ISLAMABAD, March 12: President General Pervez Musharraf on Saturday conferred honorary degrees of doctorate on eminent personalities including Prince El-Hassan Bin Talal of Jordan, former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamed and South African leader Nelson Mandela, in recognition of their outstanding contribution to the socio-economic well-being of their nations.

President Musharraf, who is Chancellor of the International Islamic University, conferred the degrees of Doctorate of Law at an impressive gathering at the Convention Centre.

Both Prince Talal and Mahathir Mohamed received the degrees personally to a resounding applause from the faculty, students and a large corps of Islamabad-based diplomats while a nominee of Nelson Mandela received the degree on behalf of the former South African president.

The president paid glowing tributes to the life-long commitment of Prince Talal and leadership of Mahathir Mohamed and Nelson Mandela.

The award of degrees has enhanced the prestige of the university, he said.

President Musharraf lauded Prince Talal for serving the cause of Islam and for promoting enlightened Islamic education.

“Through his intellectual eminence, sagacity, social services and cultural activities, he has vitally contributed to the promotion of enlightened Islamic education,” he said as the prince sat attired in the university robes.

The president said Dr Mahathir “has become a living legend” in the Islamic world for his role in building a robust Malaysian economy and providing political stability and maintaining harmony in the multi-ethnic society of Malaysia.

About Nelson Mandela, the president said he “has been an apostle of peace” and a man of vision, who led his multi-cultural country to a hopeful transition. He spent 23 years in solitary confinement and “is a hero”, the president added.

In his remarks, Prince Talal dwelt on the current state of Muslim world, observing that faith, morality, knowledge and action were needed to lift it from turbulence.

He said Muslims were themselves responsible for being under-achievers. He described terror as “privatization of war” and called for rebelling against backwardness and promoting a vision of human dignity, equality and enlightenment of Islam.

Prince Talal praised President Musharraf’s focus on poverty reduction and his efforts for promoting trade between various regions.

Stressing the need for socio-economic development in the Muslim world he expressed the hope that the 21st century will be the Asian century and a fallen race could resurgence be renascent.

“Without enabling the people and without listening to their views, there can be no freedom and without pluralism there can be no democracy,” the prince observed.

Mahathir Mohamed dilated on the need of reforming the Islamic laws and the judiciary to provide justice to the common people.

“Laws must protect human beings from injustice,” he said, pointing out gross differences in a law’s being legally correct and its being moral and just in terms of dispensation of justice to the victims.

He maintained that Islam was for all ages and it was the true understanding of the great religion which should be the aim and objective as a first step towards application of its law in the contemporary world.

Rector of the Islamic University Justice (retd) Khalilur Rehman and President of IIU Dr Mahmood Ahmad Ghazi also spoke on the occasion.