Adil Najam
At the new Prime Minister’s oath-taking recently, the body language of Gen. Pervez Musharraf as well as Yousuf Raza Gillani made it obvious that neither was comfortable being with the other. Each has deep reasons to distrust the motives of the other. One doubts, therefore, if they took any time t reminiscence about their college days. Both, after all, went to college at Lahore’s famed Forman Christian (F.C.) College; although at different times.
Had they done so, they would have found that they are a part of a fast growing fraternity of FC Colege (and, now, University) who are now making it to the top offices in Pakistan politics.
Former President Sardar Farooq Leghari was the first one in this new crop of powerful Formanites, but recently there has been an absolute flurry. Gen. Pervez Musharraf as President and Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani as Prime Minister are, of course, Formanites too. But so have been Pakistan Prime Ministers Chaudhry Shujaat and Mohamedmian Soomro, Indian Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral and Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Ellahi.
None of them seem to flaunt their college colors too hard – except Gen. Musharraf in his memories. Those mentions included, none of them seem to share with the public any lasting memories of their educational exploits at FC College and their is little indication that any of them had made deep marks for scholarship there. That notwithstanding, there is clearly a rise in the number of Formanites in power.
It used to be that Government College (and Aitchison College) were the power schools in Lahore. FC College would give them a run for their money in cricket, but not always in power corridors. That, it seems, has changed. Beware Ravians!
Correction: An earlier version of this post had listed Zafarullah Khan Jamali as an FC College Alumni. We checked after it was pointed out by a reader and, in fact, he was not (he went to Government College it seems). Proof, yet again, that not everything on the internet, especially on Wikipedia, ought to be believed. Our apologies.
I must admit that its the first time I have seen someone mentioning FC College. I went to FCC myself in 1994-95. Beautiful campus, nice buildings, awesome canteen, great cricket ground, decent teachers and idiot Jamiat (atleast then). Nobody really talks about FC College and why do they have college university,, sound stupid. If they just call it University, will it not be inclusive of college?
Anyway, many readers are right, GC was always the first choice, then FC and then civil lines and so on.. FC college besides its beautiful campus holds no value in my memory. Teachers were again just ordinary and probably at that time suffered with slight inferiority complex or I am not sure what it was, but they mostly encouraged tuition after college or you are doomed. Most of them were not even famous.
so thats FC college for me. The synergy and crowd was mostly decent and fun.
I m also a Formanite.
I am proud to be a formanite.
Everyone loves his college and university . If i am studying at FCC, i will say FCC is only best and rest of the college and universities are not good . And the students which are studying at LUMS or GCU they will love their insitution more.
All want that their college do more progress . FCC has become a private university since 2003. No doubt that this insitution get most of the money from Donation . But major part of this donation is coming from USA .
Every insitution is seeking for donation LUMS ,GCU etc and they are gettiing also.
Fcc is improving day by day to give tough competition to instituions like LUMS ,NUST etc.
Anyone is studying from any insitute you are all Pakistani . This is our responsibility to be a Good Pakistani. Because in this world no Institue can make u a good person.
Inshala time will tell that what FCC has done .
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Forman Christian College has signed a cooperative agreement with the University of Kentucky (USA) through which cooperation will be developed in the following areas:
Joint research activities
Exchange of academic materials and academic publications
exchanges of faculty and students
Faculty member exchanges will be for research, lectures and discussions, and student exchanges will be for study and research. FCC is also negotiating cooperative agreements with other universities for specific academic programs and for student exchange programs. The College hopes to make these programs a vibrant part of its campus life.
Forman Christian College has designed its four year Bachelors Degree Program in accordance with the standards for accreditation in the USA. FCC is seeking to gain accreditation through the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. The university is in the very early stages of this process.
For more information about the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, please visit their website at http://www.neasc.org.
—————————————————————————–In Any college and university u r studying , do great .
well babur its to you. If you think that these formanites are not capable of running pakistans then i must say that these Ravians and Aithisonians have not done so well on the other hand and if they had done even a little then this would have been a different Pakistan in which you are living now as poor Pakistanis. It’s really easy to criticize some one or group of people but really difficult to change when its upto you. so please keep politics out of the alma matter. whereas FC is concerned education wise. it has achieved great milestones since its privatisation like the Business school of management and their MBA program. inshallah in upcoming years it will be considered amongst the top universities of Pakistan like LUMS , LSE and IBA. (in at least Business department)
. I myself is an alumni at FC doing my Bachelors in Business management and believe me i have preferred this College against LUMS just because of its Faculty.