History defines and refines knowledge and correlates study of the past with the present, said Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad Vice-Chancellor Dr Muhammad Ali on Tuesday. “Punjab is replete with volumes of historical events like communal harmony existed before partition and ironically communal riots broke out at the time of independence in 1947. All such events are needed to be explored and recorded,” the QAU vice-chancellor said while speaking as chief guest at the launch of third volume of the papers presented in the international conference on ‘Punjab: History & Culture’ organized by the National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research, Islamabad here. Dr Muhammad Ali urged the NIHCR management for organizing international conferences on the history and culture of Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir. He hailed the role of the NIHCR faculty and staff in organizing the international conference on Punjab. The QAU VC distributed shields and certificates among the NIHCR faculty and staff for a making the international conference on Punjab a success. NIHCR acting director Dr Sajid Mehmood Awan, in his vote of thanks, underscored the role of QAU VC for his overall supervision in holding the international conference on Punjab. He presented a copy of the third volume of the book to the VC. In his welcome address, Dr Altafullah, Senior Research Fellow at the NHICR, said that overall 200 articles were received to be presented at the three-day international conference on Punjab which have been published in three volumes as the proceedings of the conference. Dr Rahat Zubair Malik, Senior Research Fellow at the NIHCR, moderated the event.