Lahore News, political scandals, scams, Entertainment, Sports, Lahore history, Lahore police and infotainment portal Best to know anything about Lahore and Lahorites
Lahore: Punjab University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran has said that the darkness of ignorance could not be removed from society without promotion of knowledge in the country. He said that there were 1.5 billion Muslims in the world but they have no contribution to creation of new knowledge.
He was addressing a seminar organized by PU Department of Library and Information Sciences (DLIS) and PU Library at Al Raazi Hall here on Tuesday.
PU DLIS Chairperson Prof Dr Kanwal Amin, Chief Librarian Chaudhry Muhammad Hanif, Prof Emeritus Prof Dr Khawaja Muhammad Zakria, Farrukh Sohail Goindi, Prof Hasan Shahnawaz Zaidi, publishers, faculty members and a large number of students were present on the occasion.
Earlier, Dr Kanwal Amin led a walk from IER corridor to Al Raazi Hall for awareness raising regarding book reading habits.
Addressing the ceremony, Dr Mujahid Kamran said that the only option for Pakistan to progress was education. Dr Mujahid Kamran said that the average educational spending of nations was around 5 percent of GDP while Pakistan was spending 2 percent or less than 2 percent of GDP on education. He said that the US’s total GDP was 14 trillion dollars while it was spending 980 billion dollars only on education and spending a huge amount on research and development. He said that Pakistan’s GDP stood around 250 billion dollars while we were spending less than 5 billion dollars on education.
Dr Kamran said that around 750 verses of Holy Quran stressed to resolve mysteries of the world while the verses related to legislation were around 250, which reflected the importance of knowledge in the Quran. He said that an Australian Jewish scientist and researcher Gideon Polya had revealed in his book “Body Count” that there had been 1.3 billion avoidable deaths during the period from 1950 to 2005 of which 600 million were Muslims.
He said that in the past, people associated with a specific group were recruited without merit in Punjab University who turned the great alma matter into an arena but the incumbent administration had brought the PU to the new heights of academics.
Dr Kanwal Amin said that it would be wrong to say that people were not taking interest in books because of internet and other tools of electronic media. She said that we could see publication of large number of books in the most developed and advanced countries.
Chief Librarian Chaudhry Hanif said that Punjab University administration was taking steps to promote book reading culture by organizing country’s most successful book fairs and other activities.
Farrukh Sohail Goindi said that the society could not be changed through slogans but promotion of education.
Dr Khawaja Muhammad Zakria said that students were not taking interest in text books but guess papers, guides etc. He said that the real matter was to understand what was written in the book, not to “read” the book only.
Prof Hasan Shahnawaz Zaidi said that students did not take interest in reading co-curricular and literary books. He read an essay of Patras Bukhari on the occasion.
Meanwhile,Punjab University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran distributed “Book Lover Award” among top 10 PU Library users at Al Raazi Hall after the seminar.
The first three positions were clinched by Institute of Biochemistry and Biotechnology’s students Mahak Fayyaz, Madiha Habib and Syeda Umme Habiba. PU Chief Librarian Chaudhry Hanif said that because of Book Lover Award and other initiatives taken by the administration, the membership of PU Library has also increased manifolds.
