LAHORE, Aug 27: New syllabi for MA (Honours) and four-year BA (Honours) in Islamic Studies has been issued for 16 public sector universities in Punjab.

This was announced at a meeting of the special committee comprising heads of Islamic Studies departments of these universities, which was presided over by Governor Khalid Maqbool here at the Governor’s House on Sunday.

The meeting finalized the syllabi for the graduation and post-graduation courses in Islamic Studies under the framework approved by the Higher Education Commission. It also approved syllabus for the compulsory subject of Islamiat for all students of BA/BSc, BCom, BSc Engineering and MBBS.

The governor congratulated chairman of the committee Dr Muhammad Akram Chaudhry for what he said formulating the new syllabus while keeping in view the character-building aspect of the students. The real source of knowledge for Muslims was Islam, the governor said.

He said it was good that special attention was being paid to produce Islamic scholars having access to original source of the subject, who would be capable of suggesting solution to the modern day problems.

The governor said the country needed such religious scholars who could portray the real spirit of Islam and, instead of being rigid, propagate the concepts of brotherhood and universality to motivate every human being to adopt the right way.

He said students of BA (Honours) in Islamic Studies would have to opt two subjects out of a set of various subjects including philosophy, economics, mass communication, education, political science, sociology, psychology, general mathematics, statistics and computer studies.

The syllabi of these subjects will be the same as was prescribed for the current two-year BA course of Punjab universities and colleges. The step was aimed at promoting inter-disciplinary approach so that the Islamic Studies graduates could also attain excellence in other modern subjects in future.

The meeting decided that the elected subjects in the BA (Honours) Islamic Studies would be taught in English. Examinations of these subjects would also be conducted in English.

The four-credit hour subject of Uloom-i-Quran will be taught in Arabic during the first semester of MA (Honours) in Islamic Studies. The students will have to opt one subject out of Islamic Arts, Islamic banking, Ijtehadi Problems of the Modern Times, and Muslim rule in South Asia and Spain.