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HYDERABAD, Jan 20: Six received gold medals, 19 silver medals and 33 merit certificates among the 394 graduates who were awarded degrees at the 9th convocation of the Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET) on Saturday.
Sindh minister for education and the university’s pro-chancellor Dr. Hameeda Khuhro praised the university’s performance in her presidential address to the convocation and said that it showed how an innovative and forward looking institution could achieve laurels for providing quality education.
She was all praise for the MUET Vice-Chancellor Dr. A. Q. K. Rajput for helping the university achieve number one ranking in Sindh and number two among all the public sector engineering universities of the country.
She said that the university’s success owed much to collaborative efforts involving faculty, administration, students, alumni and community as a whole.
Dr. Khuhro said that the government was striving hard to make higher education the most value-added resource so that it could fulfil the social, economic and technical requirements of the country.
She was pleased to note that the job market had started opening its doors for the brilliant graduates of the university by conducting recruitment tests at the campus, which showed rising confidence of public, private and multinational organisations in the graduates’ competence. She expressed her surprise at the fact that Mehran had the highest number of PhD-holding faculty members when compared to any other technical university of the country.
"I am proud that the university has carried Pakistani flag to foreign shores," the minister said and once again showed her delight at the university’s linkage programme with top universities of USA, UK, Japan and Austria
Dr. Khuhro said that the exchange of faculties, joint seminars and workshops and split PhD programmes would lead to indigenous research and promotion of a knowledge-based economy.
She congratulated the graduates with the words "you are the agents of change and future leaders" and expressed the hope that they would never hesitate in reaching out to fellow humans in need of their services.
The vice-chancellor shed light on the university’s performance and achievements over the years and said that the university had been able to get more than Rs1.3 billion development grant from HEC on competitive basis.
He said that more than 400 senior students had availed the opportunity of industrial training and internship during summer vacations at around 100 different organisations of the country through Directorate of Liaison.
He said that the university had achieved ISO certification and again had the leading organisation Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance Limited re-certify it for further three years.
He said that at present 53 scholars of the university were pursuing PhD studies at different universities of the world and hoped the university would have more than 100 PhDs by 2010.
The convocation was attended by the elite of Hyderabad and Jamshoro, parents, scholars and a large number of students.
MUTCH KATCHEHRY: Noted scholar and writer of 42 books on folklore Dr N. A. Baloch has said that Sindhi folklore is unique in the world literature in terms of its contribution to the promotion of traditions and culture.
Presiding over a cultural and literary sitting "Mutch Katchehry" organised by the Institute of Sindhology of the University of Sindh late on Friday night Dr. Baloch said that Sindhi folklore is the soul of culture and is basically the language of rural populace.
He said that he had visited all parts of the province and organised katchehries (literary sittings) there to collect folklore and advised people to read his books on the subject.
Sindh University Vice-Chancellor Dr. Mazharul Haq Siddiqui said that writers and artists had played a key role in the promotion of Sindhi culture and emphasised the need for creating interest among people and artists for folklore.
He said that the basic objective of the institute was to preserve and promote literature, history and culture and arrange literary sittings to create awareness among youth about their traditions.
Institute of Sindhology Director Shoukat Hussain Shoro said that the institute had been working on different projects for the preservation of culture and thanked vice-chancellor and society for extending help to the institute.
He said that Dr. Baloch’s services had also been mentioned in a book on "Folklore of South Asia" recently published in the USA.
Folklore artists Ahmed Khan Solangi, Sobharo Bhatti, Ghulam Rasool Solangi, Allahdino Dayo, Jeeram Jogi, Mohammad Soomar Gahoo, Hussain Bux Rind, Kazi Badurddin, Sawan Faqir, Sawan Pakhali, Sajan Chang, Rabnawaz Hingoro and Sheral Lashari, a large number of scholars, intellectuals, folklore promoters, teachers and students attended the katchehry.
