SSC Part-I private exams 2011 registration

BSEK announces form submission date
Karachi, June 12: Secretary Board of Secondary Education, Karachi, Hoor Bi Mazhar on Friday said that the registration forms of SSC Part-I (Class IX) for private candidates, annual examinations 2011, can be submitted without any late fee from June 21 to August 13, 2010.

She added that Rs350 would be charged if the candidates follow these dates. The forms are available at National Bank, Habib Bank, Askari Bank of Board Office Booths, she also said.

The Board has announced that the private candidates for SSC Part-II (Class IX and X Combined), could also deposit their forms which is subject to the prior permission obtained from the Board for the year 2011, she further said.

Meanwhile, Board would collect Rs100 as late fee from August 16 to September 30, 2010 and Rs200 from October 01 to 29, 2010. Furthermore, Rs500 would be received as fine from November 01 to 30, 2010 while late fee Rs1000 would be collected from December 01 to 31, 2010 whereas surcharge of Rs1500 would be imposed from January 03 to till last date of submission of examination forms, Hoor Mazhar said.

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FUUAST extends registration date
Karachi: Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (FUUAST) has extended registration form submission date of BA, B Com and MA (private) with late fee extra Rs1000 (total Rs2600) from June 15 to June 30. The new

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Rs 7bn for education development sector
Karachi: The Sindh government has raised the education development budget from Rs 5.9 billion to Rs 7 billion.

Rs 500 million have been allocated for elementary education for the year 2010-11 which was Rs 160 million in the previous year. The government would spend Rs 5 million on teachers' education while the allocation for this purpose last year was over Rs 6.2 million.

The government has set Rs 470 million for secondary education compared to the Rs 341 million last year.

Over Rs 2.6 billion have been reserved for college education against Rs 1.6 billion in 2009-10. Over Rs 16.3 billion have been reserved for the non-development education sector in which Rs 7.9 billion have been reserved for employees' expenses.

Over Rs 2.9 billion have been reserved for teachers' allowances this year that were over Rs 2 billion last year. Rs 7.5 billion have been set for operating expenses in the non-development sector compared to over Rs 6.4 billion last year. Over Rs 1.5 billion have been reserved for grants subsidies and write off loans, Rs 112 million for transfers, Rs 43 million for physical assets and Rs 57 million for repair and maintenance purposes. Daily times

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KU conference on cultural, intellectual heritage
Karachi: Thought-provoking speeches and well-researched papers and presentations marked the inaugural day of the national conference on cultural and intellectual heritage of Pakistan at Karachi University's arts auditorium on Friday.

The two-day event is organised by the Pakistan Library Association (PLA) and the department of library and information science, University of Karachi.

Noted media-person and scholar Javed Jabbar was the keynote speaker of the first session which was presided over by KU Pro Vice-Chancellor Shahana Urooj Kazmi, while well-respected philosopher and former dean of the arts faculty Dr Manzoor Ahmed was the chief guest.

Mr Jabbar's speech was peppered with historical facts, thoughtfulness and humour. He started off by likening the library department to the institution of the army since like the armed forces it too had camps (libraries) where it took care of its weapons (books). Speaking of culture and intellect, he said contrary to what people think culture and intellect were not conjoined. He said culture was a vast subject and it existed wherever human beings lived. Even the making of a tie or a certain kind of kitchen utensil was part of culture. "Culture is spontaneous and can't be controlled, but intellect is self-willed and is not as pervasive," he said, adding that one had to be willing to be an intellectual.

Mr Jabbar said Pakistan's heritage predated the country and there were three basic factors that shaped cultural and intellectual heritage of the country - universal, geographical and political. While the history of the former two factors spanned thousands of years, the age of the political part was just 63. Expanding on this theme, he said Pakistan was a political miracle, something created out of sheer political thought and strategy. "How can you create a nation like that?" he asked, arguing that it took ages for a nation (qaum) to form. He said after the Second World War Pakistan was the first country that got dismembered and broke into two. He said Pakistan's majority rejected it and its name, forming another country Bangladesh. He posed the question if an effort was made to fuse the cultures of East and West Pakistan. He said: "Today we're again trying to create an identity for ourselves… and we must realise that Ghalib, Khusrau and Iqbal were part of our culture."

