The Pakistan Debate Team reached the Quarter Finals of the World Schools Debating Championship (WSDC) 2021 and ranked 6th out of 74 nations. WSDC is the highest and most prestigious platform for competitive high school debating in the world.
During the tournament, and in the run up to it, Team Pakistan defeated teams from China, Denmark, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Latvia, the Netherlands, Panama, Scotland, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey, the UAE and the USA. They won 6 of 8 preliminary rounds, eventually losing the Quarter Finals to Team Hong Kong who went on to be finalists.
The team was selected at the end of February by the Debating Society of Pakistan out of the over 250 speakers who attended the Senior National Championships. It comprised of Ibrahim Bin Amjad (Lahore Grammar School Johar Town), Kamil Mahmood (Lahore Grammar School Johar Town), Khadija Omer Rehman (Lahore Grammar School Defence), Maria Mooraj (Karachi Grammar School) and Sheryar Ahmad Fazal (LACAS) who ranked as the overall 9th Best Speaker in the world, one of only four Pakistanis to make the top 10 since 1991. Maria Mooraj ranked as the 9th Best English as a Second Language Speaker. The team was coached by Ali I Anwar, Anser Aftab and Arham Aftab Kazi.
