ISLAMABAD, Nov 8: Iranian ambassador Mohammad Ibrahim Tahirian on Saturday stressed the need for deepening mutual understanding between the peoples of Pakistan and Iran through research in Persian studies.

He was speaking to prominent Persian scholars at a meeting organized by the Pakistan-Iran Institute of Persian Studies. The meeting was attended, besides Iranian scholars, by local literary figures, including National Book Foundation chairman and poet Ahmed Faraz and Prof Siddiq Shibli.

The recent visit to Iran by Gen Pervaiz Musharraf, Mr Tahirian said, had laid the ground for enhancing multi- dimensional ties. The current meeting, he added, had been arranged in that context.

He said the Pakistani teachers and researchers should be assisted in enabling the institute to play a dynamic role on the basis of sponsoring of research papers. Its contacts with the teachers and research organizations of all the provinces of Pakistan and Iran should be strengthened, he stressed.

Ahmed Faraz recalled the contributions of Persian language and literature to the enrichment of Urdu. “Urdu poetry cannot advance a single step without recourse to Persian diction and idiom,” he maintained.

He mentioned Ghalib and Iqbal, who did poetry in both Urdu and Persian, while Faiz Ahmed Faiz described this region as ‘Persian’.

He said during his visit to the United States, he found that four countries, namely Afghanistan, Yemen, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan, were being mentioned in the media as thorns in the side of the sole super power.

Most of the proceedings, including the ambassador’s speech, were in Persian language, which many Pakistani members of the audience could not follow. A Pakistan scholar, speaking in Urdu, called for a balance in relations between the two countries.

During his visit to Iran, he said he had found that the local institutions attached more importance to the researchers from a neighbouring country, while the services rendered by Pakistani scholars in research on Persian studies were mostly neglected.

He suggested that the Pakistani scholars be given a special title in Iran by way of acknowledging their services and encouraging the younger researchers.

Another scholar stressed that besides publishing research books relating to Persian studies, the Khana-i-Farhang could also help in preservation of innumerable manuscripts in Pakistan which might soon be lost for want of care and research.

On the occasion, a volume of Allama Iqbal’s Persian works, published by the Academy of Iqbal, was presented to the outgoing director of the institute, Dr Mohammad Husain Tasbihi, who played an important role in the establishment of Gunjbakhsh Library in Islamabad in 1969. The library has the largest collection of Persian books in Pakistan.