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Students quiz Musharraf on Balochistan issue

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: You must talk to the people of your country, just like you talk to your son, asked a student a student to President General Pervez Musharraf referring to the Balochistan issue, adding that in some cases the president had made his tone rigid.

The participants of the Students’ Convention 2005 delivered thought-provoking speeches on policy-level issues and boldly grilled President General Pervez Musharraf on Saturday.

Gen Musharraf, however, gave patient hearing to the students’ hard-hitting speeches and sharp questions. He gave detailed answers to all those questions and tried to convince the students.

Some students complained the lack of transparency in the selection criteria for the nine final students, who were selected to deliver speeches on the final day of the convention.

Dr Attaur Rehman, the Higher Education Commission (HEC), dismissed the complaints and stated the selections were made purely on merit by a committee comprising highly competent and honest teachers. The HEC chairman observed that the downfall of the Ummah was now being reversed. He urged upon the students to value integrity because a life without honour was not worth living.

Adnan Kakakhel, a student from Karachi, said that the government had failed to ensure true democracy and supremacy of Parliament in the country. He said in most national-level decisions, Parliament was simply ignored.

Pointing to a huge portrait of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, he said the father of the nation would ask General Musharraf why he had overstepped his duty of guarding the country’s geographical frontiers. He said economy managers of the government were presenting a wrong picture. He said that hunger, poverty and unemployment were prevalent in the country.

The comments from the speakers were warmly appreciated by hundreds of students, who attended the convention. The other students who spoke at the occasion included Khadija Yaqub, Imran Saeed, Osama Ashraf, Ume Umain, Shafiq Hussain, Ammanullah Haq and Naseer Marri. Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, who moderated the discussion, claimed that Pakistan has become one of the most tolerant countries among the Ummah.

He informed the participants that the meeting of Commission of Eminent Persons of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) would be held next month. The meeting would discuss the structural reforms in the OIC.

Professor Stanley Wolpert, a celebrated historian, praised General Musharraf and observed that Pakistan could successfully counter present dangers under his leadership.

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