Migmg news 
KARACHI: The Aga Khan University on Saturday celebrated the graduation of the Class of 2022, its first Founder’s Day and the University’s 40th anniversary.
Simultaneous ceremonies were held in Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and were broadcast online to an international audience of AKU friends and supporters.
Princess Zahra Aga Khan attended the ceremony in Karachi and shared a message from His Highness the Aga Khan, Founder and Chancellor of the University.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah was the chief guest.
A total of 777 students graduated from AKU’s global campuses with degrees and diplomas in 19 fields, bringing the total number of degrees and diplomas awarded by the University to more than 19,000, including more than 4,500 in East Africa.
In Pakistan, the School of Nursing and Midwifery graduated its 5,000th student. Students majored in Nursing, Medicine, Education and Media and Communications.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said that the Aga Khan University has been a trusted partner of the Sindh government for decades, but in recent years, the partnership has proved its worth like never before.
“At the beginning of the pandemic, when Pakistan recorded its first cases of the virus, there were so many unknowns, there were so many questions that needed answers at that difficult time; therefore, AKU’s expertise was invaluable.”
He said this while speaking on the occasion of the Aga Khan University Founder’s Day – the 40th anniversary and convocation of the Class of 2022 of the Aga Khan University.
The program was attended by Princess Zahra Aga Khan, President Zakir Mahmood and members of the Board of Trustees Chairman Sulaiman Shahabuddin, members of the Class of 2022 and family members of the graduates.
Murad Shah said that as the number of COVID-19 cases increased and it became clear that we needed to provide additional training to our doctors and nurses to care for seriously ill patients with Covid-19, we naturally turned to ACU.
He added that with great enthusiasm, the AGU faculty has trained thousands of public sector health workers and established a hotline so that ICU doctors in public hospitals can receive advice on caring for Covid patients around the clock.
The CM recalled that during the pandemic, his government relied on AKU for data on the spread of the virus and the arrival of new strains.
Talking about the recent floods, the worst in our history, Shah said the devastation was unlike anything Pakistan had ever seen.
“AKU once again rose to the challenge, along with the government and many other private sector institutions, and rushed to set up health camps in affected communities across Sindh and other provinces,” he said, adding that hundreds of thousands of people were being cared for.
Murad Shah said he could cite many more examples of AKU tackling important health and education issues in partnership with the public sector – from increasing access to vaccination in underserved areas of Karachi, to training teachers in rural Sindh.
The CM said he will work closely with AKU to bring outstanding healthcare and education to the people of Sindh and Pakistan.
He hopes the new graduates will continue to demonstrate the power of an AKU education and the extraordinary talent of our youth.
Princess Zahra Aga Khan expressed gratitude to the global university community for the “magnificent gift” of its support to AKU over the past four decades.
“As we mark the inaugural Founder’s Day, its 40th anniversary and the graduation of the Class of 2022, AKU has never celebrated more,” she said. “I am deeply, deeply grateful to everyone who made his journey possible.”
President Sulaiman Shahabuddin paid tribute to His Highness the Aga Khan and “his vision of a university that reconciles loyalty to international standards with service to those in need, that prepares its students to use knowledge to identify and solve problems, which shows that science is the property of no culture, but of all mankind.”
In his message, His Highness the Aga Khan traced the 40-year journey of AKU from 1983 to date, calling AKU a source of hope and expressing pride in its achievements and confidence in its future.
“Today, as in 1983, the future of the University rests in the hands of its leaders, faculty, staff and supporters,” His Highness said.
“Together, we are all custodians of the founding vision.” Our history gives us every reason to believe that as long as we stay true to that vision, the light of AKU—the light displayed on the University’s seal—will grow ever brighter, helping to light the way to a better future for the people it serves. “
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
.