Daily Times

LAHORE: Punjab University on Thursday organised a condolence reference to pay rich tribute to renowned and internationally acclaimed physicist, former PU Faculty of Science dean and founder of Centre for High Energy Physics Prof Dr Muhammad Saleem at Al Raazi Hall.

PU Vice Chancellor Dr Mujahid Kamran, renowned journalist Mujeebur Rehman Shami, former PU VC Sheikh Imtiaz Ali, Dr Khawaja Muhammad Zakria, Ihsan Ullah Waqas, Prof Maqsood Anwar Butt, Dr Jamil Anwar, Dr Muhammad Ali, Iftikhar Ahmad Chaudhary, faculty members and a large number of students were present on the occasion.

Addressing the ceremony, Dr Mujahid Kamran said that Dr Saleem was his teacher who urged him to join teaching profession. He said that Dr Saleem was the best teacher and he used to teach difficult topics in the way that students could understand easily, adding that Dr Saleem used to present summary of his previous lecture in start of his lecture and then used to tell the students what
they were going to study on that day.

He said that later, in the middle of the lecture, Dr Saleem used to summarise the delivered lecture and in the end, he used to summarise the whole lecture. He said that Dr Saleem was an organised person and there was consistency in his personality. “He used to read books on different topics and groomed his students and he always encouraged young people. He participated in politics because of his ideological commitment and he took part in university politics when he felt that anti-Islamic forces were growing stronger in the university,” the VC added.

He said that Dr Saleem also played important role in setting up federation of teachers representing all universities, adding that Dr Saleem wrote various books on various topics and he wrote books till his last breath. He said that he promoted research culture in the university and did not make money during his career.

Addressing the ceremony, Mujeebur Rehman Shami said that Dr Saleem was one of the few scientists who not only had vast knowledge of their relevant field but had deep affiliation with literature and other social subjects as well. He said that Dr Saleem surprised everybody by writing books on Dara Shikoh, Qauid-e-Azam, Allam Iqbal and Maulana Shibli. He said that his book on Quaid-e-Azam was so comprehensive that he used to recommend this book and every student must read his book on the father of the nation. He said that the life of Dr Saleem gave us the message that despite being scientists, we must not disassociate ourselves from our culture and heritage.

Former PU vice chancellor Sheikh Imtiaz Ali said that when he was vice chancellor, he had some prejudices regarding Dr Saleem’s involvement in politics. He said that Dr Saleem was a lecturer at that time and there was a vacancy of associate professor to be filled. He said that he referred his research work for evaluation to two top physicists of the world and one was a Nobel laureate and the other one was from Royal Society based in United Kingdom. He said that during the meeting of the selection board, the recommendations of the foreign experts were opened. “The American physicist had mentioned in his letter that the research work of Dr Saleem was of the level that he could teach in any American university as “professor” while the other expert had also praised Dr Saleem’s work. He said that after reading these wonderful recommendations, he stood up during the meeting of the selection board and said that he was proud of Dr Saleem that he was teaching in Punjab University.