Pakistani students win international debate competition in Mexico

By: Wajiha Malik

The Karl Popper Debating Championship (KPDC), one of the largest high school tournaments in the world, in Mexico have won by three 15-year-old Pakistani students.

The Pakistani team beat the team of students from South Korea and also all three participants were listed in the top 10 speakers of tournament.

Teams from 45 countries participated in the tournament, which was a part of the 18th edition of the International Debate Education Association (IDEA) Youth Forum held in Mexico from July 2 to 15.

Zainab Hameed, the Karachi Grammar School student, was named the top speaker of the competition while Azeem Liaquat, student of the Salamat International Campus for Advanced Studies in Lahore, came second. Their teammate, Ahmed Shujaan from the Aitchison College, bagged the fifth position among more than 200 participants.

Pakistani team was defending the topic “Guantanamo Bay prison should be closed down immediately” in the KPDC finals while Korean team had to prove that the motion should not be adopted.

The teams participated in two competitions –the KPDC and the mixed team track. In the former, they represented Pakistan as a team while they were split up and paired with debaters from other countries in mixed team track.