Hamdard University conferred degrees in various disciplines on 204 students at its campus in Islamabad on Tuesday.
According to a press release, 94 students were awarded degrees in management sciences, 40 in engineering and technology and 70 in pharmaceutical sciences. The university awarded gold medals to five exemplary students, Sundas Ansar and Syed Shair Ali Shah Bukhari in the pharmacy department, Kamran Khushnood in electronics engineering, Muhammad Najeeb in telecommunication engineering and Shama Wahid in management sciences.
Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Liu Jian, the chief guest, said to the graduates, “You not only have the great responsibility to serve your great country, but also an extraordinary opportunity to change it for better. You have a rare chance to do big things in this world, and I believe you can seize it because you have prepared yourselves well.”
The ambassador then shared with them ways the Chinese people deal with failures. “Whenever heaven invests a person with great responsibilities, it first tries his resolve, exhausts his muscles and bones, starves his body, leaves him destitute, and confounds his every endeavour,” he said quoting a Chinese philosopher and educator Mencius.
Hamdard University Chancellor Senator S M Zafar quoted a famous saying by Professor Derek Bok, President of Howard University, “If you think education is expensive try ignorance.” He said that ignorance, intolerance, lawlessness and terrorism in our country are the result of our failure to promote education, adding that less than two per cent of the budget is currently allocated to education. “We need books, not bullets.”
Hamdard University Director-General Professor Dr Nasim Khan said the university provides an enabling environment for inquisitive minds and productive workforce with its quality teaching and research programs. The university provides a diverse range of clubs and societies that cater for many interests and students activities, he said.
“Education is the prime tool for us to develop and sharpen our skills and develop inventive and better ways to progress in the right direction,” he added.
A large number of students, parents, teachers and guest were also present on the occasion.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 27th, 2011.
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