LAHORE:THE Government College University, Lahore, Debating Society has celebrated its 130 oratory awards which it won at the 51 debating championships held during the academic session 2010-11 across the country.
GCU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Khaleeq-ur-Rahman was the chief guest at the celebration ceremony which was also attended by the GCU former public speakers, including Central Superior Services (CSS) Examinations 2011 topper Rana Abdul Aziz.
According to a press release issued here on Sunday, GCU Debating Society Co-Adviser and former President Prof Muhammad Siddique Awan, while presenting the society’s annual report, apprised the audience that the 130 awards, won by GCUDS this academic year, included 25 team trophies and 40 best speaker awards. He said GCUDS General Secretary Ali Zafar contributed 22 oratory awards single handedly to the tally including the most prestigious team trophies of the debates championships at PAF Academy, Rasilpur, Aitcheson College, Lahore, Home Economics College, Lahore and Punjab University Law College. He said that the prestigious PAF Academy Rasilpur Trophy had been won by the Ravians 10 times in the last 17 years.
Recalling that generations of orators have been groomed at the GCU Debating Society, Prof Awan cited interesting episodes of Old versus Young Ravians debates where on two occasions fathers and sons came face to face with each other. In the late 1960s, the then editor of Dawn, Mazhar Ali Khan, and his son Tariq Ali, a celebrated writer, contested against each other. In mid 1990s, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan and his son Ali Hassan locked horns on the motion: “Men are democratic by nature while women are despotic.” Aitzaz ‘warned’ his son during the speech and they were bound to go home and face the lady despot who was Aitzaz’s wife and Ali’s mother. However, it did not deter the son from arguing his case effectively and the audience gave their verdict in favor of the son that men, and not women, were to be blamed. Paying glowing tributes to the laureate debtors, the GCU VC said, “Education alone is not sufficient for our nation building, rather character refinement is the primary requirement of our youth which the debating society has been offering ever since its inception.”
He recalled that in his student days, he himself was promising orator, thus he had firsthand exposure to the nature of requirements of debaters and pledged that he would extend unflinching support to further promote debate culture at the university. He congratulated Rana Abdul Aziz, the former general secretary of GCU Debating Society, on his first position in the CSS Examinations 2011.
He felicitated the four Ravians, Muhammad Zulqernain, Esha Tariq, Amna Ijaz and Ali Zafar who had recently represented Pakistan in China, India, Bangladesh and South Korea respectively.
The vice chancellor expressed profound joy at the disclosure that the GCU debating had won over 2100 oratory awards in Pakistan and abroad in the last 17 years which no other academic institution in Pakistan could match.
Speaking on the occasion, CSS topper and Old Ravian Rana Abdul Aziz underscored the significance of human struggle both at the intellectual and physical levels. He referred to the philosophical treatises of Hazrat Ali Bin Usman Al-Hajveri (RA) and Allama Muhammad Iqbal to elucidate the significance of human actions in the process of collective social evolution.
Ali Zafar, the GCU highest achiever of the year, lamented that co-curricular activities were relegated to a secondary level in Pakistan whereas, according to him, public speaking and thespian skills should be made a mandatory part of the national circular. He believed that such education was meaningless that did not empower a person to convince others about his/her perspectives pertaining to any walk of life.
GCU Debates President Muhammad Zulqernain fondly recollected his exposure to the Chinese people and said that their perseverance and untiring handwork made him remember the famous saying of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) whereby he has advised the Muslim Ummah to visit China in order to seek knowledge.
Later, the vice chancellor gave away gifts of books to the outgoing batch of orators of the Government College University, Lahore.The news.
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