I would like to thank the honourable Agha Siraj, Speaker of the Sindh Assembly for allowing us to use this space, the old Sindh Assembly.
Welcome delegates,
It is indeed a pleasure to be addressing the seventh Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Model United Nations. Before I welcome our chief guest for the closing session, I would like to spend a few minutes telling you what SZABIST is all about…
My mother established SZABIST in 1995 as a tribute to her father SZAB. Education, she believed, was the route to excelling in Life. She often stated about how everything can be taken away from you apart from your education. The vision behind SZABIST was to provide a platform, to help arm our students with the knowledge and facilities they need to contribute to a better more prosperous Pakistan.
We have campuses in Karachi, Larkana, Islamabad, Hyderabad and Dubai. In fact, we are the only Pakistani university in the world with a campus abroad. Currently accommodating around 6000 students and we are consistently looking to expand and improve.
Academically we are excelling, with additional new programs, constructed entirely by SZABIST – like our Sind Studies Program that promotes and disseminates knowledge pertaining to Sindh. We study the language, architecture, archaeology, anthropology and musicology of Sindh among other fields (irrigation, river study etc).
Under the guidance of our current chancellor, SZABIST has grown and continues to do so exponentially. Apart from our known campuses, we also have montessori, junior and intermediate schools in Larkana and Mirpurkhas. Vocational institutes in Nawabshah, Hyderabaad, Mirpurkhas, Larkana and Tando Mohammad Khan that offer both men and women the basic job skills they need for employment today.
In terms of research and development, SZABIST opened a center for renewable energy research in 2009. In 2010 the ‘Composite Lab and Wind Turbine Generator Testing Rig’ was established and finally by 2011 a windmill was installed at Gharo in Sindh. I love to brag about the achievements of our Students who never fail to surprise me by their determination – from their self designed solar cooker currently used in the village of Jaffer Jo-kee-oh, to the successful prototype Wood gas stove. They are motivated to help ease the lives of those less fortunate and SZABIST continues to provide the platform our students need. We opened a Stem Cell Research Center for the study of cells and a tissue culture laboratory. We experimented with labs for skin tissue culture to help burn victims. From Mechatronics to Biometrics – I honestly don’t even understand what my students are doing, I do know that they are successfully contributing both intellectually and practically For Pakistan. Their determination is indeed inspirational.
And so today – SZABIST is incredibly proud to host this Model United Nations which is the largest ever held in the whole of Pakistan. With 1500 delegates including participants from abroad. This is our future. You are our future leaders. Our democracy is young, it is fresh. The art of debating and using words rather than violence to resolve conflict is the legacy of our founder’s martyrdom. “It is the educated who think and it is the thinking who debate. And it is only those who debate can come to the right conclusion. (1989).
With that in mind, I would like to welcome chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party – Bilawal Bhutto Zardari
