Historians’ moot: ‘Promote history to strengthen country’

ISLAMABAD:

Speakers at the ‘Historians’ moot’ at Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) have called upon educational institutes to promote national and regional history to further strengthen Pakistan.

Arranged by the varsity’s history department, the event was organised as part of the ‘awareness and advocacy’ series.

In his keynote address, Dr Waqar Shah, director of the National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research of Qauid-e-Azam University, said there was a dire need to promote history as a discipline.



He urged educational institutes to promote Pakistan’s national as well as regional history through their academic programmes, refresher courses and short-term training programmes.

Speaking to participants, AIOU Vice-Chancellor Dr Shahid Siddiqui said the university was carrying out high-quality research at the MPhil and PhD level programmes.

He said history has not been given its due importance and has time and again been neglected. There is a dire need to promote the study of history, he stressed. Siddiqui explained that history is a relationship between the past and future that gives lessons for the future. He said AIOU would play a significant role in promotion of the subject through its academic pursuits.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 14^th,  2015.