Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Engineer Shaukatullah has urged the students that mere taking degrees is not an end in itself rather it is just beginning of the practical application of the knowledge and education.
“Be ready to play your role with utmost honesty and to the best of your abilities to serve your motherland and the humanity,” he added.
Addressing as the chief guest at the Convocation-2013 of the University of Peshawar at its Convocation Hall on Wednesday, the governor who is also the chancellor of the institution further observed that in this highly competitive age, success is subject to quality taking an edge on all other priorities.
To achieve the real good results, he remarked, quantity has to be matched with quality and the best way to address this issue is to religiously guard the sanctity of merit, maintain the recognised student-teacher ratio and ensure availability of desired standards of facilities. In all 490 graduates, including 11 PhD and 14 MPhil scholars and rests who bagged masters degrees, 24 were honoured with gold medals for achieving distinctive positions in their respective disciplines.
Universities wherever exist, the governor pointed out, are the forum of innovations and creativities through which the societies and states benefit. “These are simply not the places of getting basic information, rather, the launching pads for learning, research and development of humanity,” he said. He expressed the confidence that the University of Peshawar, under the able and competent guidance of the Vice Chancellor and his team of professors and administrators will particularly focus on research, publication and development and it becomes second to none in the years ahead.
Referring to certain points raised by Prof. Dr Muhammad Rasool Jan while presenting the annual report earlier, the governor said indeed financial management is one of the major tasks in respect of every institution of higher learning which will be tackled through joint efforts at every level.
In fact, he said, the youth being 60 per cent of our population bear major chunk of responsibilities for economic development of the nation and to make the knowledge-based economy a truly useful phenomena, the institutions of higher learning can play a crucial role. With all the ground realities in mind, he added, the government is valuing education very high and certainly will go a long way for improving its standards.
Prof Dr Rasool Jan welcoming the guests and the governor earlier said that the university with 597 faculty members including 211 PhD scholars offers educational facilities right from Nursery to PhD level studies at the single campus and more that 20,000 students are enrolled in its various institutions, departments and the centres of excellence.
Over the year, he added, the university has also concluded MoUs with seven institutions of international recognition for students and teachers exchange facilities in addition to the existing options and forums.
Earlier, the governor gave away degrees gold medals to graduates. Amongst the gold medallists were Sobia Kakarr, Fatima Khalid, Maleeha Khattak, Ayesha Sultan, Mashal Khattak, Marya Bibi, Maryam Zahid, Huma Naz, Qurratul Ain, Salma Bibi, Adnan Khan, Amin S. Arsalan, Maasal Khan, Hussain Mahmood, Arif Jan, Asif Ali, Izhar Muhammad, Mazhar Iqbal, Bashir Khan, Shais, Shandan Mustafa, Ahmad Wali Khan, Imran Khan, Muhammad Hamid Shinwari, Hayan Talaat and Khurshid Begum.
Source: The Nation
