ABBOTTABAD: Commandant of Pakistan Military Academy, Kakul, Major General Abdullah Dogar has said that character-building and personality development of students should be the top priority of the academia.

He was speaking as chief guest at the annual parents’ day and prize distribution ceremony of the Army Burn Hall School and College here on Saturday. He said that renowned educational institutions played a pivotal role in development of the country.

On this occasion, Chief of the Army Staff Overall Championship Trophy was awarded to Syed Ahmed Shaheed House, while a newly-introduced award of “Pride of Burn Hall” was given to Saud Ahsan Khan and Mohammad Hamza Abdullah. COAS Gold Medals were awarded to Danish Ali Khan and Abdullah Wahdan Yahya.

Ahmed Munawar and Salman Khattak secured the Chairman Board of Governors’ Gold Medals. Commandant PMA Kakul Gold Medals were awarded to Ijlalullah Khan and Mohammad Aqeel Jadoon.

The college principal, Brig Wajid Qayyum Paracha, earlier presented the annual report and said that the Army Burn Hall College had gradually turned into a modern English-medium college. He said that the school, initially founded by missionary Fathers in Srinagar in India-held Kashmir, was later shifted to Abbottabad in 1948 and it was being run by the Pakistan Army since 1977.

This year, the college has shown remarkable results in the FSc, while in the SCC exams 118 of the 167 students got A+ and A.

Mr Paracha said that the Burn Hall students brought laurels in the inter-collegiate declamation contests held in different institutions while it had also won fixtures against Military College Jhelum, Cadet College Kohat and Cadet College Batrasi.

The chief guest and parents visited different clubs of the college and appreciated the projects done by them.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2017