Moalims

LAHORE: Punjab University’s (PU) 124th convocation awarded degrees, medals and prizes to 1,305 students of different programmes at the university’s Faisal Auditorium on Saturday.

As many as 128 PhD, 579 MPhil/MS, 256 Master’s and 182 undergraduate degrees along with 160 medals in total were distributed, out of which 73 were awarded to the undergraduate students while 87 medals were distributed among the Master’s students.

Renowned lawyer and former senator SM Zafar and Punjabi literature intellectual Faqeer Ahmad Faqeer were also awarded with honorary degrees in the subjects of law and Punjabi, respectively. Religious leader Maulana Raghib Hussain Naeemi also obtained his PhD degree in Islamic Studies with a thesis titled as ‘Asri Muashi Masail Ijtihad-Manhaj Wa Asrat’.

Punjab Governor Rafiq Rajwana, nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) Chairman Dr Nizamud Din, PU Vice Chancellor Dr Mujahid Kamran, Controller of Examinations Dr Shahid Munir, Vice Chancellors of various varsities including Dr Fazal Ahamd Khalid, Dr Raufe Azam, Dr Hassan Amir Shah and a large number of students and their parents were present on the occasion.

Punjab Governor Rafique Rajwana said that education must be knowledge-based and any education without knowledge was meaningless. He claimed that the students were array of hope for Pakistan and they should provide the benefits of their degrees to the community.

Rajwana said that if the innocent children of Army Public School (APS) and martyrs of Operation Zarb-e-Azb could secure the country, then the graduating students could also play their role to put the country on the road to progress. He advised the student to help the common man and the poor segments of the society.

While appreciating the blind student of University Law College, Yousaf Saleem, who obtained a gold medal in LLB Honours programme, the governor said that the nation must learn the art of living from these handicapped people. He emphasised that Pakistan was making progress in the field of education and efforts were being made for promotion of education at federal and provincial levels. He acknowledged the Punjab government for setting up PHEC, adding that he felt honoured visiting Punjab University and was thankful to PU VC Dr Mujahid Kamran.

While addressing the ceremony, Dr Mujahid Kamran said that the genocide of the Muslim community is still going on and the Muslims face destruction only because they are not focusing on the expansion of education. He later stated that an Australian Jewish scientist Gideon Polya wrote in his book “Body Count” that there had been 1.3 billion avoidable deaths during 1950-2005 of which 600 million were Muslims. He also thanked Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan for his participation in the convocation. He ended his speech by congratulating the graduating students and advised them to help each other.

News Reference