As a note of caution, Mr Jabbar raised the question: "Does the opening up of the media represent the closing of the mind?" He then touched upon Allan Bloom's book The Closing of the American Mind.

Mr Jabbar said society and state were faced with five challenges: (1) finding our history (2) preservation of the parallel streams of history (3) access to parallel streams for all (4) respect for new versions of culture (5) to stimulate creativity.Dr Manzoor Ahmed lauded Mr Jabbar's speech and informed the audience that the real issue lay in the time when Pakistan hadn't even come into being. He said there was 'vacuity' in the word 'Pakistan' and efforts were made to fill it with meaning. He said there was also a religious concept in the word which had its pros and cons. He said the issue of low intellectual content was always a problem for Muslims because, though there had been renowned Muslim names in the fields of arts and science, no one originated anything or began a tradition.

Dr Ahmed said the question of culture was a tricky one, because then we'd have to ask ourselves "who are we or what's the salience of our identity? What is the peculiarity of our intellectual heritage?" He said it's an enigma and an open-ended debate and added Mr Jinnah was left with no choice but to seek a separate land, for if Muslims had got their rights while remaining in India things would've been different.

'Society in self-denial'

After Dr Manzoor's speech, Prof Shahana Urooj Kazmi congratulated the organisers for putting together the conference.

Prior to the speeches, President PLA Prof Malahat Kaleem Sherwani gave the background to the conference and informed the audience that the event was held after a long time. She thanked the guests and those who had come from all parts of the country to take part in the event. Prof Muneera Nasreen Ansari told the audience about the topics of the papers that were going to be read in the course of the two-day conference, and Prof Shireen Gul Soomro officially thanked all the speakers and guests for their participation.

The second session of the conference, presided over by media person Mehtab Akbar Rashdi, commenced with journalist Shahanshah Husain's paper on Pakistan's film industry. He traced the history of the film trade and discussed the issues that hampered its growth. He criticised the role of the censor board in dictating its terms to filmmakers and claimed that it was important to invest in, and revive, Karachi's film industry.

Chairperson of KU's department of visual arts Durriya Kazi gave a very impressive presentation on the confluence of cultures in the Indus Valley. She talked about the importance of the Indus and how a variety of cultures had their effects here during different time periods. She concluded by emphasising the significance of art commenting that "art gives soul to a civilisation".

Theatre person Imran Pirzada's topic was performing arts. In his brief talk, he narrated a personal experience hinting at the mindset of those who called the shots. He said once he was asked by a school to do a play for their students. He made the schoolchildren write the play for themselves and they came up with an interesting love story about a girl confessing her love to a boy. To which the school drama committee objected saying it couldn't do it and instead asked Imran to do the famous play Mama Mia. Mr Pirzada said he told the committee that the play (Mama Mia) had some sexually explicit language to which they replied 'we're going to change the lines.' He said the problem with our society was that it lived in self-denial and hadn't yet accepted its culture.

Known scholar Uxi Mufti in his typical free-flowing style claimed that Pakistan's cultural heritage was oral and not written. He said if such things were penned, they'd be dead. He said there's no book available on how to learn the sarangi, instead if anyone asked Shafqat Amanat Ali to sing something from Amir Khusrau's repertoire he'd instantly comply. He said the greatest of philosophers Socrates never wrote anything and our most wise people were the ones who're not educated. He asked if any library in Pakistan had a folklore department and argued that before digitising any library, the process of documenting records was essential. He then continued his discussion after a break with the help of a presentation touching upon other related issues.

In her presidential address Mehtab Akbar Rashdi said she agreed with Imran Pirzada that we lived in a state of self-denial and it's time we started accepting each other with open-mindedness.

"To begin with, you must believe in what you have and then accept what others have to offer," she said. She rounded off her speech by saying that change was the only constant thing in the world. Dawn

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SSUET to hold Hajj balloting
Karachi: Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET) would hold a Hajj balloting at 3pm in the University Auditorium on Tuesday. According to a notification issued on Friday by the registrar of SSUET, VC Professor Dr Saiyid Nazir Ahmed would preside over the balloting at Block-C of the auditorium. The news

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