Sixth international conference begins

LAHORE
A three-day sixth international THAAP conference titled “People’s History of Pakistan” started on Friday.
The inaugural session of the conference began with a welcome address by Prof Sajida Haider Vandal, an educationist, architect and CEO of THAAP. She explained that it was a not-for-profit registered organisation founded in 2006, which organises talks, seminars and colloquiums that lead to the conference at the end of each year. Prof Pervaiz Vandal, an architect, educationist and THAAP conference convener was the keynote speaker who explained the conference's theme in detail. Rt. Rev. John Alexander Malik was the guest of honor while Prof Dr Mohammad Nizamuddin, Chairman HEC Punjab, was the chief guest. The inaugural session concluded with the inauguration of an International Photography Exhibition on the same venue. The first session was chaired by Dr Mubarak Ali, an eminent historian, activist and scholar of Pakistan, while the first paper of the conference was presented by Meher Ali, a Bachelor of Arts in History from Brown University, USA, who is currently pursuing a Fulbright research fellowship in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Her paper was titled “The Hidden Left: Communist Activity and Influence in Pakistan’s Early Years”. The second paper was read by Dr Hanif-ur-Rehman, educationist and lecturer, at University of Peshawar and Jamshed Khan, a visiting research scholar at the SOAS, University of London, whose paper was read by Zainab Fatima. The paper was titled “Irony of History: Pakhtunistan, Bacha Khan and Afghanistan”. The third paper “Peasants uprising in East Bengal / East Pakistan (1946 – 50)” was presented by Dr Riaz Ahmed Shaikh, Head of Social Sciences and Associate Professor at SZABIST, Karachi.