KARACHI, May 27: In one of the largest turnouts in its recent history, Shahpur Kabraji from Pakistan, member of a three generation Cambridge-going Karachi family, was elected president of the Cambridge Union for Lent term 2003 (January to March), recently. He defeated his opponent Reggie Vettasseri by a comfortable margin of 23 votes.

The post of president means that Shahpur will preside over debates at the Cambridge University for the term beginning in January 2003 at this bastion of free speech and controversy in the university. He will also be responsible for the running of the society, which has over 4,000 members in the university and 15,000 life members worldwide. As the first South Asian president for over ten years and the first Pakistani ever, this is truly an exceptional achievement.

Founded in 1815, the Cambridge Union, the Cambridge University’s debating society, has played host to a top range of speakers, including President Reagan, the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Tutu, actors Stephen Fry and John Malkovich, besides Nobel Prize-winning mathematician Stephen Hawking and author Seamus Heaney.

Past presidents include numerous British cabinet ministers and other luminaries such as John Maynard Keynes etc.

Shahpur was educated at Karachi Grammar School where he debated for the school team which won the National Parliamentary Debate Championships in Lahore in 1999. He was also a member of Pakistan world school debating team at Pittsburgh, USA, in 2000.