Stunning the audience and faculty, a law student of the Punjab University (Lahore) refused to accept a gold medal, awarded to him for claiming the top position in LLB, in protest against the political irresponsibility of the government. The student, named Mohammad Shahid, went up to the chief guest of the convocation, Governor Punjab Salman Taseer, upon the announcement of his name but there he refused to accept the medal and explained the reason.

After the event, Mohammad Shahid told media that he asked the chief guest why the ruling People’s Party had not taken any action the MQM workers responsible for the massacre of innocent civilians in Karachi on 12th May, 2007. The same group of people was also responsible for burning lawyers alive in April 2008, and was at large. Also, Mohammad Shahid said that the government had not bothered to identify the culprits responsible for violence in Karachi.

Shahid told media that the governor did not answer him but the university’s vice chancellors asked him to see the governor after the event. The vice chancellor told media that the student still deserved the award but a convocation was not the right place for expressing political resentments.