British HC holds fifth 'great debate' competition

The British High Commission launched the fifth edition of its GREAT Debate competition with a regional round at the Government College University (GC University) Lahore here Saturday. The competition featured 20 students from 8 different universities including Punjab University, GC University Lahore, UET Lahore, FC College, LUMS, to name a few. At the end of an intense competition, Mustafa Shaukat from LUMS was the winner and Muhammad Ali from Punjab University was the runner-up.

The GREAT Debate competition is taking place from December 2019 to March 2020 in six cities across Pakistan. Fouzia Younis, Director of Communication at the British High Commission said, "Over the past five years, we have engaged over one thousand debaters and partnered with leading universities in 12 cities across Pakistan through our GREAT Debate competition.

"The competition gives us an opportunity to celebrate our shared tradition of lively, reasoned debate as well as give students a platform to express their views and opinions about topics that matter to both Pakistan and the UK. "So it's only right that this year's debate theme is focused on the global impact of climate change, especially as the UK prepares to host a major UN summit on this important agenda in November 2020."

Prof Dr Asghar Zaidi, The Vice Chancellor of GCU, said, "The Great Debate is an excellent initiative by the British High Commission Pakistan, which provides the students with a wonderful opportunity to engage with various ideas pertaining to the socio-economic issues of Pakistan.