Thirty-year-old Haleema Sarwar, who is visually impaired, received her MS in applied English linguistics at the 31st convocation of the NED University of Engineering and Technology held on Tuesday.
She is the first blind student in the 100-year history of the NED University who successfully completed her degree. According to Haleema, she enrolled in the MS program in 2018 to study applied linguistics. She said the varsity administration was reluctant to allow her admission because the programme was running only in the evening shift, due to which it would be inconvenient for her to attend regular classes.
“The varsity management was thinking I would not be able to continue my classes. While some teachers and officials of the varsity were also of the view that attending classes in the evening shift would be risky for a female student who was also visually impaired,” she explained.
Haleema, however, convinced the NED administration that if she was awarded admission, she would attend her classes regularly without putting any burden on the varsity management.
Later, the varsity allowed her admission on condition that a blood relative would accompany her whenever she came to the varsity. Her mother took that responsibility and for the next four years, she would come to the varsity with her daughter until she recently completed her degree.
The course was supposed to be completed in two-and-a-half years but when Haleema had completed her third semester, her father passed away and her mother had to stay at home.
“I would have bagged the degree a year ago, but I missed one semester owing to my father’s death,” she said.
