AIOU Conducts First Board Meeting For History Chair

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th May, 2022 ) :The first meeting of the board of Management for the chair "Creating Archives of Intelligentsia of Pakistan" set up recently by Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) was held yesterday.

Vice Chancellor, AIOU Prof. Dr. Zia Ul-Qayyum highlighted the salient objectives of newly established Chair on History.

He said AIOU has set up a Chair to record and preserve the Oral History on multidisciplinary topics to reconnect our future generation with our history to enhance the pace of ideological and intellectual development.

Prof. Dr. Samina Awan who held this chair elaborated convened the meeting.

Senior Advisor (PMU)Mohammad Rafique Tahir, Convenor, Iqbal Chair, Prof. Fateh Muhammad Malik, Dean Faculty of Social Sciences, Prof. Dr. Hasan Raza, former DGRS, Inamullah Sheikh, and Dr. Abdul Basit Mujahid participated the meeting. Prof. Dr. Iftikhar Haider Malik from Oxford, UK, Prof. Dr.Zahid Munir Amir from Punjab University Lahore, and Prof. Dr. Tahir Kamran from Beaconhouse National University, Lahore attended online.

Prof. Halil Tokar of Istanbul Turkey a Board member could not attend due to his travel schedule.

Members strategised the long term targets for the Chair including the topics for interviews, an international conference on the Silk Road, alongwith short term goals of frequent seminars on Oral History at Karachi, Lahore, Quetta and Peshawar regional campuses of AIOU.

A plan of action devised for holding interviews in twin cities in first phase and later across the country. Discussion held on conducting Oral History workshops for teachers working in discipline of History from all over the country and identifying research topics for the appointment of research scholars.

Introducing the foreign members of the Board of Management at Prof. Awan said that Members of the Board have extensive experience of working on Pakistani Chairs abroad such as Egypt, Cambridge, Oxford and Istanbul and eminent Scholars of islam, Pakistan and History of the region.

She resolved that their expertise will support AIOU team to achieve the trgets.

She added an "Online Oral History Archive" will be established under the umberslla of the Centre of Excellence as envisioned by the worthy leadership of AIOU. Where social, cultural, economic, environmental, intellectual, public, and regional history with its commonalities in diversity will be promoted.

Mohammad Rafiq Tahir, said that the seed we are planting today to preserve history will be an asset for future researchers of History.

Prof. Fateh Mohammad Malik said that memories of Tehreek-e-Pakistan also need to be preserved and interviews should be conducted with people who have witnessed the creation of Pakistan.