Caps in the air: ‘Only education can eradicate poverty, establish peace’

Hundreds graduate in UCP’s 16th annual convocation.

LAHORE: Over 800 students were conferred degrees during the 16th annual convocation of the University of Central Punjab on Tuesday at the Expo Centre.

Nearly 440 students graduated from the Business School, 226 from the Faculty of Commerce; 72 from the Faculty of Engineering and 61 from the Information Technology Department.

Nuclear physicist Samar Mubarakmand, Board of Governors chairman Mian Amir Mehmood and Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar presided over the convocation. Mubarakmand stressed the need to use state-of-the-art technology to accelerate industrial growth. He said Pakistan had been blessed with a plenty of natural resources but the challenge lay in harnessing their potential properly. Mubarakmand said the government should focus on cheap power generation. He said coal-fired generation was financially prohibitive and environmentally hazardous. Mubarakmand said the only solution to this was underground gasification. He said progress had been made on this front and power generation could begin next year with a Rs7-8 unit cost.

Governor Sarwar praised the children for their diligence and hard work. He said his parents had always wanted him to study medicine but he had been unable to fulfil their dream. Sarwar said the University of Scotland had conferred an honorary doctorate on him for community service that had partly realised their dream. He said education could eradicate poverty and establish durable peace in the nation. Governor said social, religious and political intolerance must be obliterated to foster peace in Pakistan.

Pro Rector Zafarullah informed those present on the occasion about the university’s various faculties. He commended the students who had won a national competition at the Centre for Advanced Sciences and Engineering in Islamabad. Zafarullah said courses in media and communication studies and journalism were being offered at the school. Zafarullah also spoke about the university’s comprehensive volunteer programme that had enabled over 10,000 people to serve the community. He said the university had partnered with over 100 organisations in this regard.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 26^th, 2014.