Dear fellow Publicans and members of the Publican Alumni Trust,

 

Salaams.

 

On Tuesday, October 5, 2010 at the F.G. Minwalla Girls' Public School Karachi, from 10 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. the Declamation Event for 2010 was held along with the distribution of the first instalment of scholarships for the year 2010-11 at a well-attended function.

 

About 100 girl students and about 100 boy students along with the Principal of the Boys School, senior teachers of the Girls School and the following Publicans were present:

• Admiral (Retd.) Shahid Karimullah, Chairman, PAT

• Mr. Javed Jabbar, ex-Chairman, PAT

• Mr. Zohair Ashir, General Secretary, PAT

• Mr. Khawaja Fariduddin, Trustee, PAT

• Mrs. Sabiha Pervez, Trustee, PAT

• Mr. Waseem Ghani, Member Advisory Council, PAT

• Ms. Nudrat Alvi, Member Advisory Council, PAT

• Dr. Masroor Afridi, Member Advisory Council, PAT

Zohair Ashir, General Secretary, PAT conducted the proceedings.

 

After Tilawat, he welcomed all participants and announced the transition in PAT to a new Chairman. The founding Chairman was requested to address the gathering, followed by the new Chairman. Both speakers referred to the aims of PAT. They called upon the students to use their time at School in a positive way and to maintain their relationship with their alma mater throughout their life so that they all serve the School as alumni even 50 years later.

 

As the first quarterly instalment of the scholarships of funded by Bank Al-Falah Ltd. for PAT had already been distributed to the 60 boy students on September 30, 2010 at the F.G. Boys Public School, now on October 5, 2010, Chairman PAT Shahid Karimullah presented cheques for Rs. 1500/- each (at Rs 500/- per month for the first 3 months) to the 60 girl student recipients. He felicitated them on being selected for the scholarships and urged them to give thanks and respects to their parents as well as their teachers.

 

By coincidence, October 5 was observed throughout the world as World Teachers Day.

 

Following the presentation of the scholarships there was a brief break for refreshments.

 

As participants re-assembled for the second part of the programme, the founding Chairman PAT, Javed Jabbar briefed students on the concept of the Impromptu Declamation Event. 12 girl speakers and 12 boy speakers were asked to pick from a container slips of paper on which one subject was written in both Urdu and English and were given 30 minutes to prepare their own thoughts on the subject they had picked.

 

During the 30 minutes that the speakers took to prepare their speeches, Zohair Ashir, Wasim Ghani and Masroor Afreedi briefed the students about their own respective professions and careers as well as on aspects of education e.g. management consultancy, the origins of the Matric system of education introduced by British in their colonies and retained to this day, the study of medicine, and the qualities of a good doctor, etc.

 

On completion of 30 minutes, the 24 speakers were invited to speak in English or Urdu on either one of the following subjects (as per the slip of paper they had picked from the container) for a maximum of 3 minutes.

 

The 2 subjects were :

• If I were an insect, would I also be a diamond?

• In elections in Pakistan, less than 50% of the voters vote. As in some other countries around the world, should voting be made compulsory for all citizens? What are the benefits and/or disadvantages ?

In general, the young speakers made brave and interesting attempts to present their views with their original thoughts in their own words rather than reciting pre-memorized texts as in conventional declamation events or debates. Most speakers used only about two to two and a half minutes of their time.

 

Students listened to the speakers with keen interest and heartily applauded well-made observations.

 

They Judges for the Declamation Contest were:

• Shahid Karimullah

• Sabiha Pervez

• Masoor Afridi.

During the time that the Judges were compiling results, Javed Jabbar helped students to analyze the content and presentation of their speeches in order to help them improve their capacity for self-expression and conveyed information on merits of compulsory voting systems.

 

Shahid Karimullah, Chairman PAT announced the results of the Declamation Contest, which were as follows:

First Prize	Wasim Tilawat
Second Prize	Marium Pasha
Third Prize	Tabinda Bibi
Consolation Prize	Iqra Maqbool

The prizes for winners and for all participants will be presented at the Impromptu Creative Writing Event to be held on November 3, 2010.

 

Names of the students who participated in the Declamation Contest were as follows:

 

Girl Students:

Hunza Walayat, Marrium Shamshad, Marrium Aziz, Tabinda, Shiza Hayat, Faiza Akram, Shiza Ejaz, Iqra Maqbool, Sidra Shah, Bushra Jaffar, Nazneen Khan, Maryam Basha

 

Boy Students:

Masroor Ali, Syed Ali Faraz, Waseem Tilawat, Abdur Rauf, Muhammad Waqar, Zainul Abeedin, Waqar Ahmed, Umer Aziz, Usman Hussain, Junaid Zafar, Hamza Saif, Ayub Ali Khan

 

Thank you for your attention.

With best wishes,

 

Sabiha Pervaiz

Convenor

Education Programme Committee

Publican Alumni Trust (PAT)

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Emails from Old Publicans

 

Email from Syed Tanveer Hussain (Class of 1961)

 

From: S Tanveer Hussain [mailto:tan11star@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, October 08, 2010 12:33 PM
To: sabiha.pervaiz@yahoo.com; administrator@oldpublicans.com
Subject: (1) PAT Declamation Event 2010 (2) First instalment of PAT scholarships
 

Thank you very much for your excellent write up of the event. It made us feel like we participated with you.

Keep it up

 

S Tanveer Hussain

Class of 1961

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Email from Khawaja Fariduddin (Class of 1961)

 

From: ITD KARACHI PAKISTAN [mailto:farid1@cyber.net.pk]
Sent: Friday, October 08, 2010 12:54 PM
To: Administrator@oldpublicans.com
Subject: Fw: PAT - BANK ALFALAH Scholarship event and Declamation contest

 

Dear Sabiha Pervez Sahiba,

 

My compliments to you for the successful holding of PAT - BANK ALFALAH Scholarship event and the very interesting Declamation contest.

 

As I said earlier also the time and effort you devote to PAT is indeed exemplary. I hope Publicans in and out of Pakistan are taking note of it.

 

Through this email I request more and more Publicans to join PAT and contribute whatever they can in terms of time, effort, money and ideas. Please come forward and get actively involved  for betterment of educational and other facilities at successors schools.

 

Regards,

 

Farid

(Khawaja Fariduddin - Class of 61)

cell : 0092 300 8259999

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Email from Waseem Ghani (Class of 1963)

 

From: waseem ghani [mailto:waseem.ghani@hotmail.com]
Sent: Friday, October 08, 2010 7:50 PM
To: administrator@oldpublicans.com
Subject: RE: (1) PAT Declamation Event 2010 (2) First instalment of PAT scholarships

 

Dear Sabiha Sahiba,
Salam,

Weldon

Regards

Waseem Ghani