Police officers stand guard after students protest against the naming of Saidu Sharif College after schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai, in the Swat Valley.
Police officers stand guard after students protest against the naming of Saidu Sharif College after schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai, in the Swat Valley.

Pakistani girls protest over naming college after Malala



PESHAWAR, Pakistan // Pakistani girls yesterday protested against the renaming of their school after shot teenage activist Malala Yousafzai, saying the move would make them a target for militants.

About 150 students boycotted classes at what is now the Government Malala College for Girls in Saidu Sharif, in the north-western Swat Valley, tearing up and stoning pictures of the 15-year-old, accusing her of abandoning Pakistan by going to Britain for treatment.

The Pakistan government has renamed numerous schools in honour of Malala, who was shot in the head by Taliban militants in October for championing girls' education in Swat and is now recovering in a British hospital.

The students at what was previously known as the Government College for Girls said they had repeatedly asked the principal to remove the plate with the new name, fearing it would invite the attention of militants.

"We came out when the principal finally refused to accept our demand," Shaista Ahmed said. "We feel the college would be the potential target of militants.

"I joined others who chanted slogans against Malala and pelted stones on her picture because she had left the country to settle abroad. We are poor, we cannot afford it and we will suffer because she has fled to Britain."

A provincial official, Niaz Ali Khan, said the protesting students were "very angry and aggressive" and tore up a portrait of Malala which the authorities had erected on a college wall after the Taliban attack.

"The students ended their protest after we promised to convey their demand to the authorities," he said.

Mah Noor, 19, a student, said: "Malala herself is in Britain but other girls will remain in Swat. She will not come back to Pakistan, then what is the need to rename the college after her?"

Malala first rose to prominence at age 11 with a blog for the BBC Urdu service in 2009 in which she described life in Swat during the rule of the Taliban.

Taliban militants shot her on her school bus in Mingora, the main town in Swat, for the "crime" of campaigning for girls' rights to go to school, but she survived after surgery in Pakistan.

She was sent to Britain for further treatment and her courage has won the hearts of millions around the world, prompting the United Nations to observe a "global day of action" for her last month.

Malala's father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, a former teacher and headmaster, has been appointed UN adviser on education.

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How Tesla’s price correction has hit fund managers

Investing in disruptive technology can be a bumpy ride, as investors in Tesla were reminded on Friday, when its stock dropped 7.5 per cent in early trading to $575.

It recovered slightly but still ended the week 15 per cent lower and is down a third from its all-time high of $883 on January 26. The electric car maker’s market cap fell from $834 billion to about $567bn in that time, a drop of an astonishing $267bn, and a blow for those who bought Tesla stock late.

The collapse also hit fund managers that have gone big on Tesla, notably the UK-based Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF.

Tesla is the top holding in both funds, making up a hefty 10 per cent of total assets under management. Both funds have fallen by a quarter in the past month.

Matt Weller, global head of market research at GAIN Capital, recently warned that Tesla founder Elon Musk had “flown a bit too close to the sun”, after getting carried away by investing $1.5bn of the company’s money in Bitcoin.

He also predicted Tesla’s sales could struggle as traditional auto manufacturers ramp up electric car production, destroying its first mover advantage.

AJ Bell’s Russ Mould warns that many investors buy tech stocks when earnings forecasts are rising, almost regardless of valuation. “When it works, it really works. But when it goes wrong, elevated valuations leave little or no downside protection.”

A Tesla correction was probably baked in after last year’s astonishing share price surge, and many investors will see this as an opportunity to load up at a reduced price.

Dramatic swings are to be expected when investing in disruptive technology, as Ms Wood at ARK makes clear.

Every week, she sends subscribers a commentary listing “stocks in our strategies that have appreciated or dropped more than 15 per cent in a day” during the week.

Her latest commentary, issued on Friday, showed seven stocks displaying extreme volatility, led by ExOne, a leader in binder jetting 3D printing technology. It jumped 24 per cent, boosted by news that fellow 3D printing specialist Stratasys had beaten fourth-quarter revenues and earnings expectations, seen as good news for the sector.

By contrast, computational drug and material discovery company Schrödinger fell 27 per cent after quarterly and full-year results showed its core software sales and drug development pipeline slowing.

Despite that setback, Ms Wood remains positive, arguing that its “medicinal chemistry platform offers a powerful and unique view into chemical space”.

In her weekly video view, she remains bullish, stating that: “We are on the right side of change, and disruptive innovation is going to deliver exponential growth trajectories for many of our companies, in fact, most of them.”

Ms Wood remains committed to Tesla as she expects global electric car sales to compound at an average annual rate of 82 per cent for the next five years.

She said these are so “enormous that some people find them unbelievable”, and argues that this scepticism, especially among institutional investors, “festers” and creates a great opportunity for ARK.

Only you can decide whether you are a believer or a festering sceptic. If it’s the former, then buckle up.