LUMS Model UN: Local school tops for the first time in six years

Lahore School of Economics dominates honours as conference ends.

LAHORE: The Lahore School of Economics was awarded the top honour at the Lahore University of Management Sciences UN Model (LUMUN) Conference, becoming the first institution in this city to receive the award since the first conference over six years ago.

One of the two LSE delegations won the LUMUN 2010 Award after eight of its ten delegates were chosen as the best delegates on their committees. The conference involved the students simulating the work of 16 United Nations committees as representatives of various member states.

Tills College in Lahore won the first LUMUN Award 2004. The Karachi Grammar School and Lyceum School of Karachi won the best delegate award for the next five years.

French Ambassador in Pakistan Daniel Jouannau was chief guest at the concluding ceremony of the conference, while LUMS faculty members and foreign guests distributed shields among the winners.

The LSE’s winning team, made up of two girls and eight boys, represented Austria and Lebanon. The other LSE team also won two best delegate awards.

LSE delegates vice president Hassan Ghani said that it was a happy moment for Lahoris to have wrested the best delegation title from Karachi. He said that Saad Soahil, who represented Austria in the UN Historical General Assembly; Omer Sahi, who represented Austria in the Social, Cultural and Humanitarian Committee; Ali Akbar, who represented Austria in the Special Political and Decolonisation committee, Aiman Khalid Butt, who represented Austria in the United Nations Development Fund for Women; Affan Sherwani, who represented Austria in the United Nations Development Programme; Hazik Masood, who represented Lebanon in the United Nations Programme on Youth; Owais Rana, representing Lebanon in the World Health Organisation; and Farah Khalid, representing Lebanon in the World Trade Organisation, won best delegate awards. Ghani himself represented Israel in the Committee on Disarmament and International Security.

He said that both the school’s teams were well-prepared because they had taken part in a model UN conference within LSE where they had studied the foreign policies of those countries. They also participated in similar events at Lahore Grammar School, Ghulam Ishaq Khan University at Swabi in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and Froebel’s in Karachi. He said the LSE would host its own inter-varsity model UN conference next year.

LUMUN president Ayesha Waqar said that the conference would help its participants gain a better understanding of how international affairs worked.

Ambassador Daniel Jouannau said that Pakistani youths must learn to be tolerant, as this was key to building a peaceful and secure society, which in turn would guarantee progress.

He said that France and Germany had set aside their rivalries years ago and now they were living with peace, security and prosperity in the European Union. He said that Pakistani students could bridge the divide between India and Pakistan.

He said that France valued its ties to Pakistan and had sent five aircraft to Pakistan to support flood-relief measures. Five French NGOs are currently working in KP and South Punjab.

Jouannau said that France had deployed its forces in Afghanistan because it felt a threat from the Taliban.

He said that France could not tolerate human rights violations and so it pointed out those violations wherever they occurred. He said it openly supported the creation of a viable, independent Palestinian state.

He said there were 12 mosques in France and French President Nicholas Sarkozy had recently inaugurated a mosque in Paris.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 27^th, 2010.