KARACHI, Jan 17: Students from various colleges participated in the Inter-collegiate Bilingual Declamation Contest, held at Defence Authority Degree College on Wednesday.

In English declamation contest, Saima Kazmi of St Joseph’s College for Women clinched the first position, Sana Saleem of the PECHS Girls’ College stood second and Ayesha Rizvi of Sir Syed Girls’ College got the third position.

In Urdu declamation competition, Najam-us-Saqlain Leghari of DA Degree College for Women bagged the first position, Nirmal Niazi of Bahria College got second position and Faisal Tahir of the Institute of Business Management stood third.

The overall coveted trophy of the declamation contest was clinched by the Defence Authority Degree College for Women.

Prof Amberina Kazi and Air Commodore (rtd) Khayyam Durrani were the judges for the English declamation. Zahida Hina and Mehmood Ghaznavi were the judges for the Urdu declamation.

Former federal minister for law, justice and human rights, and the Secretary General of English Speaking Union of Pakistan, Barrister Shahida Jamil was the chief guest.

Addressing the audience, she asked students to endeavour through research and study to find solutions to the problems the country was facing. She emphasised the need for improving communicational skills as it removed barriers and misunderstandings and promoted social cohesion in society.

She said the art of communication was the most effective way of influencing and winning people. She said quality of thought, choice of words, force of conviction and skill of oratory were the essential ingredients of a good speaker.

She was of the view that Pakistani youth had an incredible talent and could enhance creativity in their expression through hard work, research and innovation in their undertakings. Later, she awarded prizes to the winners of the contest.

Earlier, DA Degree College Principal Captain (rtd) Ahmed Zaheer gave the welcome address.