KARACHI: Around 556 from Hamdard University and 312 from Usman Institute of Technology adding to a total of 868 candidates were awarded degrees, certificates and decorated with gold medals at the 19th convocation of Hamdard University on Saturday.

Somewhere in heaven Hakeem Mohammad Said would be smiling as a sea of students and faculty in maroon gowns and with same colour velvet caps marched into the convocation hall led by HU’s controller of exams.

And down here on the stage there was a smile on his daughter and the university chancellor Sadia Rashid’s lips and a shine in her eyes as she along with the others witnessed yet another group of successful individuals leaving the noble institute of learning, vision and mission of the late founding chancellor.

“You all have your future ahead of you but on this occasion allow me to take you 100 years back into the past,” said chancellor Rashid while telling the story of her illustrious grandfather Hakeem Hafiz Abdul Majeed, who had studied the Quran and knew herbal medicine and started the story of Hamdard when he opened a small matab.

“He had very little but his business of helping the sick and preparing and selling herbal medicine flourished due to his goodwill. Sadly, he died young at the age of 35 years leaving behind two young boys, Abdul Hameed, who was barely a teenager, and Mohammad Said, who was only two years of age,” Ms Rashid said. “But his young widow carried his business forward,” she added.

On the occasion, Chairman of the Higher Commission of Pakistan Prof Dr Mukhtar Ahmed asked the HU faculty to give special attention to turning their students into good human beings. “The late Hakeem Said would care for everyone, he would worry about his country, its people and the students here should be like him in their thinking in order to be able to do something worthwhile for their country,” Dr Ahmed said.

He also urged the private sector to come forward and set up more such institutions of learning in the country. “The government does its bit, but it is not enough. The private sectors have helped a lot but more such help is needed to fill the gaps,” he said while stressing on quality education.

Meanwhile, HU’s Vice Chancellor Dr Hakeem Abdul Hannan in his address spoke about the university’s faculties imparting education in different disciplines and highlighting their salient features.

The seven faculties comprise the faculty of eastern medicine, engineering, sciences and technology, health and medical sciences, humanities and social sciences, legal studies, management studies, pharmacy, Dr Hafiz Mohammad Ilyas institute of pharmacology and Herbal Sciences and Hamdard University Islamabad campus.

“In a nutshell, 23,117 students have obtained degrees in different disciplines during the last 18 years, which includes 103 PhDs, 987 MPhils and MS.”

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2015

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