LAHORE, Aug 17: Girls clinched top positions both in BA and BSc annual examinations 2010.

According to the results announced here on Tuesday, 171,624 candidates took the examination and 49,370 of them passed. The pass percentage is 29.

Of the total 59,162 male candidates, 11,347 passed and their pass percentage is 19.1. Of the 112,462 women candidates, 38,023 got through with a pass percentage of 33.8.

In BSc examination, Zunaira Nasir of Punjab College for Women, Satellite Town, Sargodha, secured the first position with 703 out of 800 marks. Erum Shahzadee and Fareeha Iqbal of Punjab College for Women, Civil Lines, Gujranwala, and National Science College, Gujranwala, respectively shared the second position with 684 marks. Aasma Meer of National Science College, Gujranwala remained third with 676 marks.

In BA examination, Sana Iftikhar, a private candidate from Islamabad, secured the first position with 662 marks. Syeda Zarina Sadia and Hafiza Ayesha Zafar, private candidates from Sargodha and Lahore, shared the second position with 655 marks. Private candidate from Malkwal Erum Yasmeen secured the third position with 654 marks.

The supplementary examination will be held in the second week of October.

At an award distribution ceremony, Punjab University Vice-Chancellor Prof Mujahid Kamran presented cheques worth Rs630,000 to top position holders.

Speaking on the occasion, he said advanced nations spent five to seven per cent of their GDP on education to join the fold of leading world powers.

At present, he said, Pakistan was spending just two per cent of its GDP on education whereas the allocation for research and development was hardly 0.1 per cent. “Resultantly, we are confronted with an acute shortage of qualified and trained experts to pursue our socio-economic projects.”

Dr Kamran said Pakistan attained the status of an atomic power simply because all prime ministers from Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to Nawaz Sharif contributed to it. He said the education sector required the same political will.

Punjab University Pro Vice-Chancellor Prof Jamil Anwar, Registrar Prof Naeem Khan and Examinations Controller Dr Zahid Karim Khan were also present.