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First Sikh to graduate from Lahore
PU wants
reservation for Sikhs
WSN
Network
LAHORE: The first
Pakistani Sikh to graduate from the Punjab University (PU), Lahore
since partition says that there should be reserved seats for Sikhs
at the university.
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Quota absence
costs these Sikhs
LAHORE: Two
other Sikh students who applied for admission to the Government
College University (GCU) have been rejected because of a lack of
minority seats at the institution and have now demanded such
quota.
The students – Vijendar Singh and Joginder Singh – said the
GCU should reserve minority seats at the university, as it had
reserved seats for sportsmen, children of teachers, etc.
Vijendar said his score (723) in matric (class 10) was good and
his chances for admission at the GCU would have been brighter if
there had been minority seats at the institution.
GCU
Registrar Professor Faisal Khurshid said the admission
applications of the Sikh students had been rejected because they
had not met the merit requirements of the institution. |
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In an interview to pakistani newspaper Daily Times, Jaswinder
Singh, who has passed his Bachelor’s in Arts (honours) programme,
said that he belonged to the North Federal Administered Tribal Area
(NFATA), and got admission to the PU in 2004 on a seat reserved for
NFATA students. He scored a 3.4 GPA (grade point average) in his
honours programme and now plans to do his Masters in Business
Administration in finance from the PU.
He demanded that the government reserve seats for Sikhs
intending to take admission to the PU, as it was one of the most
prestigious and oldest universities of
Pakistan.
He said no seat has been reserved for minorities and desired
opportunity for Pakistani Sikh students to be educated in
India.
He said that Pakistani Sikh men usually married after they
turned 30, as there were very few Sikh girls in
Pakistan. He said
that during times of peace between the two countries, Pakistani Sikh
men could marry girls from Amritsar, which was not possible these
days.
He said that he had enjoyed his time at the PU. “No one
discriminated against me because of my religion and appearance
during my four years at the university. It was the best time of my
life because there were no worries,” he said. He said that he was
proud of being the first Pakistani Sikh in the country’s history to
get a four-year degree from the PU.
3 September 2008
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