Many of the readers guessed the photo in last ATP Quiz right. The photo is indeed of the Sheikh Zayed Islamic Centre (SZIC), Lahore.
I spent two wonderful years at Institute of Business Administration, Punjab Univeristy (SZIC is just behind IBA) but never noticed this beautiful campus. I guess there are so many trees around it and its hardly visible. When I first discovered it a few months ago, I hardly saw any students around. I think either they are very selective in their admission policy or no formal degree program have yet been started. I am sure many of us would love to study there just because of the beautiful architecture inspired by Lahore’s rich Mughal heritage and some really well maintained lawns.
According to the Punjab University website:
In order to streamline instructions and research in Qur’anic Teachings and Arabic Studies and to further cement the fraternal ties existing between the two Islamic countries of UAE and Pakistan, His Highness Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al-Nahayan, President of United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Abu Dhabi, established three identical Islamic Centres in the cities of Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar.
He has especially stressed the need to pull these studies out of their conventional grooves and make them compatible with new developments in the fields of modern science and technology. The integration of Computer Science to Qur’anic and Arabic Studies is imperative to face new realities. His Highness deserves laurels for thinking far ahead into the future. The Qur’an Computer combination is ideal that will cater for precision of reasoning and clarity of presentation among the scholars who receive instructions at such Centers. This is the most pressing need of the Ummah. Since Islam is the universal religion and Qur’an, the ultimate Book of wisdom, as scientific study of Qur’an is intended to remove the cobwebs of woolly thinking and to present Islam as the panacea of all contemporary maladies. Inspired by the noble sentiments, the Government of United Arab Emirates established and equipped these Centres. They were transferred to the Government of Islamic Republic of Pakistan and handed over to its three Universities namely: Karachi, Punjab and Peshawar in 1985.
Its also worth mentioning the approach by HEC to improve the quality of education in Pakistan. We hear all the time that due to outstanding work by HEC, Pakistan will produce x thousand PhD’s this year and blah blah. But the quality of research is so poor that time is not far when PhD from Pakistan will become a joke. I have personally seen people getting degrees without doing any research whatsoever. ATP also covered one such story of cheating profs of PU. Yes, HEC is granting scholarships to students for studying abroad but how many of them are actually coming back to serve Pakistan?
Yes there is a need of buildings, equipments etc but the most important thing is primary and high school education which is still being neglected in Pakistan. This is where we should really be spending money. First we should have a solid base then we can build something from there. I just can’t understand this strategy of mainly focusing on producing maximum PhD’s when most of our ordinary primary and high schools are still producing students who have no concepts, they do not question anything they don’t understand, majority do not have a logical mind by the time they finish their school and they still memorize things instead of developing a proper understanding of whatever being taught.
[quote comment=”33876″][quote comment=”33846″]Any chance we can have a Sheikh Zayed *Science* Centre too?[/quote]
Well, it’s kind of pathetic to expect foreign donors to put up the cash for creating such institutions. The problem with Science and Technology research is not in the number of centers and beautiful buildings, it is in the QUALITY of teachers and the curriculum (and testing methods).
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Mr. Eidee Man, being a graduate student in Immunology I can assure you that doing research in the sciences requires a lot of capital to pay for the equipment as well as secure access to patented procedures and even research publications.
It is not at all pathetic to expect foreign donors like the UAE to foot the bill for greater scientific researc in the coutry. After all, they also benefit from our expertise in everything from keeping their Airforce flying to building thier infrastructure.
The United States too is investing a lot of money in research in Pakistan (http://www.hec.gov.pk/new/rnd/Research_Grants/pak _us_joint_arp/introduction.htm)
As for solving religious problems I think it should be approached from both ends ie sending good and talented people for religious training as well as higher education in other fields…in short create an academic and intellectual environment by encouraging people to go for higher learning in all the fields. This will foster the environment for learning without and introduce concepts like academic rigour and peer review in religious as well as other fields.
“As the joke goes, in Pakistan, the best performing kids go to medical school, the next best go to engineering”
Eidee Man: Good thing you said that it is only a joke. I was about to take it seriously. Having met numbers of Pakistan-educated “medicine-men” in the USA I don’t feel bad not being one of them. Of course I am saying it jokingly too.
Shirazi: I was there during 2003-2005 session and it was evening MBA evening program. They have new built a brand new red-brick campus for IBA which is really nice.
Btw just for everyone’s information, the molecular biology center in PU is also brilliant (I will write something about it soon). I think its the most beautiful structure in PU. I wish we had spent some money on teachers too instead of only building structures with no quality education.