Book talk on Iqbal, Islam held

LAHORE:Punjab University’s Library Book Club arranged a special programme in reverence to Ramazan-ul-Mubarik, death anniversary of Allama Muhammad Iqbal and World Book and Copyright Day.

In this regard, a book talk on Allama Muhammad Iqbal and Islam was held along with the distribution of Book Lover Awards to highly engaged readers of PU Library. Prof Dr Moeen-ud-Din Nizami, Dean of Oriental Learning, was the chief guest. He presented a talk on “Kuliyat-a-Iqbal”. Dr Muhammad Jawwad from Department of Philosophy talked about Allama Iqbal’s “The reconstruction of religious thoughts in Islam”. He explained the prime notches of the book and well-argued the philosophical thought of Allama Iqbal on Islam.

After the talk, Book Lover Awards were distributed among 10 highly engaged readers of the library. This year four faculty members and six students were awarded and they belong to diverse academic disciplines. Dr Muhammad Haroon Usmani, Chief Librarian PU Library said that the library had started this tradition in 2012 and since then each year library with a vision to promote reading culture, arranges this distribution activity on World Book and Copyright Day.

Meanwhile, the English Literary Society marked World Book Day at Pak Tea House here on Friday. This year the theme of World Book Day was "Literary Books Written on COVID-19". The speakers on this occasion discussed and reviewed several top novels written by leading writers of the world on the given subject.

Scotland’s novelist Ali Smith has written a novel 'Summer' on Coronavirus. It is considered as one of the best novels written on the pandemic so far. The novel is a true reflection of social alienation, immigration, isolation and confinement measures. It is emotionally moving, touching and filled with tenderness and resentment due to curtailment of freedom. In the novel 'Fell', writer Sarah Moss narrated a story of a woman who is maddened by confinement while in the novel 'Burn Coat', writer Sarah Hall wrote how to survive during lockdowns and emerging tensions.