KARACHI - Adviser on Social Sciences and Liberal Arts at IBA Karachi Dr Syed Nomanul Haq has said that post-colonial system distanced people from their legacy, history and languages, thus creating great societal issues.
Delivering a lecture entitled ‘Tolerance in a multicultural society’, organised under the distinguished Lecture Series Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Karachi (KU), at the university’s Arts Auditorium on Thursday, he said, “The Palestinian issue is the result of post-colonial divide amongst the Muslim nations,” he said, and added, “Education has become a business. Our students are going far away from history and their legacy. As a nation, we are in a suspended state.”
He noted that distances from history, languages and culture developed narrow-mindedness in the society. “And that has happened with us,” he said, and added, “Only those managed to continue the enlightened approach, who remained connected with their history and culture.”
“Today, acquiring a job has become the motive of education, which is the national irony,” he regretted.
He recalled that talking about Iqbal was once considered fashionable, but now it had become out of fashion.
“The minds of our youths have been weakened due to lack of intellectualism in the society,” he noted.
He further bemoaned that a great divide had been created in the society on the basis of Urdu medium and English medium of education.
“Technology must not be adopted blindly and all the cultural factors must be taken into consideration. Otherwise its repercussions would be alarming,” Haq warned.
Continuing with his commentary on the present-day society, he said, “There is no civic sense in our society.”
He appreciated the efforts of Prof Dr Moonis Ahmar for organising lectures for the promotion of the culture of dialogue and thought process among the youth.
Dean Faculty of Social Sciences University of Karachi Prof Dr Moonis Ahmar, in his concluding remarks, encouraged the students to develop the reading culture and intellectual approach in their mindset.
He added that students had not been deprived of learning opportunities.
“They now have tremendous opportunities of learning. Now it is their responsibility to develop their academic and intellectual mindset. Either we face extreme superiority complex or extreme inferiority complex,” he observed.
“I myself studied at Karachi University, taught abroad and travelled to many countries but always returned to KU, and I am here for good,” Ahmar vowed.
