ISLAMABAD: Three students of the oldest public-sector educational institution - Islamabad College for Boys (ICB) - are among nine students of the country who have been selected for attending International Science Conference to be held in Switzerland.

This year nine students across the country have been selected for the said international event and out of them six belong to private schools while three are from ICB in G-6. The students of ICB are Mansoor Afzal Maitla (XI), Abdul Wahab Akram (XI) and Hasnain Haider (XII).

Six students from private institutions namely Supernova School, Cadet College Hasanabdal, Siddeeq Public School Rawalpindi and Cedar College Karachi have also been selected. They are: Mohammad Salman, Mohammad Saad Bilal, Mohammad Ahsan, Wasif Ahmed, Mohammad Asadohoo, Mohammad Zohaib and Mohammad Abudllah.

These students will travel to the European Council for Nuclear Research known as CERN in Geneva, Switzerland in September to perform experiments during their two-week stay.

When contacted, ICB Principal Professor Dr Ali Ahmed Kharal said all teaching staff of the college were happy over the selection of students of his college.

“This is a matter of pride for us. As this year, only three students from public sector have been selected, all of them belonging to our college,” he said, adding that, “total 379 teams participated in the competition from all over the world by submitting their experimental proposals. Our team will go to CERN, Geneva Switzerland, September this year, for two weeks to perform the proposed experiment there”. Dr Kharal said this was a proud moment for students, coaches, parents schools and the nation.

Professor Kharal, who is the most senior principal of Islamabad, said students would attend this event in September and after their return a ceremony would be held in the college in their honour and to motivate other students. “We did a lot of hard work for these students and in return we got good results,” he said.

ICB is the city’s oldest college and used to be known as the best institution in the city till the 90’s. In the past, it produced a number of police officers, including several inspectors general of police (IGPs) and top bureaucrats of the country. However, gradually, it could not maintain its standards due to various reasons.

However, under the supervision of Mr Kharal, the college is now making efforts to reclaim its lost glory. Last year the college produced outstanding results among all 13 boy colleges being run under the supervision of Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) overall getting 85.88pc and 3.50 GPA.

Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2023