Dr Anwar Ahmad Siddiqui: (New) President IIUI

After our following post, the web team has rectified the name error and “Dr. Anwar Ahmad Siddiqui” is now again Dr. Anwar Hussain Siddiqui. This is not the first time that IIUI’s IT & web team is showing such an excellent level of efficiency and competence. In response to some of our earlier posts, they have done the same thing but never bothered to fix the systematic problems in their working. However, they should be applauded that at least after realizing some problem, they are ready to act. Isn’t it a rare character in our university?


Yesterday morning, we were surprised either at our ignorance or ignorance of one of the scribes who submitted the report of a seminar on Gaza held at IIUI. The first few lines of the report read like this:

"A Seminar on the Israeli War on Gaza: Causes and Consequences was organized by Iqbal International Institute for Research & Dialogue at International Islamic University Auditorium Islamabad. Dr. Anwar Ahmad Siddiqui, President International Islamic University was in the Chair. While the panelists included Professor Amir Ali Hoodbhoy, Ambassador Tayyab Siddiqui, Professor Amna Mahmood Sandhu and Junaid Ahmad,…..( http://www.iiu.edu.pk/News/january_09.html#discussion)"

The most terrible mistake is very obvious: Dr Anwar Ahmad Siddiqui or is it because of our ignorance of Dr Sahib’s recent name change which most of us are unaware of. But what might have prompted Dr Anwar to change his name at this stage of his life?? Then he might not have changed his name and it is all a mischief of a newly recruited reporter or an intern who has not been briefed about the president. The mistake of not knowing the name of a top gun at an institution is forgivable if institutions are more important than individuals but at IIUI, it’s the president of the university who wields all the powers and we feel pity for the scribe who has got the name of the president wrong.

Its not only the President’s name that needs correction. Dr Hoodbhoy’s name is incomplete and we wonder what does Ambassador Tayyab Siddiqui mean? It is nothing but bad taste.

The most important lesson that we learn from this episode is that IIUI does not follow any systematic procedures to upload new materials on the website. Otherwise, mistakes of this kind are easy to avoid. It is our conjecture that the report was prepared by one of the reporters working in the protocol department. His seniors should have approved the report before sending it to the web master who works under a director in IT Centre whose efficiency is limited to ban IIUI blog being accessed from University network. He should also be responsible for approving all the content that goes online. In this case it seems that there is no filter between the reporter and the readers like us and one day it may result in some weird happening that will embarrass all at the helm of affairs. But do they ever get embarrassed????

A season of commemoration at IIUI

Our IIUI is always in news and this time the buzz word is "remembrance" as allsorts of conferences and references are in pipeline. While we were struggling to digest the political correctness of Dr. Siddiqui and others after the International seminar on Benazir Bhutto, the next mega event is announced and this time IIUI is "holding an international conference to highlight the historic spiritual role of Hazrat Bahauddin Zakria". Makdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Minister of Foreign Affairs will be the Chief Guest at this occasion.

There are certain remarkable things about organizing a seminar in our university. First, almost every event which we organize is "international" by default because we are an "International" university. Secondly, we are marvelous people when it comes choosing partner organizations. One can notice university's growing affinity with the "prestigious" Archaeological & Historical Association of Pakistan led by Mr. Ghazanfar Mehdi. Out of our sheer curiosity we were unsuccessfully trying to find the research and academic profile of this Islamabad based association. Then we realized that it is indeed a fake organization like several dozen other in the pocket of Mr. Ghazanfar Mehdi who is readily available to exploit the platform of any institution to strengthen his public relations and "ancillary" activities. What IIUI is getting out of this relationship is yet to be explored.

So we are having this seminar and what next? May be the urs of Hazrat Barri Imam or Hazrat Mehr Ali Shah? Presumably not! We think that the strategic Siddiqui-Mehdi alliance will further show their political correctness and in-depth understanding of political governance in Pakistan and their next move should be the following:

-A global conference to highlight the spiritual role of Syed Musa Pak of Multan and inevitably the Prime Minister of Pakistan would be the Chief Guest.

-A national conference to highlight the role of Makhdoom Talib-ul-Mola, the spiritual leader of Sarwari Jammat and the father of Commerce Minister, Makhdoom Amin Fahim.

There are several other possibilities which Mr. Ghazanfar Mehdi can share to get the things done according to the expectations of university authorities. We are happy that Dr. Siddiqui has excellent advisors around him at this critical juncture of his career to help him perpetuate the severe crisis of governance and leadership at IIUI. We cannot expect anything better from him and his team which belong to “prestigious” phony organizations. However, we were definitely expecting a much better and decent response from Dr. Manzoor Ahmad amidst this crisis but apparently he is no where too.