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Aga Khan
University Convocation
Karachi, Pakistan, 2 November
2002
Bismillah-Ir-Rahman-Ir-Rahim.
Your Excellency,
Ambassador Saidullah Khan Dehlavi.
Members of the Board of Trustees.
President Shamsh Kassim-Lakha.
Honourable Ministers and Excellencies.
Donors and distinguished guests.
Graduates and parents.
Members of the faculty and alumni of Aga Khan University.
Ladies and gentlemen.
Asalaam-o-Alaikum.
It is indeed
a great pleasure for me to be your guest at this, the 15th Convocation ceremony of Aga Khan University. First, I would like
to congratulate you, the graduates, for the challenges you have
conquered, the projects you have completed, and for the goals you
have reached and maybe even surpassed. I also pay tribute to your
families without whose support your years of demanding and sometimes
gruelling studies may have proved unbearable. This is indeed a
very special day for you, as well as for your families and your
University.
As you leave
this University, many possibilities of this new century will open
up to you. Make the most of those opportunities, but in doing so
remember that you must also honour your responsibility to give at
least something back to Pakistan. Your country needs you. Our
country needs you. You have been blessed with the gift of a college
degree from an institution that has provided an exceptional enabling
environment conducive to learning and development comparable to
the best in the world. I exhort you to share this gift. Share
with your brothers and sisters the power to do good that education
has made available to you.
This is not
my first visit to AKU, and I certainly hope it will not be my last,
for each time I visit the campus I learn of exciting new projects
and initiatives the University is undertaking, not only in Pakistan
but now elsewhere in the world. We are all proud of the fact that
Aga Khan University is the first Pakistani university to carry the
green and white flag of Pakistan to foreign shores. In doing so
it carries the high quality of its academic programmes to many others
in the Muslim and developing countries, creating goodwill overseas
in ways that can only bring immense benefits to our country as a
whole.
We are indeed
fortunate to have an institution of the calibre and reputation of
AKU in the Province of Sindh. For this we must thank His Highness
the Aga Khan for his vision and foresight. Perhaps more than any
other province, Sindh has benefited from AKU’s programmes and its
presence, putting us in some ways on the world map as a centre of
knowledge and innovation in South Asia. But to say that Sindh has
benefited more than most does not diminish what AKU has done for
all the other provinces of Pakistan. AKU is a national institution
from which we all benefit and in which we must place great value.
Two years ago
when I last attended Convocation, I recall that your Chancellor,
His Highness the Aga Khan, described AKU as a University that works
with government, and reaches out to become directly involved in
upgrading the delivery of critical social services at local and
regional levels. It was in Sindh province, in the kutchi abadis
of Karachi and the surrounding rural villages, that the University’s
Department of Community Health Sciences undertook its first initiatives
in 1985 to improve the quality and availability of primary health
care to poor communities. It was also in Sindh province, in the
district of Thatta in 1992, that an innovative programme was undertaken
to encourage nutrition and school attendance among young school
girls. This successful experiment has lead to a Rs. 3.5 billion
national initiative called the Tawana Pakistan Project, that will
reach out to 500,000 school girls throughout the country. And it
was in Sindh province that the University’s Institute for Educational
Development established strong links with the Department of Education.
Since 1994 AKU has trained hundreds of in-service teachers, school
administrators and education officers in new ways of delivering
education to knowledge hungry students in this province. In these
instances, as well as in numerous other research programmes, Aga
Khan University has shown how an innovative, forward looking institution
can work with the provincial and Federal governments to create meaningful
and lasting public-private partnerships.
As we heard
in President Kassim-Lakha’s address, the University is now moving
ahead vigorously with the planning of its new Faculty of Arts and
Sciences, just outside Karachi, and that the campus will be a residential
one. As you know, the previous Governor of our province, General
Moinuddin Haider, announced that the Link Road area, between
the Super Highway and the National Highway where the new Faculty is
to be located, would be developed as an “Educational City”.
This is indeed essential if we are to protect the sanctity of the
area and provide a safe and scholarly environment conducive
to educating our young men and women. The University has already
reminded my government to take steps through a master plan
and legislation to make this plan become a reality.
It is indeed my desire to foster education in every
way I can, and with the help of my colleagues I will be taking the
necessary steps in that direction. I look forward with great
anticipation to the development of this new faculty, and the benefits
it will provide to the people of this province, the country and
the region.
I was also pleased
to hear in the President’s address that Aga Khan University Institute
for the Study of Muslim Civilisations in London is now open. Perhaps
in this country more than most, we have learned over the past year
of the chasm of ignorance that exists between the people of the
West and the people of Islam. The new institution in London will
do much to breach that chasm, and to replace ignorance with tolerance
and understanding that will have benefits of global proportions.
Aga Khan University
is in many ways a model institution. Among its most noteworthy objectives
are its strong adherence to merit-based admissions, and its commitment
to ensuring that no student qualified for admission based on merit
is denied entry for lack of funds. Tuition fees at AKU cover no
more than 25 percent of the true cost of its high quality education,
so that all students benefit from tuition subsidies. Yet 45 percent
of AKU’s students enjoy some form of additional financial assistance
through scholarships and loans. At the same time, in the teaching
hospital, the University subsidises the cost of patient care in
its general wards and in the Community Health Centre, and has a
Patient Welfare Programme to help those needy patients who cannot
afford the full cost of their medical care.
So what is it
that enables Aga Khan University to achieve its objectives, and
to be a role model for others to follow?
At its very
core is the vision and the generosity of its founder, His Highness
the Aga Khan, without whom there would be no university. But it
also requires the guidance and the wisdom of an international Board
of Trustees whose members give value and stability to the policies
of the University. It needs a faculty that is devoted to sharing
knowledge with bright young people who have been admitted to their
studies because they have the potential to become the leaders of
tomorrow. And it needs the support of donors whose philanthropy
supplements that of the founder, and provides needed funds for expansion
of the University’s programmes.
Yesterday morning
I had the honour of participating in the inauguration of the Nazerali-Walji
Building for ambulatory care, and the dedication of the Karimi Residences,
the Noor Residences and the Arman Rupani Residences for Women.
I am also aware that construction is almost complete on the Khimji
Cardiac Care Building. Well over a billion rupees of construction
on this campus is taking place largely through the generous support
of donors, many of whom live outside of the country and have travelled
thousands of miles to be with us today. Their support demonstrates
a confidence in this young University that will turn twenty next
year. I am also pleased to hear that an increasing amount of support
is coming from scores of donors here in Pakistan, and was delighted
when President Kassim-Lakha informed me that, Insha’Allah, a new,
comprehensive cancer care centre will soon be built on this campus,
funded in large part by the generous support of the corporate community
in Pakistan.
Aga Khan University
is a very unique institution. The graduates whom we are honouring
here today may feel justly proud that their alma mater strives to
be more than simply a place of higher education. It seeks to be
an agent of change that works with government to find innovative
solutions to the problems of poverty, education and health.
Graduates –
you are also agents of change. You are the future leaders of this
country. Just as this esteemed Institution has guided and supported
your endeavours, I hope you will reach out to your fellow citizens
in helping them down the path of progress, espousing the ideals
of plurality and diversity. But do not follow where the path may
lead. Instead, go where there is no path, and leave a trail behind
for others to follow.
Let me close
by again offering my heartiest congratulations to all of the graduates
on this most special day, and offer my warm felicitations to the
many parents, families and friends who have joined in this wonderful
celebration.
Pakistan Zindabad.
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