December 14, 2018: CODE PAKISTAN held a consultation with the students and faculty members of Islamia University, Bahawalpur, on countering on-campus violent extremism in Pakistan. The consultation focused on drug abuse in campuses and role of campus administration and impact of social media and online content on youth.
The Vice Chancellor of the Islamia University Dr. Qaiser Mushtaq, who had graciously attended CODE PAKISTAN’s consultation, emphasized that the students with rural backgrounds within the university should be provided with an opportunity to enhance their community services skills. He added that the university should be an influencer of the community rather than the other way round. The Vice Chancellor directed his staff to take serious note of CVE cause and support CODE PAKISTAN and HEC in every possible way.
The faculty members of Islamia University shared that the university was established by Nawab Sadiq Hussain Qureshi in 1975. They further shared that the university had five different campuses and 58 educational departments educating over 20,000 on-campus students. They added that the university was also conducting exams of different colleges affiliated with it and that the students thus affiliated with the university were over 120,000. The faculty members further shared that academically the university departments were broadly categorized into the following six categories: Arts, Islamic Learning, Education, Science, Commerce and Management Sciences, and Pharmacy.
The students and faculty members of Islamia University further shared that Islamia University had various student bodies for extra-curricular activities, such as debating society, poetry society, writers’ society, character-building society, painters’ society, dramatic society, and a singing club.
The students and faculty members of Islamia University shared that the university had organized a peace seminar in 2017. They added that the university had organized seminars on other social issues such as animal rights as well. It was further shared that Islamia University had a biodiversity park in Cholistan. The students and faculty members of Islamia University proudly declared that the university was ranked 11th nationally in terms of research and that it ranked at number 3 on the national nature index.
The students and faculty members of Islamia University emphasized the importance of education reform and that the university administration paid a great amount of attention to teacher training to continue improving educational standards at the university on a consistent basis.
CODE PAKISTAN would like to thank the Vice Chancellor of Islamia University Dr. Qaiser Mushtaq for his participation in the consultation. Besides the Vice Chancellor, the participants of the consultation included the following prominent faculty members of Islamia University: Prof. Akhtar Ali, Dean Faculty of Education; Prof. Raja Musarraf, Dean Faculty of Islamic Studies; Prof. Muhammad Ashfaq, Dean Faculty of Science; Prof. Mamuna Ghaus, Dean Faculty of Arts; Prof. Naveed Akhtar; In-Charge Faculty of Pharmacy; Dr. Shazia Anjum; Dr. Syeda Sadaf Zehra; Dr. Shabana Nazar; Dr. Khalil Ahmed Ansari; Dr. M. Ayub; Dr. Muhammad Iqbal; Dr. Fahad Pervaiz; Dr. Muhammad Zia ul Haq; Dr. Mazhar Abbas; Dr. Liaqat Ali; Dr. Irshad Hussain; Dr. Shafiq ur Rehman; Mr. Aqeel Ahmed Khan; and Mr. Zahid Ali. The consultation was part of a series of consultations that CODE PAKISTAN is holding with the faculties and students of various universities across Pakistan.