Punjab Study

LAHORE:August 12:GIRLS outshone boys in the Punjab University’s BA/BSc Annual Examinations 2012 as except first position in BA the rest of the positions both in BA and BSc have been clinched by female students.
Also, almost all of the high achievers are either students of private colleges or they had appeared in the exams as private candidates. The results were announced by the Punjab University (PU) on Saturday according to which overall pass percentage remained at 39.85 per cent.
Muhammad Muhsen Ali (Roll No 035147), a private candidate from Hafizabad district, was the overall topper who secured 688 marks out of 800 in BA and with these marks he is also believed to break all previous records in BA exams of the Punjab University.
The second position in BA exam was bagged by another private candidate of Shahdara, Lahore, Kanwal Latif (Roll No 063721) who secured 668 marks while the third position was shared by two private candidates Muqaddas Shehbaz (Roll No 033882) of Hafizabad district and Maria Anam (Roll No 027471) of Gujranwala by securing 661 marks, respectively.

In BSc, Punjab College of Science, Ferozepur Road, Lahore’s Sania Riaz (Roll No 075419) secured 686 marks and was declared first, Government Queen Mary College Lahore’s Sundus Shahzadi (Roll No 062499) bagged second position with 658 marks and Punjab College for Women, Civil Lines, Gujranwala’s Suneela (Roll No 025685) stood third with 655 marks.

It is pertinent to mention here that Muhammad Muhsen Ali who secured overall first position comes from a financially poor background.

Talking to reporters, Muhsen said he used to work at a tandoor to support his family, adding that his brothers also supported him financially in his studies.

Muhsen said he wanted to do MA English from the Punjab University. He also appealed to the Punjab government to support him for his future academic activities.

Punjab University on Saturday also organised a ceremony in honour of the high achievers in which cash prizes and certificates were distributed among them.

The first position holders in BA and BSc were awarded Rs 100,000 each and certificates while the second and third position holders were awarded Rs 75,000 and Rs 65,000 and certificates respectively.

PU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran was the chief guest at the ceremony while the high achievers, their parents and a number of PU officials were also present.

Dr Mujahid Kamran said funds of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) were being slashed despite availability of money. He said clash between the government and the HEC began on the issue of degree verification of the politicians. However, universities were not the entity of political parties or any individual rather these should be considered as national institutions, he added.

He appealed to federal government to make all-out efforts for national consensus on promotion of education and if it did so, people would forget all the problems created by them.

Dr Mujahid Kamran criticised successive governments for ignoring education sector.

The PU VC further said according to an Iraqi scholar, 250 Aya’hs of the Holy Quran are related to legal and administrative affairs but around 750 Aya’hs of the Holy Book stress the mankind to explore the mysteries of universe and seek knowledge.

He said government should allocate at least four per cent of GDP for education and one per cent to research. Dr Kamran also said, “Pakistan is a country of 180 million people but we could not win a single gold medal in Olympics while those countries clinched the coveted award about which we even didn’t know.”

Same is the case is in other spheres of life, he added. He congratulated top position holders on behalf of Punjab University teachers, employees and students.

PU Controller Examinations Prof Dr Liaquat Ali said that a total of 143,750 candidates took part in examinations out of which 57,284 students passed the exams.

According to him, the pass percentage of the candidates was around six per cent higher than the previous year and 10 percent higher than 2010.

Out of the total candidates, he said, boys were 45,778 and girls were 97,972 in number. He elaborated that as many as 12,309 boys with the pass percentage of 26.89 and 44,975 girls with the pass percentage of 45.91 were declared successful. In special category, 4,060 candidates participated out of which 2,241 students passed the exams, he added. PU Additional Controller Examinations Ahmad Ali Chattha and former Controller Examinations and Faculty of Engineering Dean Prof Dr Taqi Zahid Butt also attended the ceremony.