KARACHI: The Habib Girls’ School (HPS) that would complete 50 years of its founding on Aug 19 held a ceremony to reminisce golden moments and honour its alumnae at the school campus here on Saturday evening.

“We thought this a good opportunity to initiate the Habibian Women of Excellence Award,” said Principal Nargis Alavi as she thanked the old girls coming back from different parts of the world just to attend the ceremony.

“This is your day to walk down memory lane and contribute to your alma mater by showing your presence as proud Habibians,” she added.

Muslim Habib, managing trustee of the Habib Foundation, said that it felt just like yesterday when they were all here on the first day of this school when Zubeida Dossal was the principal in 1964.

“Habib Girls’ School made a name for itself not just in education but also in extracurricular activities like arts, architecture, aviation and the list goes on,” he said. “We have now also a college that has already filled to capacity and we have to add more rooms to it.”

The school’s first principal, Mrs Dossal, too, sent in a recorded video message from Toronto, Canada, of best wishes for the school and its students.

Mrs Alavi, who is the school’s third principal after taking over from the second, Adiba Kamal, said that she remembered well how she was called over for a meeting at the school by Mrs Dossal in 1975. “I joined the school as chemistry teacher then and I am here even today,” she beamed.

The old girls and current pupils of the school enjoyed the promos and documentary about the HPS where some alumnae and teachers shared their fond classroom and playground memories.

Later, six excellence awards and as many special awards were presented to the old girls who have done their school proud through their achievements in various fields.

They included Dr Ayesha Usman Dadabhoy who set up the NGO Healthcare Services; Civil Structural Design Engineer Rashida Soni; President of the Karachi Divisional Women’s Hockey Association Shaishta Javed; UNDP country director in Sri Lanka Razina Bilgrami and Saman Ahmad, who is among the first female batch of pilots and aeronautical engineers in the Pakistan Air Force, who has also secured a gold medal and Chief of Air Force trophy for top positions in avionics and engineering.