PU holds its first-ever convocation of Oriental College in the last 144 years

Lahore: Punjab University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran has said that we are continuously ignoring oriental languages, literature, studies and art on the pretext of so-called needs of the materialistic knowledge in the modern world. He said that it was unfortunate that we were avoiding learning oriental languages and considering them archaic and disadvantaged.

He was addressing the first-ever convocation of PU Oriental College in the last 144 years held at Sherani Hall, Old Campus. PU Dean Faculty of Oriental Learning Prof Dr Ismatullah Zahid, , Dr Khawaja Zakrya, Dr Moeen Nizami, Dr Muhammad Kamran, Dr Nusrat Yasmin Nisar, Dr Khaliq Dad Malik, faculty members and a large number of students were also present on the occasion.

Addressing the ceremony, Dr Mujahid Kamran said that oriental art and science provided strong basis to the western world to develop new knowledge. He said that unfortunately, our society was not giving due importance to the people who were associated with oriental languages and literature. He said that PU Oriental College was ignored in the past but the current administration had supported research and creative activities to promote oriental languages.

He said that under the university administration’s patronage, the capacities of teachers and students of the college had improved manifold and positive changes had occurred. He advised the students not to restrict themselves to one language and get benefit from other languages and literature as well. He advised them to focus on strengthening their character so that they could become a good human being and a citizen.

Addressing the ceremony, Dr Ismatullah Zahid said that it was a memorable moment in the history of Oriental College in which 7 M Phil and 159 Master’s level degrees were distributed among the students. He said that Oriental College Library had been computerized and out of 100,000 books, 90 thousands books had been made online.

He thanked PU VC Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran for providing all-out support for Oriental College Magazine and “Tahqeeq”, launching research journals of Arabic, Punjabi, Persian, Urdu and Kashmiriat, publication of books of teachers, arranging international conferences, mushairas etc in the college. Later, cake cutting ceremony was held the college’s lawns.