HYDERABAD, March 1 The University of Sindh honoured Prof Zakaria Sajid, a teacher of Mass Communication Department, with a shield and naming a conference hall at the Centre for Rural Development Communication after him in recognition of his services, at a special ceremony held on Saturday.

Vice-Chancellor Dr Mazharul Haq Siddiqui who presided over the ceremony lauded Prof Zakaria's services for the establishment of CRDC and his contribution to the Department of Mass Communication.

He said that Prof Zakaria had always helped the university in selecting talented students and teachers. The university had over time established a very transparent system for selection of teachers with multiple filter processes, he claimed.

Prof Zakaria said that his association with Sindh spanned over half a century. He had worked in the USA on a project for library development and he had helped Karachi University in the establishment of the Department of Library Information Science, he said.

He said that journalists were advocates of society and this was the first university of the country, which had set up a centre for rural development communication.

The centre's director Prof Ibadullah Rashidi said that established in 2002 as academic branch of the faculty of social sciences, the centre primarily served as clearinghouse of information on development communication, problems and issues of rural areas.

He said that the centre was mandated to perform functions of training and capacity-building, research and consulting, developmental networking and linkages.

He said that in addition to the HEC-funded research project on inventory of Mass Media in Sindh, the centre had recently signed an agreement with a German organisation, International Institute of Youth Education, to undertake coordinated research on the impact of satellite TV on working children in Sindh.

Earlier, the vice-chancellor presented memento shield to Prof Zakaria and inaugurated Prof Zakaria Sajid conference hall at the centre. He also awarded certificates to candidates who had completed four-month professional diploma certificate in the Rural Development Communication.

Teachers of the Department of Mass Communication of the University of Karachi, Dr Mehmood Ghaznavi, Dr Nisar Ahmed Zuberi, Prof Inam Bari, Dr Tahir Masood, Dr S.U. Saleem, family members of Prof Sajid and teachers of the Sindh University, including pro-vice-chancellor Dr Rafia Ahmed Shaikh, Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences Dr Iqbal Ahmed Panhwar, Prof Har Bux Makhijani, faculty members and students attended the ceremony.