The Debates Society

Our school has 7 students only!

It has been almost 5 months since the new Academic year started at PAF Chapter. The A-levels Section of PAF Chapter is the only section in PAF Chapter which is very active in Co-curricular and Extra-Curricular Activities. The only section that has Societies that organize regular intra and inter school competitions. Amongst the more active societies of our school is the Debates Society headed by Kaneez Zainab, the Deputy Head Girl and Shoaib Bhatti, a relatively unknown figure.

Team C during the Deabte. From left:

Faraz Butt, Shoaub Bhatti, Ali Ahmed Khan

Like all other societies, The Debating Society has quite a few members. Approximately 50 who have registered. But like all other societies the Debating Society too has apparently short listed a handful of 5 or 6 members who participate in every other competition held in school and represent the school in out of school competitions too. You would be aware of the fact that there are more than 600 students in the A-levels Section. The Societies were formed to give equal opportunity to all the students of A-levels section to participate in the respective competitions; to groom their Public Speaking, Sports, Journalism or Dramatics etc. skills and win laurels for the school. Sadly, as we all know, in City School, you always get the opposite of what you are promised .Whether it be declaring a school holiday on a perfectly normal working day at 7:45 in the morning or charging handsomely the pupils who were promised 100% scholarship. Or, as is the theme of this article, making biased selections in the Societies after promising equal representation for all students.

Being an avid follower of the Debating Society, I will only highlight some of the shady selections it has been engaged in. The Journalism, Sports, Outreach, Science and toher Societies haven't been very transparent in their selections-for-competitions either. Perhaps the worthy Presidents would bless us an explanation anyway.

Let me begin at the beginning. The Debating Society's President, Kaneez Zainab, announced in the assembly at the beginning of the term that trials will be held to rank the debaters in our school and make teams for a Parliamentary Debates competition. These trials did take place in due time. Four Parliamentary Style teams (3 debaters in one team) were constituted on basis of these trials. The actual competition took place in the Basement and Library from 12th to 15th of November, 2007. The final was won by Team A, ( Asad Ayub, Kaneez Zainab and Anadil Faqah) against Team C, (Ali Ahmed Khan, Shoaib Bhatti and Faraz Butt). The judges for this competition were invited from SMC and FJDC. Sounds fair enough, but only thus far.

Audience and the Judges in the School Library

during the Final

As surprising as it is, 5 of these12 debaters shortlisted for the competition are in the same class as the honorable President and Vice President of the Society. The President and Vice President were themselves part of the teams even though they didn't participate in the so-called 'Trials'. Another thing worth noting is the caliber of the rest of the people short listed in the trial for this very important competition. Some of them couldn't even speak for 2 minutes on the podium and after crying things like "I can't do it!" scurried out of the room. These, my friends, are supposedly the top 12 debaters of The City School PAF Chapter's A-level Section!

Or are they? One only wonders how can 5 of the best debaters in a school can be in the same class as the Society President and Vice President. What's more puzzling is the elimination of some of the very good speakers of our school in this and other competions. Some of the key misses I am aware of were Hamza Sheikh (Rotarty Club Public Speaking Competition winner), Farzan Abbas (selected as a LUMUN Delegate), Asad Ayub (shown in the picture above who was later inducted in one of the 4 teams as a substitution and actually proved to be one of the best debaters of the tournament according to judges), Farah Akhtar and Ibad Rizvi (both are very experienced speakers and were selected as LUMUN Delegates). I am sure they would have been able to speak better than many of the short listed 'benefactors' of the Debating Society. The very same friends who are class fellows of the Society Heads. Not to forget those who couldn't even speak for 2 minutes on the podium!

Kaneez Zainab raising a Point of Information

in the Final Round

Distinguished Heads of School listning to the

Final between Team A and Team C

Apart from the Parliamentary Deabtes Competition, our school also participated in the Lecol'e Institute Inter-School Declamation Contest. Only 5 or 6 people were part of the auditions for this competition. And I know for a fact that Ibad Rizvi, our Deputy Head Boy, charged upto Miss. Neelum after the audiontion results were announced to demand fresh auditions. He claimed he wasn't given enough time and would do much better than those selected for Lecole. Maybe he would have done much better, I don't know, but the two speakers selected for Leco'le (Maleeha Javed and Maham Rizvi) were eliminated in the first round. Surely, PAF Chapter is not a school that should get eliminated in 1st rounds. It is apparent thus, that the teams our school have been sending aren't the best teams. But the paradox here is that the best speakers in our school are a few. And the Debating Society President and Vice President are two of them! So, is it justified to select these the few good speakers to represent our school over and over again or everyone should be given a chance? If everyone is given a chance, as was the case in The Lecol'e Contest, will our school ever be able to advance more than the 1st round?

The Heads of Societies are there to facilitate the members and prepare teams for different competitions/events. There is a large number of students who demand that they shouldn't be allowed to participate in competitions/events organized by their own Societies. Maybe if the Heads are so good, they should resign from their posts and just be active participants instead. Last year, Imran Hassan and Anam Alvi (President and VP of Deabates Society) didn't participate in a single public speaking competition themselves. Isn't that better way of leading our Societies?

Our Counselor and Headmistress certainly don't think so. The same people are Heads of Societies, Heads of Prfectorial Council and represent our school in Debating or other Competitions every now and then. A selected group of students or 'benefactors' of the Society Heads maybe are being selected for all the Sports, Science, Outreach, Journalism and Debates Society competitions. The Heads of Societies are themselves into everything. Arun Kumar, Faizan Naqvi, Anadil Faqah, Hamad Zafar, Mansoor-ul-Haq, Kaneez Zainab, Shoaib Bhatti etc. are the most frequent participants of the competitions and events being organized by their respective Societies. The A-levels section has 600 students not 7! Where are the rest of the 593 students? Clapping in the audience?!