KARACHI - Accompanying scholars and delegates from abroad and across Pakistan, Vice Chancellor of the Sindh Madressatul Islam University (SMIU) Dr Muhammad Ali Shaikh on Wednesday formally inaugurated the second edition of the varsity’s annual Festival of Arts and Ideas.
National and international delegates, deans, faculty and senior management of SMIU were there to witness the festival.
The vice chancellor visited the stalls set up by SMIU’s students on the theme of “World is Our Home.” All the stalls were depicting various cultures of the continents and nations of the world.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony at the inner courtyard of the main building of the university, Dr Muhammad Ali Shaikh said that the theme of last year’s festival was “Celebrating 70 Years of Pakistan,” and this year’s theme “World is Our Home” was selected as Pakistan was also a part of the world, thus, all the people living on the planet formed a single entity.
He said many issues were common among the people living across the borders like poverty, world peace and climate change.
Dr Shaikh said that world peace could bring prosperity and development in all parts of the world. He was of the view that the biggest bond among all people of the world was humanity.
“Today, with the help of information technology people living on the globe are coming closer to each other.”
However, he added, it was wrong that the times of wars had gone.
“Wars are being waged in various countries and we, the human beings, have to go a long way to attain peace and tranquility in the world.”
Dr Mohammad Ali Shaikh said that it was the need of the hour for humanity to sit together and settle down disputes.
He appreciated efforts of coordination committee of the festival, office bearers of student societies, directorate of students’ affairs, faculty and management of the university on organising successful festival.
