Workshop: All Karachi Bilingual Declamation Contest
Venue: Arts Auditorium University of Karachi (KU)
Date: December 7^th, 2021

 Summary:

To mark International Anti-Corruption Day 2021, Transparency International Pakistan joined hands with Office of Student Affairs, University of Karachi to organize All Karachi Bilingual Declamation Contest on the theme of “Your right, your role: Say no to Corruption”. The objective of the declamation contest was to raise awareness among the youth on the important role they can play in the fight against corruption.

The declamation contest was held at Arts Auditorium, University of Karachi where 36 student teams from 18 universities and colleges across Karachi participated in the competition. The event was attended by around 120 participants. Following universities participated in the debate competition: DHA Suffa, Dow College of Pharmacy, Al Beruni College, Jamia Suffa, Jinnah Sindh Medical University, NED University, Dow Medical College, Jamia Tur Rasheed, Karachi Institute of Management, Sindh Madrassa Tul Islam University, Jamia Tul Anwar, Sir Syed Govt Girls College, Tabanis School of Accountancy, Institute of Business Administration, Defence College for Women, JSMU Institute of Pharmacy and Bahria College Karsaz.

The Topics for English Declamation were:

1. No to Corruption, Yes to Nationhood
2. A Corrupt Nation is a Dead Nation
3. We the People You the Accountable
4. United We stand and Corrupt we Fall

Topics for Urdu Declamation were:

1. اجل نے کام اپنا کردیا رشوت نہیں کھاٸی۔
2. اک مدفون خدا ہے دلِ ظالم کا اثاثہ۔
3. پا بہ گِل سب ہیں رہاٸی کی کرے تدبیر کون۔
4. معلوم یہ ہوتا ہے اب تک یوسف کے برادر زندہ ہیں۔

The event lasted between 10.30am – 3pm and was presided by the following esteemed panel of judges for the two categories

The panel of judges for English category was:

1. Hafsa Tahir, President Karachi University Debating Society
2. Ramisha Ali, News correspondent and content creator for The Independent UK’s Urdu service in Karachi

The panel of judges for Urdu category was:

1. Salma Begum, University of Karachi
2. Assistant Professor Dr. Khalid Ameen, University of Karachi

Students delivered excellent content and powerful oratory on how corruption affects people and proposed recommendations for the policy makers on the need for anti-corruption reforms in Pakistan to enable Pakistan to emerge as a prosperous nation. The debates were followed by the feedback and critique provided by the judges in respective categories.  

TI Pakistan representative, Mr. Kashif Ali joined the event and explained in detail the importance of International Anti-Corruption Day as a source of consciousness among the citizens on the need to engage in the fight against corruption. He highlighted that engaging youth is essential for success in curbing corruption as youth represent a majority portion of Pakistan’s population and are generally more open to social change and political transformation, since they may have less interest in maintaining the status quo.

He emphasized that in addition to representing a significant part of the population, young people tend to be more exposed to bribery and therefore particularly vulnerable to corruption, as they are involved in almost every aspect of society – as students, pupils, workers, customers and citizens. Therefore, how youth is taught to respond to corrupt practices play an important part in determining their future behavior.

He highlighted some of the best practices around youth participation against corruption such as using social media for raising voice and holding leaders accountable, educating and mobilizing citizens using right to information laws and conducting citizen report card studies to gather feedback from citizens on the quality of service delivery and sending it to the authorities for redress. However, he insisted that the foremost role that youth can play in the fight against corruption is refusing to pay bribe because in every corrupt transaction there are always two parties and if majority of our population that is youth refuse to be the ‘givers’, there will not be too many people to ‘take the bribes’

The concluding remarks were delivered by Ms. Shumail Samad Khan, Lecturer University of Karachi. She thanked Transparency International Pakistan for the support and collaboration in organizing All Karachi Bilingual Declamation Contest. She highlighted that debate competitions are effective way to raise awareness among the students. She also provided feedback to the debating teams.

At the end, trophies were distributed among the winning individual and winning teams and certificates were given to the participants. Dow College of Pharmacy and Dow Medical College had won the team trophy for best team in both categories.

The event was followed by refreshment.