75th convocation: Kinnaird gets Rs60m grants

Rs20 million will be spent on construction of IT Lab, more than 500 awarded degrees by the prime minister.

LAHORE:

Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani on Friday announced a Rs60 million grant for Kinnaird College for Women at its 75th convocation.

A Rs20 million grant was announced for the construction of an Information Technology laboratory, Rs10 million as a research grant, Rs10 million for its endowment fund, Rs10 million for new vehicles and Rs10 million for its sports fund.

Some 500 students were conferred degrees in various master’s and bachelor’s programmes. The principal’s honour list included 36 graduates with a GPA of 3.8 or more.

Prime Minister Gillani said that his government supported women’s education and had provided equal opportunities. Mentioning Arfa Karim, Malala Yousafzai and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, he said that Pakistani women were not behind women from any other part of the world.

He also shared some memories from his years at the Punjab University.

The prime minister said that as student of mass communication, his master’s thesis had required him to visit Kinnaird College to interview foreign students.

“I researched the opinions of foreign students in Lahore about the English press,” he said.

He said empowering women was not just empowering an individual but a whole family and through them the entire society. “Our government believes in empowering women’s financially and socially. We have taken practical measures in this regard,” he said.

He said the Women Protection from Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act 2010 and the Benazir Income Support Programme were instances of this commitment.

He reminded the audience that it was under a PPP government that KC was granted autonomy.

The PM said he hoped to see KC reach out to students in far-off areas through distant learning programmes.

Earlier, Principal Dr Rukhsana David congratulated the graduating students. She said the college was proud of them as many of them were joining the workforce or were continuing higher studies abroad.

She said that Kinnaird College students had bagged top 10 positions among girls in the Board of Intermediate Examinations in 2011, four of which were over all top positions.

She said Kinnaird College, which already had 10 MPhil programmes, would introduce PhD programmes in English literature and environmental sciences and an MPhil in food sciences and human nutrition in the next academic session.

A bachelor’s programme in aw will also be started next year, she said.

She said that Kinnaird College will turn 100 next year.

Bishop of Lahore Dr Alexander John Malik, also the KC Board of Governors’ chairman, presided over the ceremony.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2012.