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THE PUNJAB: PAST,
PRESENT AND FUTURE Seminar at GCU
The Department of History has organized a one day seminar in
collaboration with UK based Punjab Research Group (PRG) on the theme
“The Punjab: Past, Present and Future”. This seminar was organized on
the 25th anniversary of PRG. Prof. Dr. Khalid Aftab addressed
the inaugural ceremony. Speaking on the occasion Dr. Khalid Aftab said
that the regional studies played a vital role as a determinant of
identity. Seminar was comprised on three sessions followed by lively
question and answer session.
Prof. Athar Beg
Chairperson of Philosophy department also expressed his views on the
theoretical rational of regional studies. The other participants of
seminar were Dr. Tahir Kamran (Host), Dr. Virnder Kalra (Manchester
University), Dr. Dippa Vardy (De-Mont fort University), Dr. Tej Purewal
C. Manchester University and Dr. Shalini Sharma (Keele University).
Multiple themes were covered ranging from “Taming Punjabi Masculinity:
the son preference” to the “left movement in the Punjab” and problem of
“art instruction” ensconced in which many maestro of art were out
rightly rejected or resigned to oblivion.
(03-03-2009)
HEC
taking steps to promote social sciences IN PAKISTAN - Dr. SOHAIL
NAQVI SAYS ON THE INAUGURAL CEREMONY OF NATIONAL CONFERENCE AT GCU
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Pakistan education planning could not
focus on social sciences for three decades and we lost the whole
generation but now Higher Education Commission (HEC) is taking all
possible measures in order to promote social sciences and enrolment in
universities from to 4 to 7 percent. All out funds are being mobilized
in order to provide maximum foreign scholarships to provide better
faculty and ameliorate the quality of education in the country. For this
purpose, HEC has developed a new program of 1500 foreign scholarships
which has been sent for approval to the higher authorities. It was
expressed by the Executive Director HEC Dr. Sohail H. Naqvi in the
inaugural ceremony of the one day national conference on the “State of
Social Sciences in Pakistan” organized by faculty of Social Sciences
GCU Lahore in collaboration with HEC Pakistan held in the Bokhari
Auditorium of the GCU. He also lamented the low quality out put of
colleges on account of declining standard of their graduates and told
that HEC was improving the standards of curriculum and faculty by
improving access in research and moulding curriculum in line with the
national and global market needs and that merit based scholarships were
being replaced by need based scholarships. He further said that a lot of
scholarships for post doctorate are available but HEC doesn’t find
suitable candidates for them. As many as 316 people have already been
sent to various foreign universities for post doctorate.
The Vice Chancellor GCU Prof. Dr.
Khalid Aftab in his
welcome address
said that new universities in Pakistan, in recent years, have started
defining their goals against the demands of time which is very harmful
for the universities, as the primary role of the universities is to act
as agent of social change and ensure cultural enlightenment. He stressed
on launching of the skill oriented programmes as the greatest
challenges for the dynamic universities is to strike a balance between
the demands of the business world and that of the society. He expressed
his concerns about the direction of the education and hoped that
education would resolve the conflict between freedom and security and
integrate morality and life. He said education is not confined just to
the sciences rather it is lightening of fire in the minds through
exposure of students to culture, literature, music and lot more.
He also criticized the “Policy of
Guided Development” from above and declared it a barrier against
institutional growth. “The real problem with Guided Model is that it
dose not lead to an integrated and holistic institutional development”,
he added.
Dr. Inayat-ullah, President
Council of
Social Sciences Islamabad made his presentation on the “state of
social sciences in Pakistan 1947-2001”. The inaugural session was
chaired by Dr. Pervaiz Tahir, Mehboob-ul-Haq Professor of Economics GCU
Lahore.
The inaugural session was followed by
research papers presentation session which was chaired by Prof. Dr.
Zahid Mehmood Director Clinical Psychology GCU, Lahore.
Dr. Ishrat
Hussain, Chairman SS&H Development Committee HEC and Former Governor
State Bank of Pakistan, while speaking on “Public Policy and Social
Sciences” talked about public policy challenges, governance deficit,
distributional inequalities, identity crises, food-water-energy crises
and responsibility of Social Scientists. He said that social science
discipline might have little market value but they generate
externalities and lay the foundation for a socially and morally
conscientious citizenship and humanistic understanding of the state,
society, culture and institutions. He also said that social sciences
courses should be mandated for even students of engineering, medical,
agricultural, physical and biological sciences and business
administration.
Shahid Javed Burki from Washington D.C,
USA presented his paper on “Significance of the Development of Social
Sciences for Effective Public Policy”. Prof. Mirza Athar Baig spoke on
“The Possibility of indigenous theorization in social sciences: a
Transition from Trans-disciplinary to Post-disciplinary Paradigm”
The third session consisted of
discussants and was chaired by Prof. Dr. Anjum Saleemi and participated
by Dr. Muhammad Waseem (LUMS), Dr. Muhammad Anwar (SSRC), Dr. Saba Gull
Khattak (SDPI), Dr. Najma Najam (PU), Dr. Tahir Kamran and Dr. Asir
Ajmal (GCU Lahore). The prominent participants of the conference
included Sartaj Aziz, Prof. Dr. Sohail Ahmed Khan, Prof. Ahmed Hussain,
Prof. Dr. Muhammad Khalid Pervaiz, Prof. Dr. M.A. Kashmiri, Sahibzada
Faisal Khurshid and Prof. Dr. Kausar Sohail. A large number of students
and faculty from all the public and private universities attended this
conference.
