KARACHI, May 2: The golden jubilee celebrations of the Mass Communication Department, University of Karachi, began on Tuesday with a reception hosted by the department in honour of its former chairpersons and students. The reception held at the varsity’s Arts Auditorium was presided over by the department’s founding chairman, Professor Shariful Mujahid.

It was attended by a large number of former students, besides the department’s former chairpersons including Prof Zakaria Sajid, Prof Mateen-ur-Rehman Murtaza, Prof Dr Shamsuddin, Prof Nisar Zubairi and

Prof Shahida Qazi.

A seminar billed as ‘Electronic Media and its Influence’ will be held in connection with the celebrations at the varsity on Wednesday.

The seminar will be addresses by the KU’s Vice-Chancellor, Dr Pirzada Qasim, former information minister Javed Jabbar, Sajjad Mir, Tahir A Khan, Prof Inam Bari Jafri, Dr Mehmood Ghaznavi and Mrs Rafia Taj.

The department will also be getting the status of a degree-awarding institute on the occasion of its golden jubilee.

Earlier, addressing the reception, Prof Shariful Mujahid urged students to acquaint themselves with the latest techniques and trends being used in the field of journalism.

He said the Mass Communication Department had produced a number of promising and hard working journalists of the country, who had not merely proved their abilities, but also introduced new trends in the field of journalism.

He hoped that with the issuance of degree awarding status, the department’s performance will further improve.

The department’s current Chairman, Dr Tahir Masood, informed that the department had already acquired a license for its own radio station, which would start functioning within two months.

He said the department will be shifted to its new building soon as construction work was complete.

He said the department had hired the services of various working journalists to teach students so they could acquaint themselves with the latest trends and writing styles in the field of journalism.

Prof Nisar Zubairi dispelled the impression that the students of the Mass Communication Department could not meet the requirements of the field adding that the department had produced scores of professional journalists in the absence of even basic facilities.

Others who spoke included Prof Zakaria Sajid, Prof Mateen-ur-Rehman Murtaza, Prof Shahida Qazi, Fazal Qureshi, Sabihuddin Ghousi, Prof Inam Bari, Yousaf Khan, and Najeeb Ahmad.—Online