St. Patrick's Karachi Alumni

To see more photos and history of St. Patrick's High School please visit https://stpatskarachi.wordpress.com

StPatsKarachi St. Patricks High School, Karachi, Pakistan.

Sometimes in the 90's
FR STEPHEN RAYMOND celebrated the fortieth anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood recently. Many congratulations to him.

Fr Raymond's father was a High Court Judge in the Province of Sind, appointed by the British when in India. His brother, after the separation of India and Pakistan, was also a High Court Judge. the only Christian judge appointed by a Muslim President of Pakistan.

Another brother was Archbishop of Nagpur while three sisters were nuns. One belonged to the Daughters of the Cross in Bombay but died in Fnglancl. and is buried at Haslemere, the others belonged to the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary.

Fr Raymond is a graduate of Oxford University and of the National Catholic University of America. He returned to St Patrick's College Karachi when the school was handed over by the Jesuits to indigenous clergy. He was headmaster for 25 years.

In 1974 Fr Raymond left Pakistan and came to the Archdiocese of Southwark where he spent the first year at Bermondsey before corning to the Parish of the Faithful Virgin Upper Norwood South London as assistant priest.
(information Courtesy of Patrician Mr. Anwar Bawany. The above is a cutting from a newspaper in UK)

St. Patrick's Karachi Alumni is a page dedicated to the alumni and faculty of the St. Patrick's High School, Saddar, Karachi living across the globe. Maintained by Amin H. Karim MD. Houston, Texas. To join the email forum called [email protected] send your email to [email protected]

Lyrics of Pakistan National Anthem and St. Patrick's High School Song. Photographed from a school report card 1964. Photo and upload by Amin H. Karim MD

St. Pats Anthem is now uploaded on YouTube:
Thanks again to Mr. Benny Vaz for its recording.
Regards: Amin H. Karim MD Houston.

StPatsAnthem St. Patrick's School Song Here is the anthem of St. Patrick's High School sung by all the students every week in the morning at the assembly. The National an...

Photos in this album are courtesy of Patrician Mr. Benny Vaz. The event was celebrated on the grounds of St.Patricks High School in 1961 with the Chief Guest being President Field Marshall Ayub Khan. Uploaded by Amin H.Karim MD St. Pats 1968.

St. Patrick's High School Girls Classrooom 1873. Very rare photo. Uploaded by Amin H. Karim, Houston.

Through hardships to the stars : St. Patrick’s High School turns 150 years old today
By Haris Zuberi
Published: May 6, 2011

A view of the old school building, dismantled in 1948, taken from the school magazine in 1961. PHOTOGRAPHED FROM SCHOOL RECORDS BY HARIS ZUBERI