(28-03-2008)
KHALID AHMED, A DISTINGUISHED RAVIAN DELIVERS ON SECTARIANISM
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Khalid
Ahmad, a renowned journalist and intellectual also delivered a special
lecture here in the PG Library of the GCU on sectarianism under
“distinguished lecture series” organized by department of history.
He
covered all aspects of sectarianism along with its background describing
its causes and effects on Muslim unity. He also highlighted different
forces working behind the phenomena leading to disunity of Muslim Ummah.
He also mentioned inter-state ideological rivalry between Arabs and
Iran as one of the major cause of
widespread of seeds of sectarianism.
(05-11-2007)
History Departments arranges a lecture on the role of Pak Air Force in
Pak-India 1965 WAr
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During the 1965 Pak-India war, the
Pakistani nation stood united against the enemy and extended all out
support to Pak troops which resulted in the moral and ground victory of
Pakistani forces in the battle field against India. These views were
expressed by a Squadron Leader® Cecil Chaudhry, a pilot figfhter in 1965
war while delivering a special lecture in perspective of 1965 Pak-India
war at the Fazal-e-Hussain Hall of the GC University Lahore here
Saturday.
He said that the
Pakistan Air
Force (PAF) fighter pilots exhibited higher professional
standards with accurate skills and demonstrated air war performance with
the best of their abilities which subsequently catered heavy losses on
the enemy.
Cecil Chaudhry while elaborating the
events during the war paid high tributes to his colleagues Sarfraz
Raffiqi, Younas Hussain and M.M. Alam whom he considered these
personalities as highly skilled, committed officers of the Pakistan Air
Force and had been instrumental in damaging the moral and ground heavy
losses to the enemy.
He bewailed over the fact that the
Pakistani nation is divided manifold today whereas during the 1965 war,
the nation was united irrespective of caste, color or creed. At the end
of the day he said, Pakistan Air Force achieved its goal by defending
its motherland.
The chairperson of the history
department of GCU Prof. Dr. Tahir Kamran thanked the guest speaker for
his informative lecture.
(24-09-2007)
CALL FOR PAPERS (THE HISTORIAN-A
BIANNUAL RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY DEPTT GCU)
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The Department of History, GCU, Lahore invites research
papers for publication in The Historian, a referred bi-annual research
journal. The next issue is primarily intended to examine the
relationship between culture and colonialism. The papers should examine
the institutional and pedagogical practices in the colonial Punjab. We
would keenly welcome theoretically innovative papers analyzing the nexus
of culture and the legacies of imperialism in the contemporary (Indian &
Pakistani) Punjab.
Possible areas of study may be:
Education as a Colonizing Technology
Education as Cultural Capital in Contemporary Punjab
Economy as a Source of Cultural Transformation
British Bureaucracy as Cultural Elite
British Institutionalization and Cultural
Homo/heterogeneity
The contributors may also discuss other themes with the
Dr.Tahir Kamran, editor,
The Historian, before submitting their papers. The length of the papers
should be between 8000 to 10,000 words. Please mail your CV and an
abstract (400-500 words) by the 30 November 2007 to the History
Department.
(11-09-2007)
TWO DAY GRADUATE HISTORY
CONFERENCE ON ‘COLONIZING MINDS’
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The Department of History, GC University, Lahore invites
students of BA (Hons) 2nd and 3rd Years to submit abstracts/articles for
‘Graduate History Conference’ scheduled to be held on 23rd and 24th
November 2007, in the Post-Graduate Library Seminar Room, GC University,
Lahore. Theme of the conference is ‘Colonizing Minds’.
Possible areas of investigation may be:
Education as a Colonizing Technology
Economy as a Source of Cultural Transformation
Bureaucracy as Cultural Elite
Institutionalization and Cultural Homo/Heterogeneity
Interested students shall submit their abstracts (between
300-400 words) to the undersigned not later than 01st of October 2007.
Only short listed students will be invited to present their papers.
Students are encouraged to discuss themes with Mr Irfan Waheed Usmani,
Mr Tahir Jamil and Mr. Hussain Ahmad Lecturers of the department before
submitting their abstracts and papers.
For further details, please contact
Ms Shifa Ahmad, Admin Officer, Department of History on Ph:
111-000-010 Ext: 337, 339.
(11-09-2007)
GCU
LAHORE DECLARES M.A. HISTORY PART-I RESULT
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The GC University
Lahore has announced the results of M.A. History Part-I Final
Examination 2007. According to a notification issued from the office of
Controller of Examinations of GCU, 26 students appeared in the
examination and out of them 22 students were declared successful. The
pass percentage remained 84.62.
The following are
the Roll Nos. of the successful candidates.
101, 102, 103,
104, 105, 108, 110, 112, 114, 116, 117, 120, 121, 125, 126, 129, 130,
131, 132, 133, 134 and 135.
(14-07-07)
WRITING AND DEBATING CONTEST ORGANIZED AMONG THREE
UNIVERSITIES
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An
intellectual contest between the undergraduate and the postgraduate
students of Social Sciences representing three leading institutions of
the country, National University of FAST, Pakistan School of Fashion
Design and GCU was organized by Garret History Society of GC University
Lahore.
The focus
of all the presentations made on the occasion was on the topics like
"Multi Dimensional Views on Pakistani Culture and Society". According to
results, Ayeza Rana and Hira Salahuddin of Pakistan School of Fashion
Design won the best paper and best speaker (under-graduate) categories
respectively. Similarly, Amber and Khurram Aziz of GCU won the best
paper and best speaker (post-graduate) categories respectively.
Addressing
the students, In-charge of the society said that GC University Lahore
had a long standing tradition of dissemination of knowledge through the
culture of academic liberty, and much credit went to the Vice Chancellor
who always came up as a potent force to encourage such academic
sessions.
(07-02-07)
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