LAHORE: President Dr Arif Alvi on Tuesday called for creating more educational opportunities for women. He was addressing as chief guest at the 16th convocation of the Lahore College for Women University (LCWU).

Punjab Governor/Chancellor Chaudhry Sarwar presided over the convocation and LCWU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Bushra Mirza, Controller Examinations Huma Saeed, Registrar Babar Ali Khan, University of Education VC Prof Dr Talat Naseer Pasha, Virtual University Rector Arshad Saleem Bhatti, BISE Lahore Chairman Habib Mirza, principals of affiliated colleges Dr Fauzia, Halima Afridi, senior faculty and officials were also present.

The convocation would continue for three days to award degrees and medals to the students who passed out of the university in the academic session 2019 and 2020.

On the first day of the convocation, as many as 1,309 MS degrees, 45 MPhil and 96 PhDs were awarded to students. The top position holders were given gold medals and eight other students were awarded special gold medals.

The president said students should utilise modern technology to get professional education and training and there was a need for workers in nursing, IT and other departments in the country. Referring to the British laws, he mentioned that until 1904, women in Britain were considered a property of her husband or father as she had no identity or rights at that time, adding that Islam had safeguarded women rights centuries ago.

President Alvi the PTI government had made very important legislation recently regarding inheritance which would ensure provision of due rights to women. He said merit-based appointments were made in universities and it was giving positive results and the government was providing equal opportunities to women in every field.

Ms Mirza said the curriculum was being updated keeping in view the market trend and several new disciplines were introduced in this regard.

Earlier, Dr. Arif Alvi gave away medals and certificates among the position holder graduates of the university.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2021