Habib University held its ninth Convocation, conferring degrees on 276 graduates – the largest class in its history. The ceremony brought together the graduating class with families, faculty, and guests to celebrate an institution that has, in eleven years, established itself as a distinct model for Pakistani higher education. Graced by the presence of Honorable Nehal Hashmi, Governor Sindh; and Jameel Ahmad, Governor, State Bank of Pakistan; Muhammad H. Habib, Chancellor, Habib University; Mohomed Bashir, Chairman Board of Governors; esteemed members of the Board of Governors, and respected Mohsineen – the event carried profound messages for all present.
The commencement address was delivered by Mudassir Sheikha, Co-Founder & CEO, Careem, the region’s first unicorn. Sheikha spoke about taking the path not taken, and about the difference between ambition that accumulates and ambition that builds. “Taking the safe path is deeply irresponsible for someone with your education. Your work is not comfort-it is the problems around you. Master your trade, then step out and build. The difference between those who do and those who do not is never talent, it is initiative and it does not wait. You carry a responsibility to build lives for those who never got the seat you are sitting in today. Society will judge your path. Let it. Instead, I wish you an honest dose of hardship, and the will to walk through it.”
Wasif Rizvi, President of Habib University, delivered a keynote built around a single, counterintuitive theme: From Delulu to Selulu – a call to the graduating class to move from the state of being self-imprisoned by the need to be seen, to be grounded in purpose. In a culture that prizes curated identities and relentless self-promotion, the President argued that the deliberate choice to remain genuinely humble is not a diminishment- it is clarity. It is strength. It is the disposition that keeps the mind open and makes real learning possible. Rooting his address in Habib University’s foundational philosophy of Yohsin and Tawazu, he challenged graduates to resist the age of narcissism not through retreat, but through conviction. “Tawazu is not softness. It is the instrument of intellect – the faculty without which you will not know anything at all. The seed grows in soft soil, never on stone. Treat knowledge as a trust, not a credential. Let the matter of your life be not what you gather, but what you repair. Not what you win, but who you become.”
Muhammad Habib, Chancellor Habib University, expounding the Yohsin core, encouraged the love for the country as the essential core for the work forward. “Cherish diversity and never underestimate the value of human connectivity.” Wishing them wisdom and courage and he prayed for them to make this world a better place.
Jameel Ahmad, Governor, State Bank of Pakistan, pointed graduates toward the economic challenges ahead. “The disruption of geo-politics has impacted us as it has the rest of the world. Pakistan needs your creativity directed at its hardest problems. The solutions will not come from conventional thinking, and you have the benefit of not being conventionally trained. Let us utilize the digital edge and use it to our advantage.”
Nehal Hashmi, the honorable Governor Sindh, addressing the graduates framed their holistic education as a public responsibility: “Today’s graduates leave with more than degrees, they leave with the responsibility and the privilege of shaping this nation’s future. Their stellar education has made them equal to that task, and our most credible ambassadors to the world.”
Keeping up with the lessons received at the university, the class did not wait to graduate before contributing to the national economy. Of 127 Final Year Projects, 100 addressed Pakistan’s social realities in partnership with Dawlance and Toyota Indus Motor Company. The 9th cohort logged over 2,500 hours of community service, with 82% engaged in industry during their degree. Nine have already founded ventures. Twelve are headed to Columbia, NYU, Carnegie Mellon, SOAS and Glasgow. Their projects included an AI speech-to-text tool for Burushaski-a northern language with 120,000 speakers and no script; a clinical tool to ease Pakistan’s healthcare workforce burden; an ethnographic study of why citizens avoid the formal justice system; and a project recovering Sindh’s oral histories with the communities who hold them.