PESHAWAR, Oct 19: The University of Peshawar will nominate Dr Hameedullah for a national award who died in a helicopter crash while on relief mission in Bagh in Azad Kashmir.

Vice-Chancellor of the university Mumtaz Gul said this on Tuesday while speaking at a condolence reference held in the Senate Hall in memory of the late doctor who was director of the Centre for Excellence in Geology.

The reference was attended by among others, heads of departments and deans of faculties.

Mr Gul said that Dr Hameed was a man of high calibre who was devoted to his work. He had approved many projects worth Rs60 million. He wanted to upgrade the centre and keep it up-to-date with day-to-day innovations.

He used to say that hydel power and minerals were two things present in sufficient quantity in the province and only needed to be utilized properly, the VC said.

Dr Javed of the Geology department said that the late doctor was a superb scientist and had won many awards for work done in his chosen field. He was famous for his devotion to the science of geology, a reason why he secured two Fulbright scholarships, a presidential award and an IUCN award for environment, he said.

He added that he wanted to establish a Hazard Assessment Centre but life did not permit him to pursue his goal.

Dr Asif, a friend of the academic, said that he had graduated in 1973 from the Geology department and joined its faculty in 1978. A gold medallist, Dr Hameed was interested in making a mineral testing laboratory in Hayatabad.

Dr Shafiq ur Rehman said that he had been in the quake-hit areas in order to know the causes of the natural phenomenon and collected mud samples from different areas to sort out their specifications. His quest for knowledge took him away from us, he said.

President of the Peshawar University Teachers Association Abdul Hameed Jan said the electronic media did not give coverage to the incident even though the professor had died for the cause of people stricken by the quake.

Dr Tahir Shah also spoke on the occasion.