Indian Old Ravians meet their pre-partition classmates with starry eyes at their annual reunion gala organised by the Old Ravians Union (ORU) at the historical Oval Ground at the Government College University Lahore. Eminent nuclear scientist and ORU President Dr Samar Mubarikmand chaired the reunion gala which was attended by hundreds of ambassadors, bureaucrats, journalists, industrialists and politicians from all over the country including former Lahore High Court Chief Justice Khwaja Sharif, Punjab Education Minister Mujtaba Shua-ur-Rahman, Punjab Minister Nadeem Kamran, senior bureaucrat Kamran Lashari, University of Education Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Fiaz-ul-Hassan and Lahore Board Chairman Nasrullah Virk. A 15-member delegation of Indian Old Ravians also graced the ceremony as ‘guest of honours’ and met with their classmates and their families who came from different parts of Pakistan to meet their pre-partition them after a gap of several decades.
Speaking on the occasion, Samar, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear programme, said Indian and Pakistan need to bury the hatchet and take a giant leap towards peaceful co-existence. “We can neither choose, nor change our neighbours. Won’t it be better if we lived peacefully?” they said.
Samar said education institutions like GCU were the nurseries that reared top-notch scientists who went on to make Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programmes successful. Thus, it was incumbent upon the government to pay special attention towards the preservation and progress of these nurseries, he added. He beseeched the Punjab government and Higher Education Commission to provide generous funding to the Government College University for establishment of its new campus at Kala Shah Kaku. GCU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Khaleeq-ur-Rahman said whosoever walked out of the portals of GCU, kept coming back to their alma mater as if an unknown magnetic force would not relinquish its hold on them. He said in this age of cut-throat competition, GCU was in a dire need of financial resources to keep up pace with its rivals in the private sector. He called on the Old Ravians that GCU needed their support to expand its functions in different domains, besides strengthening the existing facilities. He said the CM, during his early morning visit to GCU, announced giving five buses for the transport facility to GCU. He hoped that the Punjab government would also provide fund for GCU new campus.
Punjab Education Minister Mian Mujtaba Shua-ur-Rahman announced that the Punjab government would soon release funds for establishment swimming-pool at the GCU Sports Complex.
Former CJ said it was the duty of every Old Ravian to pay back the debt of his alma mater and helping the deserving students of this great institution s the best way of doing it. ORU Former President Kamran Lashari said Old Ravians remembered their Alma Mater not because of their degrees but due to the values, morals and confidence that the Government College taught them.
ORU Secretary Dr Khalid Manzoor Butt revealed that eminent Old Ravians including the CM had donated as many as Rs 150 million to the GCU Endowment Fund Trust in just five years which is really something admirable and exemplary, as no other public sector university in Pakistan have such mechanism to involve the old students in development of their alma mater. Special prayers were also held for the air-crash victims and army officials of Saichen at the reunion gala.
