Healthy argument: FATA’s merger a hot topic at GCU

Debating society holds its second internal Pashto Debates 2017 to promote national integration and cultural harmony.

LAHORE: Government College University’s debating society on Tuesday held its second internal Pashto Debates 2017 to promote national integration and cultural harmony.

It was the first time that a large number of Pakhtun female students also participated. The topic of the debate was ‘The Amalgamation of FATA and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa; Will It Blur the Identity of FATA’. Students spoke both in the favour and against the merger of FATA into K-P.

GCU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Hassan Amir Shah said Pashto was the second largest regional language of Pakistan and spoken widely in the west and northwest of the country. He was happy to see the cultural harmony being displayed by Ravians hailing from different ethnic backgrounds.

“We respect diversity and it is best manifested in the celebrations of various regional languages, customs and traditions,” he said.

GCU Debating Society President Raza Aftab Gillani suggested that the provincial governments should also hold debates in other regional languages, such as Punjabis in Pashto and vice versa.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5^th, 2017.