LAHORE: The Sheikh Abul Hasan Ash-Shadhili Sufism, Science & Technology Research Centre is going to be established at the new campus of Government College University Lahore located at Kala Shah Kaku. The initiative comes from the Chief Minister Punjab and the Department of Higher Education, upon the vision and special interest of the honourable First Lady of Pakistan, Mrs Bushra Imran.

A briefing about the Centre was provided to the First Lady by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Dr Asghar Zaidi at the inauguration of library and web portal. The modern Ash-Shadhili Research Centre for Religious, Social and Scientific Disciplines would be linked with all the leading libraries and universities of the world, and its digital resources would be remotely accessible to millions of students across Pakistan.

Speaking on the occasion, Nadeem Mahboob, Secretary HED, gave the credit of establishing the Research Centre to the vision and special attention of First Lady Bushra Imran. He said that the academic bloc of the research centre would be established at the New Campus of GCU Lahore in Kala Shah Kaku at a cost in excess of Rs100 million. He said that the libraries established in various districts of Punjab would be linked with this research Centre in the coming days.

Vice Chancellor Prof Zaidi said that the Centre will conduct research in the fields of Islamic philosophy, Sufism, spirituality, comparative study of Sufism and mystic traditions besides providing a platform for inter-religious studies and inter-faith dialogues at national and international level.

Prof Zaidi explained that the Centre would serve as a platform for advanced learning and research on the philosophical doctrines of the great Islamic philosophers. He added special courses including on Islamic philosophy, Sufism and comparative religions would be introduced for BS(Hons), MPhil and PhD classes.

The Vice Chancellor announced that the Centre would benefit from the Rehmat-ul-lil Alaameen Scholarships for MPhil/PhD national and international students doing research on divinity, Sufism, and spirituality. He said 3000 physical books, 13 million e-books, 150 million e-thesis and 78 global e-journals would be available to this Centre.