LAHORE – Government College University Debating Society (GCUDS) hosted a reception, on Monday, in honour of its fourteen best orators who performed well during the last six months and won 22 team trophies and 34 best speaker awards. GCU has won as many as 117 oratory awards after beating top educational institutions of the country at the national debating events in the first half of the academic year 2010-11.
Addressing the debaters, GCU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Ikramul Haq said that the varsity’s debaters have somehow always proved more successful in their academic and professional lives than other non-debaters, because through learning debates; the preparation and delivery of arguments, students learn to think critically, develop research and communicational skills and increase their self-confidence.
Prof Ikram said that debates enabled students to express their views effectively and respond cogently to arguments even with which they disagree. He assured the students that GCU would provide them all facilities to participate in national as international debating events. Addressing the ceremony, GCU Debating Society President Zulqarnain Cheena said that GCU had lifted team trophies at the debating contests including the one at the Pakistan Air Force College, Raisalpur where GCU’s orators beat teams from 71 top educational institutions of the country. He said that GCU secured 17 distinctions at the Chief Minister Speech Contest, which was a record.
He said that they have also won at UET, FC College University Lahore, Chand Bagh School, Beconhouse, LGS and LUMS. He said that declamation-style debates remained the strongest side of the GCUDS. He hoped that this year GCUDS will break its own record of 148 oratory awards, which it made during the academic year 2008-09.
GCUDS Adviser Siddique Awan said that the function was organised to encourage GCU’s debaters, so that they could perform with more commitment during the rest of the academic year. Later, shields were given to the best GCU orators including Ali Zafar, Saad Ul Hassan, Kamran Hussain, Ahmed Chaudhry, Umair Mushtaq, Jawad Ali Abid, Umar Gee Saleemi, Zulqarnain Cheena, Almas Sabeeh Saqib, Gadhaun Salam, Ahsan Raza, Shoaib Ahmed, Ali Gee Saleemi and Muneeb Raza for their extraordinary performance in national debating events.
