ISLAMABAD: Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) gave ten scholarships to Egyptian university students and faculty members to learn Urdu language at AIOU on the annual basis. To strengthen this mutual collaboration further, Egyptian government has made a principled decision to establish the Institute of Arabic language at AIOU.

In this regard, Egyptian Ambassador to Pakistan, Dr Tarek Dahrough, visited AIOU. He was accompanied by Amer us Syed Nasir ud Din Syed and Second Secretary of Egyptian embassy, Ahmad Rida. On reaching AIOU, Egyptian delegation was given warm reception by Vice Chancellor AIOU Prof Dr Zia Ul Qayyum.

The Egyptian ambassador informed the VC that Egyptian government was looking forward to establishing Al-Azhar School System in Pakistan in collaboration with AIOU.

He, further, proposed to establish the ‘Institute of Arabic Language’ at AIOU which would not only offer courses in Arabic language but also engage in multidimensional activities including online lectures of Al-Azhar academia, certificate courses and educational visits of Al- Azhar faculty, scholars and students.

He lauded VC, AIOU for his wonderful contributions to mass education and apprised him that Egyptian Ministry of Religious Affairs has declared AIOU to be an institution of high-quality standards.

Therefore, Egyptian embassy intended to further cooperate in organizing seminars, conferences and workshops at AIOU. Prof Dr Zia Ul -Qayyum assured him to extend his full cooperation.

After formal approval and necessary arrangements, AIOU and Egyptian embassy would ink a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish institute of Arabic language at AIOU, he said.

Dr Zahid Majeed, Director, International Collaboration, Dr Abdul Aziz Sahir, Chairman, Department of Urdu and Dr Sami Ullah Zuberi, In charge, Department of Arabic were also present at the occasion.