Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim
Chancellor, Chair and members of the AKU Board of Trustees,
President and Vice Chancellor,
Leaders, faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends of the University,
Family members of the graduates,
And Members of the Class of 2024:

As Salaam–o-Alaikum

It is wonderful to join you here today to mark this momentous occasion in our graduands’ lives and to feel the same immense pride that AKU convocations brought my father, our Founding Chancellor, over three decades. It is especially meaningful to be here at this moment, in Pakistan, to remember his visionary leadership and his great love for this University and its people.

It brings me much happiness that my brother, His Highness Prince Rahim Aga Khan, in accordance with my father’s wishes and the founding charter of AKU, has become the Chancellor. I am deeply honoured that His Highness has appointed me Pro-Chancellor of AKU, so that, together – in our respective roles – we may continue to sustain and strengthen this remarkable institution, remaining true to our father’s vision for the University.

It is therefore a great pleasure that my first official duty as Pro-Chancellor, and on behalf of the Chancellor and the Board of Trustees, is to extend our warmest congratulations to the Class of 2024. We celebrate all that you have worked so arduously to achieve. Mubarak! We also extend our thanks to the families, friends, and classmates who have supported you.

To say that I grew up alongside AKU is no exaggeration, and I have always felt such a special affection for this institution. Like his grandfather before him, my father understood that institutions devoted to the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge were the foundation of successful societies. He instilled in all of us an understanding of the value of education at all levels, but he always emphasised this special role of universities. During my childhood, years before AKU was formally established, my father articulated his aspiration for the creation of an “international institution of distinction – serving the developing world and Muslim societies in innovative and enduring ways”.

The first of my many visits to AKU was in the late 1980s, but it was in 1994 that I first accompanied my father to a Convocation, soon after my own graduation. It was a memorable moment because AKU was celebrating its 10^th anniversary and was poised to expand beyond its early focus on health sciences – as well as broaden its geographic reach beyond Pakistan.

The University’s small but impressive corps of alumni were already transforming their professions, using their education for good and great purposes, and burnishing the reputation of this young institution.

AKU had a new roadmap for its long-term evolution. The Chancellor had convened a Commission of distinguished individuals to consider the directions in which AKU might develop over the next 25 years – identifying the critical problems to be addressed in the developing and Muslim worlds, and the comparative advantages that AKU might bring to bear in addressing them.

My involvement with the university eventually led to the great privilege of joining my father on the AKU Board of Trustees. It was an extraordinary opportunity to learn from him and to see his vision for the University come to life – astonishingly quickly sometimes. More recently, I served on the second Chancellor’s Commission, which completed its report in 2023, thus gaining new insights and renewed optimism for the future of AKU.

In addition to my father’s wise and compassionate leadership, there have been two other constants throughout my long involvement with AKU.

The first is the amazing depth of talent, dedication, and energy within the AKU community, past and present. Every one of you has been instrumental in making our Founding Chancellor’s vision of AKU a reality, and it gives our new Chancellor and me tremendous confidence as we move forward.

The University has outstanding leadership at the executive and board levels. AKU’s Board Chair, Zakir Mahmood, and a truly exceptional group of Trustees work with President Sulaiman Shahabuddin and his administration in a spirit of collaboration, mutual respect, and clarity of purpose.

The second constant rests in the peoples and successive Governments of Pakistan for their enduring confidence in and support of AKU over four decades. My father recognised this country for creating the conditions – an enabling environment – for this “bold experiment” to take root. This includes the provision of the land for the Karachi campus, and a foresighted charter that allowed AKU to become Pakistan’s first private university, with the protections and independence to grow and evolve to meet, in my father’s words, “our challenging, promising future”.

AKU’s heterogeneous range of academic and research programmes will improve the future of our world. We are already actively responding to today’s challenges, from climate change, poverty elimination, nutrition, maternal and child health, to the radical impact of artificial intelligence on the ways we learn, work and interact with each another.

I assume the role of Pro-Chancellor with humility, a profound sense of responsibility, tremendous enthusiasm, and full faith in the continued support and generosity of the AKU community.

With my brother, the Chancellor, we are committed to maintaining the Founding Chancellor’s sense of hope. I see hope before me here, in the agents of change, empathetic leaders, innovators, and critical thinkers that comprise the Class of 2024.

You are women and men equipped to actively engage with human diversity and draw upon human ingenuity, wherever it is found, to build a future in which we all can thrive.

We have full faith in you. That you will step out into the world with confidence, curiosity, and compassion, and that you will honour and sustain the legacy of our Founding Chancellor.

Thank you.