KARACHI, March 24: The 20th anniversary celebrations of Sheikh Zayed Islamic Centre, University of Karachi, began with a software exhibition on Monday.

Earlier, a ceremony was held which was attended, among others, by Consul-General of Kuwait in Karachi A. Karim Aboghaith, senior teachers of the university and IT experts. However, the Consul-General of UAE, who was to be chief guest, could not attend the programme.

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Karachi, Dr Zafar Saied Saify, who is also the chairman of the BoG of the Centre, said efforts were underway to build a strong linkage between the Centre and the Applied Economics Research Centre of the University to bring forth several satisfactory solutions to the issues relating to banking and other important aspects of the economy, which is under debate in present days.

He said the main objective behind the establishments of the centres was to impart education exhibiting strong Islamic essence keeping in view the demands of the modern days.

Referring to the restricted allocations of fund for the centres by the government, he pointed out that despite resource constraints the centres had been striving to achieve its targets gradually.

The director of the centre, Prof Khalilur Rehman, said that Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan, who provided an endowment to establish the centre, had wished that Pakistan should establish some exemplary models of academic excellence which should not only be a mark of distinction in arts and sciences, but more importantly the torchbearer of Islamic education.

“At our centre, we have combined courses of Islamic studies with those in economics, computer science and information technology to prepare a team of Islamic scholars,” he added.

He said that the SZIC planned to establish a language laboratory to facilitate teaching of Arabic and English. “We also seek to form research cells in the areas of Hadith and Sunnah, Fiqh and Usul-i-fiqh, studies in religions, Islamic economics and Islamic political thought.”

The vice-president of Unikarians, Azhar Abbas Hashmi, and a former students of the SZIC, Humera Jabeen, also spoke.

Students had put on display different solutions, including Mutaradifat-ul-Quran (Arabic searching through Urdu words), digital problems, categorization of the holy Quran, Mathematical logic and Darul Ifta of Jamia Anwarul Quran, on the occasion.