-The resolution suggests renaming Quaid-i-Azam varsity Physics dept after Muslim scientist Al-Khazini
ISLAMABAD: National Assembly (NA) on Thursday passed a resolution to rename the Physics department of Islamabad’s Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU).
Initially seen as a bid to drop the name of Pakistani physicist Dr Abdus Salam from National Centre for Physics, the matter was later explained by QAU representative that the centre for physics and the department of physics are, technically speaking, two separate entities.
In December 2016, then PM Nawaz Sharif had approved to rename the National Centre for Physics at Quaid-i-Azam University as “Professor Abdus Salam Centre for Physics”. It was hailed as a big step to recognise the services of Dr Salam, a Pakistani theoretical physicist who shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics with Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg for his contribution to the electroweak unification theory.
In the resolution presented by MNA Captain (r) Safdar, it was argued that the dept should be named after Muslim scientist Abu al Fatah Abdul Rehman Al-Khazini who “secured astonishing achievements in Physics” that were “followed by whole European world”.
“Today, this Parliament has signed a resolution to highlight that the Physics department of Quaid-i-Azam University should be named after the famous scientist Abu al Fatah Abdul Rehman Al-Khazini who was the biggest name for Muslims in Physics,” the resolution reads.
It adds that “he (Al-Khazini) walked the footsteps of his teacher Al-Biruni to secure astonishing achievements in Physics, and the whole European world used the works of this prominent Muslim scientist.”
Other lawmakers who signed the resolution include Seema Mohiuddin Jameeli, Eng Usman Khan Tarakai, Dr Muhammad Azhar Khan Jadoon, Tahira Aurangzeb, Malik Muhammad Amir Dogar, Molana Qamar ud Din, Moulvi Agha Muhammad, Zahra Wadood Fatemi, Mir Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani, Engr Hamid-ul-Haq Khalil and Khawaja Sohail Mansoor.
The move may not come as a surprise as Nawaz Sharif’s son-in-law had previously, while spewing anti-Ahmedi hatred in the House, criticised the decision to rename QAU’s physics centre after Dr Salam. “I would request (Jamaat-e-Islami’s MNA) Sahibzada Tariqullah to move a resolution to rename the title of [QAU’s] department of physics, which was [recently] named after Dr Abdus Salam, an Ahmadi,” he had remarked.
-The story had earlier attributed National Centre for Physics as Physics Department. However, the two are separate entities of the same varsity