LAHORE -

The 25th annual convocation of Lahore University of Management Sciences held on Saturday. Eight hundred graduates in various majors and disciplines from three schools of the university got their degrees.
On the occasion, keynote speaker Dr Adibul Hasan Rizvi, founder and director of the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) said: “We never have latest technology at our disposal unless we invest in human development and especially in education; not unless we stop squandering our wealth, by denying the right of education and better life for millions of children who deserves not only our support but equal opportunities.” He said that students should work for the better future of Pakistan.  He said, “With your intellect and your education you will be able to ensure justice for the common man and for equitable distribution of the resources so that the children will attend school not aforced to pick garbage from dumps or any kind of child labour.”
Dr Rizvi added, “Beware of the skeptics. They will say inequality has been around since time immemorial. But the reality is otherwise. Our Prophet (PBUH) strongly believed in the equality of mankind, or “Musawat”, which is a basic tenet of Islam.”
Rizvi further said that Pakistan has the world’s second highest number of children with no access to school. Presently, the country’s children population estimated to be 85 million out of which 27 million children of school going age have no access to school education.
In total, 49.5 million adults are illiterate, the third largest number at a global level. Pakistan spends only 2.3% of its GDP on education, he said.
Lums VC Dr Adil Najam Rs350 million had been distributed among the students. Dr. Najam also explained the logo of Lums as “the floral representation of an open book, which should remain open for knowledge to be sort forever.”
The degrees were conferred on the 800 graduates in various majors and disciplines from three schools – Suleman Dawood School of Business (SDSB), Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering (SBASSE) and Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences (MGSHSS). Outstanding students were handed awards and medals by the National Management Foundation (NMF), the governing body at Lums.