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.
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.
Quota absence costs these Sikhs
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.