KARACHI:
Two presidents, two prime ministers, three governors, five chief ministers, three mayors… the list of leaders produced by St Patrick’s High School in Karachi reads like the who’s who of Pakistan and is too long to decently fit into a newspaper article’s introduction. For a school that began with just three students in 1861, that is no mean feat. Thus there is much for the school to celebrate today as it turns 150 years old.
It was initially named St Patrick’s English School when it was founded on May 6, 1861 by Rev Fr J. A. Wily of the Society of Jesus. Its very first student was one Master Caldeira later remembered as Captain Caldeira. School records state that St Patrick’s was recognized as the second Catholic school of Karachi; one had previously been established by the Discalced Carmelites in 1845.
During its first year, St Patrick’s was a co-educational institution but in March 1862 five Sisters of the Daughters of the Cross along with Bishop Steins arrived from Europe and started a separate convent school for girls. Both schools continued to function directly under the management of the St Patrick’s parish priest till 1893 after which the girls section was made entirely independent, and named St Joseph’s Convent High School.
St Patrick’s English School was registered a high school in 1867 and the first student to be sent for Matriculation was one Thomas Duncan in 1869 who eventually stood First Class First in the Bombay Presidency. The Society of Jesus remained in charge of the school for 74 years till June 4, 1935. It was then taken over by the Franciscan Order for 15 years from June 5, 1935 to October 6, 1950. Since then it has been administered by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Karachi and has been led by Pakistani principals now under the Catholic Board of Education which also owns and operates St Joseph’s, St Paul’s, St Lawrence’s and the Convent of Jesus and Mary. In 1972, the Bhutto government nationalised St Patrick’s College, which was finally returned to the Catholic Board in 2005.
“Nationalising such reputable educational institutions was one of the worst decisions of the ZA Bhutto government,” Justice (retired) Wajihuddin Ahmed told The Express Tribune. He takes pride in being a student during the late 1950s and recalled how Father Stephen Raymond, who was the longest serving principal, left a deep impression on all his students.
Another illustrious former student, Javed Jabbar, recalled how he had initially gained admission to St Patrick’s College in 1961 to the Commerce section, while his interest lay in Arts. “Father D’Arcy D’Souza came to my rescue, spoke firmly to my father and persuaded him to allow me to transfer to the Faculty of Arts which I loved,” Jabbar told this newspaper. “I had the honour of helping win the trophy for St Patrick’s in two debate competitions and also helped produce and edit the college magazine. We also set up a social welfare group to raise funds for charitable causes… and to get an opportunity to meet girls! The two years were brief but forever enduring in their impact on my life.”
The school motto is the Latin phrase ‘Per Aspera Ad Astra’ which has also been one of the mottos for Nasa’s space programmes and translates into English as ‘Through hardship to the stars’.
The original building of the school on its present location was constructed by Rev Fr Jurgens in 1894 at a cost of Rs54,000 of which Rs14,000 were paid by the government as a grant.
The new main school building was completed in 1949 just in time to facilitate the growing number of students as many people migrated to Karachi after partition. The Archdiocese of Karachi was determined to meet the burgeoning needs of education in the independent Pakistan.
According to Principal Father Joseph Paul today the school has more than 5,500 students and 350 teachers and administrative staff.
In 1961, under Principal Rev Fr S Raymond, a memorable centenary celebration was held to mark 100 years of St Patrick’s which was attended by president Ayub Khan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and the Khan of Kalat. In 1986, prime minister Junejo attended the 125th anniversary.
In June 2005, L K Advani visited while on a trip to Karachi. He had attended the school from 1936 to 1942 and recalled his first meeting with then president Pervez Musharraf, “After learning that he too was a former student, the first subject we discussed was our school and nearly 20 minutes of our 45-minute meeting were devoted to St Patrick’s!”
The same year the school honoured Musharraf. Paying tribute to his teachers Father Raymond, Father Todd and Simon D’ Lima he said, “Their mentoring made a big difference in my life. My brother was a better student, so I would get punished by Mr D’ Lima for not doing as well in Math. Later, I … excelled in it…thanks to those reprimanding reminders I got from Mr D’ Lima!” He even recalled the spanking he once received from Father Todd, “I wanted to sit on a block of ice after that experience!”
‘Old Patricians’
Pervez Musharraf
Asif Ali Zardari
Shaukat Aziz
Muhammad Khan Junejo
L K Advani
Air Marshal Azim Daudpota
Jam Sadiq Ali
Jam Yousuf Ali
Muzaffar Hussain Shah
Yusuf Haroon
Mohammed Ayub Khuhro
Agha Siraj Durrani
Javed Jabbar
G Allana – former Mayor of Karachi
Justice Edward Raymond – first Indian appointed Judicial Commissioner by the British
Justice C. M. Lobo – former Judicial Commissioner of Sindh, Chairman of the Public Service Commission and Pakistan’s delegate to the UN
Business
Several members of the Habib, Adamjee, Bhimjee (EFU), Avari, Haroon (Dawn) clans as well as Ashfaq Hussain and Jerome D’Silva (Hussain-D’Silva), Tanveer Jamshed (Teejays), Masoom Alam (Masoom’s Bakery), Leon Menezes (GM HR Shell Pakistan), Deepak Perwani (designer), Zouhair A Khaliq (former president Mobilink/Orascom)
Clergy
H E Valerian Cardinal Gracias – former Archbishop of Bombay, first cardinal from sub-continent, elevated in 1953
H E Dr. Joseph Cardinal Cordeiro (Oxford) – former Archbishop of Karachi, first cardinal from Pakistan elevated in 1973 and after the death of Pope John Paul I. stated as a “papabile” (likely to be elected Pope) by Time magazine in October 1978
Several archbishops of Islamabad-Rawalpindi, Allahabad, Delhi, Belgaum, Ahmadabad, Hyderabad, Bombay, Poona and Calcutta
Sports
Wallis Mathias
Wasim Bari
Iqbal Sikander
Danish Kaneria
Faisal Iqbal
L Fernandez
O B Nazareth
P P Fernandez (India)
M D’Mello
J Britto Olympians (Hockey)
Educationists
Rev Fr Edward D’Cruz – former Principal St. Xavier’s College, Bombay
Leo D’Souza – former Principal DJ Science College, Karachi
Prof Adil Najam – Lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize along with Al Gore. Teaches at Boston University and has previously taught at MIT, University of Massachusetts and at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
Media
Late Mahmoud Haroon
Nadeem Farooq Paracha
Humayun Saeed
Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman
Rizwan Wasti
Abdullah Kadwani
Louis (Gumby) Pinto
Military
Rashid Minhas Shaheed Nishan-i-Haider, the youngest and PAF’s only recipient of Pakistan’s highest gallantry award
Gen Jehangir Karamat
Air Chief Marshal Farooq Feroze Khan
Air Marshall Azim Daudpota
Lt Gen Muzaffar Hussain Usmani
Vice Admiral Ahmad Hayat
Lt Gen Eric A Vas – Indian Army
Air Vice Marshal Erlich Pinto – Indian Air Force
Squadron Leader Peter Christy Sitara-e-Jurat, Shaheed, 1971
Published in The Express Tribune, May 6th, 2011.

From Left to Right Omar H. Karim, Arif Habib Teli, Irfan Nadeem, Mohammed Arif Dossal, founders of COMMECS, Karachi. Omar, Arif Habib and Arif Dossal are graduates of St.Patrick's High School, Saddar, Karachi. Irfan was a graduate of St. Patrick's School Mauripur, now PAF School. Photo from COMMECS Stalwart's Night 1995. Posted by Amin H. Karim April 24 2011.