PU convocation: Kamran favours pursuit of natural sciences

100 PhDs and 618 MPhill degrees awarded at the Punjab University convocation

LAHORE:

As many as 100 doctorates of philosophy (PhD), 618 masters’ of philosophy (MPhil), 289 masters and 156 bachelors’ degrees were awarded at the 123rd convocation of the Punjab University (PU) on Saturday.

Medals were awarded to 173 students in recognition of their achievements. Of these, 81 were distributed among bachelors’ and 92 among masters’ students.

The distribution of degrees and medals continued for two hours.

Speaking at the gathering, Vice Chancellor Mujahid Kamran congratulated the graduates and wished them luck in their careers. He stressed the need for attainment of knowledge and said the poor social and economic conditions prevailing in the Muslim ummah were because of their failure to continue in the footsteps of their ancestors in striving for pursuit of knowledge.

Kamran said the Muslims had abandoned the teachings of the Holy Quran. He said in at least 750 verses in the book, Muslims were urged to keenly observe nature and deepen their knowledge about it. Rather than acquiring knowledge about natural phenomena, he said Muslims had indulged in seeking knowledge about human activities, languages, and literatures.

Further, the vice chancellor said that according to a study, Body Count: Global Avoidable Mortality Since 1950, undertaken by Gideon Polya around 600 million of the 1,300 million people who had died the world over in the last 65 years were Muslims. He said most conflicts occurring in the world today involved Muslim countries. Kamran said unnecessary wars had been thrust upon countries like Afghanistan and Iraq after the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre in the United States.

Kamran also discussed the poor state of education in the country. He lamented that the politicians were not interested in investing resources in promotion of education. Amongst the shortcomings of the country’s education system, he mentioned the failure to emphasise character building.

Further, Kamran said that in his books The Grand Deception - Corporate America and Perpetual War and The International Bankers, World Wars I,II, and Beyond,  9/11, he had documented how the wealth and resources of the world were controlled by a few families in the US. He said these commercial elites were more powerful than most states and had their own secret agencies to keep dissent in check.

Kamran said the Muslims’ lack of interest in introduction of the financial system proposed by the Holy Quran was responsible for the concentration of power in a few hands.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2015.