KARACHI: Sindh Governor Imran Ismail on Saturday conferred degrees to 271 students in five disciplines with bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the second convocation of the Sindh Madressatul Islam University (SMIU).

The convocation was held at the Convention Centre of the Golf Club, DHA.

Governor Ismail and Sindh Women Development Minister Shehla Raza awarded gold and silver medals to 15 meritorious students.

Addressing the audience, the governor said he felt honoured to be present at the convocation of an educational institution where Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had received his early education.

“No other educational institution could be more prestigious than the Sindh Madressah, where the founder of Pakistan had been enrolled.”

He said the country had produced great brains, yet, a majority of them migrated to other countries at the expense of Pakistan’s loss.

“Pakistan deserves to offer success stories to the world, which we have not been able to do over the years for our own failures. But, you should come forward and become inspiration for the generations to come,” he said.

Vice Chancellor SMIU Dr Muhammad Ali Shaikh said the Sindh Madressatul Islam was the second school founded by Hassanally Effendi in 1885 to impart Muslims with modern education a decade after the first founded by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan in Aligarh.

He said the Sindh Madressah was upgraded to the status of college by the Quaid himself and was made a university in 2012.

He said the Quaid-i-Azam had so much love for the Sindh Madressah that he had bequeathed it a third of his property.

He said 90 per cent of the first batch of the university which passed out last year had already got jobs. He said the university had got a vacated an encroached plot on its premises, where two six-storey blocks were being constructed, which would accommodate another 3,000 students along with the existing 2,000 pupils.

He added the Sindh government had allotted a plot to the university in the Karachi Education City in Malir, for which the federal government had allocated Rs1.57 billion for its first phase, which would complete in 30 months. The scheme of Malir Campus of SMIU would complete in a decade in three phases.

Minister Shehla Raza said what made her happier was that a significant number of female students were among the graduates passing out.

She offered the university’s final year female students to join the career counselling programme being offered by the women development ministry.

Officials said out of 271 students who were awarded degrees, 142 graduated in the bachelor’s programme and another 129 in the master’s programme.

Some 194 students were male and 77 were female.

Eight meritorious students were awarded with gold medals; six of them were female. Another seven were given silver medals while four of them were female.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2018