Daily Times

KARACHI: The Sindh Madressatul Islam University’s Festival of Arts and Ideas was formally inaugurated by its Vice Chancellor, Dr. Muhammad Ali Shaikh on Friday at its inner courtyard as scholars from abroad and from various parts of the country accompanied him.

While addressing the ceremony Dr. Muhammad Ali Shaikh, Vice Chancellor of SMIU, who presided the event said: “We have to introduce our younger generation with their cultural and moral values, which they have lost due to the influence of other world cultures.”

“We have organized this festival at the place from where founder of Pakistan Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah had received his early education since this festival is a part of the celebrations in connection with the 70th years of Pakistan’s independence.

Dr. Shaikh further said the Indus Valley Civilization was among the great ancient civilizations of the world including the Chinese, the Greek, Egyptian and Babylonian civilizations. “Almost 90 percent of Pakistan’s area is on the location, where Indus Valley Civilization existed,” Dr. Shaikh said and added that as the Indus Valley Civilization was one of the most developed eras of the human history, that should inspire the young people of the modern times to make Pakistan a developed country in every field of life.

He said that innovative ideas channel through deep thinking and that festival would help students turning innovative and creative.

Dr. Ambreen Fazal, convener of the festival and in-charge chairperson of the department of media and communication studies of the SMIU welcomed the guests. She said that SMIU was the only university in the country that had organized such a festival.

Prof Thomas Dahnhardt, an expert on South Asian languages, religions and culture, gave an insightful rendition in the first of the international lecture series over a highly interesting topic discussing and exploring contacts between Hindu and Muslim Sufi spirituality in South Asia. Dr Dahnhardt, however, made it clear that Sufism was an integral part of Islam, which could not be detached from the religion. “Sufism should not be detached from Islam and Islam should also not be detached or deprived from Sufism,” said the Italian scholar with international repute in command on eastern languages, cultures and religions.

He said ever since Muslims had set their feet on South Asian soil the ensuing relations between the pre-existing cultural environment and the dynamic dimension inherent to Islam had led to numerous fruitful contacts on multiple levels between these two civilisations – the Arab or Muslim and the Indus Valley civilisations.

Dr Dahnhardt said over time, the process of reciprocal acknowledgement and assimilation allowed for the emergence of the fascinating cultural environment described as Indo-Islamic civilisation.

“In this context, the role played by spiritual authorities in bringing together communities through the channel of the common language of popular devotion has been attested and recognised.”

But, he added, it was on the less visible plane of intellectual and spiritual insight that Sufi and Hindu masters had been successful in exploring a terrain for both traditions to rest on thereby developing a common ground for the élite and the common folk.

In his scholarly essay the scholar affiliated with the University of Venice explored certain aspects of such spiritual collaboration as it occurred over time in South Asia.

He began his lecture for the past 1300 years since the Muslims set foot in South Asia. During his essay he discussed various orders of the Sufism and their interaction with the Hindu yogis especially that fostered the tradition to ‘go deep in the religion’ in the search for the greatest truth.

Earlier, 10 documentaries or short films, which were shortlisted out of 22 submissions by the jury were screened at Sir Shahnawaz Bhutto Auditorium of the university. These documentaries were prepared by students of various universities of the country. The jury comprising Ahmed Shah, president, Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi and Anjum Rizvi, a film producer. Three among the 10 films and documentaries won prizes. SMIU’s Zahid Abbas secured first position, while Bhawish Raj, a student of the National University of Sciences and Technology Karachi and SMIU’s M Azeem Khan got second and third positons respectively for their documentaries on Heritage of Sindh.

The rest of the seven documentaries included: Stories from Streets by Mujahid-ur-Rahman from University of Sindh, Genesis of Pakistani Culture by Sarah Aslam, University of Sindh, Stories from Streets by Faryal Abbasi, University of Sindh, Genesis of Pakistani Culture by Danish Bakhtiar, UET, Lahore, Stories from Streets by Raja Haris, Iqra University, Success Stories by Wadeed Baig, SMIU, and Stories from Streets by Sadaf Zohra, SMIU. In the conversation corner, Nasir R. Zaidi, president, the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Dr. Zahid Ali Channar, dean, Management, business administration and commerce and Mahanoor Pervaiz , student, SMIU participated in a panel discussion, on the subject of “State of Economy in Pakistan.”

Nasir Zaidi said the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would help Pakistan in approaching the international market and would immensely benefit the country’s economy. He advised the youth not to wait for jobs after graduation, instead, they should start online business, which would provide them opportunities of good livelihood.

Businessman Atiqur Rehman said CPEC would offer greater job opportunities and reduce expenditure on power, thus, would benefit the country’s economy.

Another panel discussion was held on “Pakistan’s Education System: The Robot Factory,” in which Dr Muhammad Memon, chairman, Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE), Hyderabad, Sadiqa Salahuddin, executive director, Indus Resource Centre, Karachi, Amar Sindhu, educationist and activist, University of Sindh, and Irshad Ahmed Student of SMIU participated in the discussion.

Published in Daily Times, December 9^th 2017.