70 education institutions contesting for trophy at Iqbal Declamation

Lahore, The 30th All Pakistan Allama Muhammad Iqbal Bilingual Declamation Contest, the largest and the most prestigious declamation contest hosted by any educational institution at the national level, Wednesday kicked off at the Government College University Lahore with the speeches charged with chaste emotions and critical thoughts. The best orators from more than 70 educational institutions are contesting for the coveted trophy at the two-day event spread over eight sessions. Students from all the strata of society joined this memorable event. Teams from the remote districts of the country such as D.I Khan, Jhanag, Patroo, Larkana Taxilla, Muzaffarabad especially came to represent their native towns while rubbing shoulders with the intellectual elite of the Pakistani youth. Each participant, irrespective of his socio-ethnic roots, put up a great show of talent and skills in the arena of public speaking on serious and humorous topics to mark his/her domination over others.

The serious topics that remained closely contested by the teams were: “The evil that men do lives after them”, “I have almost forgot the taste of fear”, “Life is but a walking shadow”, “And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?” In the humorous category, the participants enthralled the audience with their wit and humour particularly on the topics: “We are a nuclear power with no electric power”, “If you can’t convince them, confuse them”, and “Made as China”.

In the Urdu category, the youth also presented their views in a manner that was reflective of their impartial analysis of our national dilemma and came up with imaginative remedies. They punctuated their speeches with fiery verses of Allama Iqbal, Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Habib Jalib.

GCU Debating Society President, Zulqarnain Chheena said that the All Pakistan Allama Iqbal Bilingual Declamation Competition has been a regular annual feature of the GC University Lahore since 1980. He further said that this year there is a very tough competition among English orators as the best English speaker will be awarded with the Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Medal and a cash prize of Rs25000/- . Govt. College former principal the late M.A Khan introduced the medal with a donation of Rs 500,000 in 2007.

Mr Amir Aziz Syed, a noted jurist from Karachi and distinguished old Ravian, will grace as the Guest of Honor the final round to be held on Thursday.