Minister stresses on promoting freethinking culture in students

LAHORE:Punjab Minister for Higher Education Raja Yassir Humayun Sarfraz has called upon the need to promote the culture of freethinking among students, saying freethinking leads to finding truth and truth leads to Islam.

He was addressing the first National Conference on Research in Education organised by Punjab University’s Institute of Education and Research (IER) here on Tuesday. PU former VC Prof Dr Zafar Moeen Nasar, University of Okara Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Zakria Zakar, PU Pro-VC Prof Dr Saleem Mazhar, University of Baltistan VC Dr Naeem Khan and other noted scholars from various parts of the country attended the first day of the conference.

Raja Yassir said, “We must inculcate high moral values in the new generation. We must educate students to apply logic on issues.” He said students must not be forced to adopt specific fields of knowledge or ideas. He said that feeding the hungry and providing basic facilities to the citizens like education and health were the responsibility of an Islamic state. “We must take guidance from the Holy Quran in every sphere of life,” he stated.

Dr Zafar Moeen Nasar said stressed on promotion of the culture of tolerance, peace and harmony through knowledge. Prof Saleem Mazhar said “We must obtain knowledge for the purification of the soul.” Dr Naeem Khan said the state of Madina gave special attention to knowledge. He said the universities must produce graduates with open minds. Dr Abid Hussain said, “We could not achieve the goals of a Single National Curriculum (SNC) unless we refined the whole system.” The conference will continue on Wednesday (today).

CS: Expressing displeasure over the cleanliness condition in the provincial metropolis, newly-posted Punjab Chief Secretary Kamran Ali Afzal has directed the authorities concerned to evolve an effective strategy for the solution to the sanitation problems.

Chairing a meeting on Tuesday, he said solution to the problem of sanitation in Lahore should be on a permanent basis. During the meeting, the affairs of Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) were reviewed. The chief secretary said the work on garbage collection in the City should be expedited and complaints be addressed in a timely manner. He also issued instructions to the officers concerned to speed up work on the project to generate electricity from garbage at the landfill site of Lakhodair.