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Good news stories from Pakistan are rare nowadays. The despair that haunts and stalks the ordinary Pakistani from Karachi to Khyber has many ugly faces and includes the fear of death and destruction as unleashed by the vile Taliban. Rampant inflation and loadshedding are two more gifts of the Gilani government and the list can go on and on. However in a desert of pessimism, there is an oasis of hope in the story of one, Naveed Asif.  

The Naveed Asif story  is a story that will move you and renew your faith in Pakistan and its great potential. Saadia Khalid has detailed Naveed’s story of hope  in The News and it is shared below:

Hats Off To Young Achiever Despite Adversity by Saadia Khalid

All praise for 17-year-old Naveed Asif, who after getting second position in the Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education (BISE), Lahore, proved that one could achieve the highest targets through hard work and determination despite unfavourable circumstances.

Social connectivity sites, including Facebook, these days are full of pictures and write-ups to honour the achievement of this young boy. The youngsters are writing comments and forwarding the post regarding Naveed.

According to the youth, this young boy from Nahranwali village, Okara is undoubtedly a source of pride for the whole nation and inspiration for the youth. Despite his school being seven kilometres away from his house, which he used to reach on foot every day, Naveed scored 919 marks in Matric in the Humanities group of boys and got second position in BISE Lahore.

According to the reports, on the day of the event organised to honour the position holders, the boy entered the spacious Alhamra Hall, Lahore, unnoticed in his ragged clothes and worn out sandals. It was a function where everyone was dressed up and entered with an utter sense of pride. Probably Naveed didn’t know that his achievement was worth a pride. After looking around for a while, he could not find a seat for himself and preferred to sit on the stairs.

Naveed Asif is an orphan and his mother works as a labourer to bear his educational expenses. It was something unbelievable for the two when they were told about Naveed’s achievement. “We were really terrified by the door knock late night and it was astonishing to know that the BISE team actually visited my place to inform me about my position. My happiness knew no bounds but my mother’s happiness was far greater than mine. It was just like a dream come true,” he said. “You may deem it ridiculous but I ever said to my mother that I wanted to be like Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, as I ever considered him my role model,” he said.

Naveed had received a huge round of applause as he narrated his circumstances to Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif during the ceremony. His inspiring achievement moved the CM to make an announcement of financial assistance for this ambitious student, ordering the Punjab government to transfer Rs3 million in his account, so he could continue his studies.

The achievement of Naveed Asif has been highlighted by the newspapers, TV channels and magazines as well as on websites and several social connectivity sites but it fuelled a heated discussion and raised many questions, such as if a boy living in a village – deprived of the basic facilities and studying in a government school – could bring such laurels, why not the rest of the youth, who are bestowed with all such blessings? Why the rest of the youth does not want to become like Quaid-e-Azam? Why do we not try to get the best of what is available rather criticising the system?

It is still not evident as to what will come out of such discussions but hats off to this young achiever, who made all of us feel proud, as he achieved what he aspired for instead of criticising the system or the circumstances.

Other Pakistan applauds Naveeed Asif for he is a ray of hope of a better Pakistan. Naveed has done Pakistan proud and we wish him well as he seeks to emulate our greatest role model, the Quaid-e-Azam. 

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 4th, 2010 @ 7:10 pm on the category Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.