The convocation of the International Islamic University, coinciding with its Silver Jubilee, will honour with degrees of Law on three international personalities: two for their services to the cause of Muslim world and the third for his role in support of right to self-determination and freedom. The university is also organising a Cultural Week with seminars, cultural shows and book exhibitions from March 13 to 18.
It has invited a number of distinguished personalities like Dr Amin Makki, Fahmi Huwaidi, Haji Senaid Kobilica, Dr Wahbah al-Zuhayli, Dr Abdur Rahman Yusri and Dr Khalid Alawi to address the seminar.
Addressing a news conference here on Wednesday, former Supreme Court Justice and President of the Shariat Appellate Bench, Justice Khalil-ur-Rahman, now Rector of the IIU, said the three international personalities for the honorary degrees were selected by the board of trustees drawn from 17 member nations of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC).
He said former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Muhammad and Jordanian Prince El-Hassan bin Talal bin Abdullah had been chosen for their services to the Muslim world, while the former South African president Nelson Mandela was voted by the trustees to honour his life-long struggle for the right to self-determination and rule of the majority in South Africa.
He told a questioner that the board of trustees representing the OIC nations was an autonomous body and took decision independently. The selection of these three world leaders, the Rector added, was done by the board on its own.
He did not say so and neither he was asked the question, it was presumed that President Musharraf will preside over the special convocation and present the degrees to the distinguished world leaders as he is the chancellor of the university.
The university has also instituted two awards to honour the memory of its two former leaders, Malik Mairaj Khalid, the rector and former caretaker prime minister and Dr Hassan Shaafi'e, president of the university. Malik Mairaj Khalid Memorial Award will be given to the best athlete and the Shaafi'e Memorial Award to the best student.
An Islamic world exhibition scheduled for March 13, and the five-day seminar on problems being faced by the Muslim nations on March 14 will be inaugurated by Prince El-Hassan bin Talal bin Abdullah of Jordan.
In a brief review of the performance of the university, Dr Mahmood Ahmad Ghazi, the current president of the University and one-time federal minister in the Musharraf government, said that the institution was the most-modern seat of learning as compared to the most advanced universities in the world.
He said it had nearly a thousand students on its rolls that had come from 60 countries. A new campus was nearing completion at a cost of Rs 1 billion.
The university expenses were met from the government and private donations from across the world. An Arabian Muslim, Dr Ghazi added, who insists on remaining anonymous, had committed $2 billion, while another two were contributing to the construction of wings in the new campus.
The university did not lean on one person or government for its budget, he told another questioner. He said that the intention of the university was to produce modern Muslims who were enlightened and moderate in outlook. "In brief", he said, "Our aim was to integrate Islamic knowledge with contemporary intellectual achievements and produce men like Allama Iqbal."
The university had 92 degrees and certificate programmes and 400 courses in modern disciplines with emphasis on Fiqah, history, thought and civilisation and produce skilled personnel in social, economic, applied sciences and also those pertaining to communications.
The university was also developing centres for higher Islamic education in law, jurisprudence, banking, political science, international relations and business administration.
It also plans to establish faculties of medicine and health sciences, engineering and technology drawn from all over, Dr Ghazi said. He said the current faculty of law in the university came up to the expectations of the Bar Council and taught courses in the international, national and Islamic laws.
Dr Ghazi claimed that a good number of university's former students are holding important positions abroad. One of them was the Deputy Governor of the Afghan Central Bank and some of them had attracted commendations while working in China, he added.
During his recent visit to Jordan, he was told by a former federal minister that students from the International Islamic University were admitted to senior positions in the government there without asking any questions.
A brochure released on the occasion reviewed the progress made by the university since its inception in 1980 to date. It said that during the current year 6,954 students were on the rolls for applied sciences followed by 4,560 in the social sciences. There were nearly 1,495 students in the faculty of management sciences and 923 studying languages and literature.
The applied sciences included studies in computer science, telecommunication and computer engineering and mathematics.