1,812 degrees awarded at NED convocation

CM encourages engineers to take up govt jobs

KARACHI: The annual degree awarding ceremony of the NED University of Engineering and Technology was held on Saturday. Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah was the chief guest and former federal minister Javed Jabbar also attended as a special guest.

The number of graduates for the year 2017 was 2,024, of which 803 graduated from the master’s programme, while the total number of students awarded degrees was 1,812. Two students, Dr Sana Arshad and Dr Mirza Muhammad Ali Beg, were also awarded doctorates in philosophy while 24 students were awarded gold medals.

Addressing the convocation, NED Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Sarosh Hashmat Lodhi said that the university has been training experts in engineering, architecture, computer science and other fields for the past nine decades. He mentioned that the university will complete 100 years in 2021 and that preparation for the celebrations are already under way.



Dr Lodhi especially acknowledged the first graduating batches of industrial chemistry, applied physics and computational finance programmes. He also congratulated the parents of the graduating students. Jabbar praised the university by saying, “NED is one of the best engineering institutes in the country that provides qualified professionals to the nation.”

Shah said that he remembered his years as a student. “You are entering a new phase of your lives and you should remember that you will only succeed based on how hard you work,” he added. He also mentioned that there is a shortage of high-quality engineers in the government sector and said that the graduating students are welcome to serve the country.

A computer science and software engineering gold medal recipient, Iqra Bibi, talking to Express News, said that she was the first person in her family to acquire an engineering degree. “The university awarded me a scholarship and I wanted to prove to the sponsors that their scholarship went to the right person,” she added.



A food-engineering graduate, Sabiha Fatima, shared her struggle behind receiving a gold medal. “It is all due to the grace of God, prayers of my parents and support of my teachers and friends that I have succeeded,” she exclaimed. “I want to work in the field of research and development to learn about the differences between halal and haram food,” she said, adding that, “I can then come up with halal alternatives to otherwise haram food.”