on ‘Revamping the Federal Budget’. The participants will be asked to revamp the budget in such a way that it focuses on ‘What Pakistan Needs Now’ on a national and international level. The students will also propose a new federal budget allotment for their assigned sectors and justify the needs and importance of each sector.

The second session, ‘Revival of Cultural Literature of Pakistan’, will be an interactive session based on displays of the contribution of eminent poets, writers and intellectual revolutionaries of South Asia. The students will be given a chance to perform and display different aspects of South Asian literature in any form of art, including theatre, poetry, music, drama, song, or even speech. They will also demonstrate what impact it has had on our culture.

“It was an idea that we got from some of our friends studying at York University and we immediately approached the organisers,” said Faruqi. It is all part of the effort to take Pakistani students on an international level, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2011.