KARACHI: The Professor Riazul Islam Audio-Visual Centre was inaugurated at the history department of Karachi University (KU) on Wednesday afternoon.

Vice Chancellor of Ziauddin University and eminent poet Dr Pirzada Qasim delivered a fervent speech on the occasion. He started off by suggesting that the history department had begun to move in a positive direction. He said he had been associated with the KU for the past 54 years in different capacities.

According to him, educational institutions were recognised by a single quality: scholarship. He said sadly Pakistan had been faced with an identity crisis which was why we needed to shun the apologetic lifestyle that we had adopted. He said it was in that context that universities had a significant role to play.

Dr Qasim said Prof Islam (19192007) after whom the centre has been named was a historian and ascholar. He said his intellect knew no bounds as he had a keen interest in subjects lil(e literature, art and philosophy. He said a teacher`s job was not just to prepare students for exams and help them acquire a degree, but it went beyond that, which was to motivate them to walk step by step with the teacher in the pursuit of knowledge. And Prof Islam used to do that, he said.

He pointed out that he had seen a department which had 22 PhDs and yet not one of them had `intellect`. He said intellect lent versatility to scholarly work. Another reason that he mentioned for Dr Islam`s versatile personality was his background. He said individuals like Abdur Rehman Bijnori belonged to his khanwaadah.

Further highlighting Prof Islam`s remarkable qualities, he said he had known only two people who turned down the offer to become the vice chancellor, and Dr Islam was one of them.

KU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Qaiser said it was important to acknowledge the contribu-tions to society made by Prof Islam, and termed the inauguration of the audio-visual centre a positive step. He said history should not be presented in a distorted manner, and historians should be unbiased in approaching their subject. Prof Islam, he said, was an unbiased historian. Reacting to one of the speakers` comment about the Institute of Western and Central Asian Studies which Prof Islam set up, he announced that the university would increase its annual grant to the institute from Rs40,000 to Rs200,000.

Prof Islam`s daughter, Rana, thanked the history department`s Dr S.M. Taha for arranging the event and remembering her father.

In a trembling voice she requested the audience to pray for her mother who is unwell.

Faculty of Social Sciences Dean Prof Dr Moonis Ahmar said he had known Prof Islam since 1986, and particularly recalled a conference on Central Asia that the late professor successfully organised in 1993 in Karachi. On his distinct scholarly attributes he said Prof Islam was aperfectionist, his research had depth and seriousness, and he was committed to his work.

Director of the Pakistan Study Centre in KU Prof Dr Syed Jaffer Ahmed in his speech appreciated that Prof Islam was being remembered fondly. He said three great historians were associated with KU Dr I.H. Qureshi, Dr Mahmood Husain and Prof Riazul Islam.

He said Prof Islam chose a difficult aspect of historiography for himself: medieval India. For that, he said, he knew that he needed to have command over both the Persian language in its contemporary form and the Persian that was in vogue in medieval times. He said Prof Islam came from that generation of historians who attached importance to using tools of research. If they were writing on ancient history, they would apply modern tools of research for it, he said.

After that he spoke in detail on the condition of the research institute that the late professor established and the issues it faced afterhis death.

Chairman of the history department Prof Dr S.M. Taha delivered the vote of thanks. Earlier, in his address (where he had a lump in his throat talking about Prof Islam) he said when he was a student he used to regularly go to a literary gathering.

One day a gentleman met him and asked him what he was reading at the time to which he replied that he was reading a book on Mughal history. At the time, Taha did not know that it was Prof Islam who had put the question to him, and despite the fact that it was the late professor who had written that book on Mughal history, he didn`t tell him who he was.

Afterwards, Taha said, he became his student and learned a lot from him. He said the audio-visual centre was his, along with his colleagues` way of paying back Prof Islam`s debt. He extended gratitude to quite a few people for lending their support in developing the centre.

Dr Hina Khan conducted the programme.