ISLAMABAD-Speakers from home and abroad while addressing the concluding session of international conferences on Dr Allama Iqbal called for following the visionary thoughts of the Great Muslim scholar to address the contemporary socio-economic issues.
They were of the view that Dr Iqbal’s message was relevant for times to come and the humanity as a whole and the Muslims in particular could make their lives prosperous and peaceful by understanding and practicing his message that was based on Quran and Sunnah.
The conference was arranged by Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) to mark his 81st anniversary. It was largely participated including by delegates from Turkey, Iran, Egypt and Sweden.
The participants recommended that books and letters of Dr Iqbal should be re-published to widely circulate them among the young generation for their guidance.
The AIOU Social Sciences Dean Dr Samina Awan announced on the occasion that they would publish the papers presented in the conference in a book form.
The inaugural session was addressed by eminent scholars including Dr Tahseen Faraqi, Dr Moeenuddin Aqeel, Dr Fateh Malik and Iftikhar Arif, who deliberated upon the main topic, Iqbal’s intellectual and artistic universality.
They highlighted various dimensions of Dr Iqbal’s universal message, and said these provided a way-out to achieve the desired objectives.
Addressing the conference, Vice Chancellor AIOU Dr Zia-Ul-Qayyum expressed the hoped that the conferences deliberations would be a source of inspirations for developing a society, as was conceived by Dr Iqbal.
He thanked the Higher Education Commission (HEC) for its support in arranging the event.
He vowed to develop the University as a platform for projecting the message of their national heroes among the young generation. The University will encourage holding research-based dialogue on the intellectual and visionary thoughts of Dr Iqbal.
Dr Zia-Ul-Qayyum further said that the University will do its best for educating the youth in the line with the farsighted thoughts of the Great Muslim scholar. Nation is indebted to his scholarly contributions for creating a separate homeland for the Muslims of the Sub-continent, he added.
Former VC AIOU Dr Shahid Siddiqui was the chief guest at the concluding session who spoke about poetic and literary contribution of Dr Iqbal.