Pak clerics oppose physics centre after nobel laUreate
ISLAMABAD: Chairing the last session as the head of Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) of Pakistan on Thursday, Maulana Mohammad Khan Sherani decried the proposal to rename the Quaid-i-Azam University’s (QAU) physics centre after Professor Abdus Salam. The council discussed the proposal after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif forwarded a summary to President Mamnoon Hussain of his approval to rename the National Centre for Physics at QAU the “Professor Abdus Salam Centre for Physics”. Addressing a press conference after the council’s meeting, the CII chairman said changing the department’s name would not set the right precedent. “We have concerns over the change of its [physics centre’s] name as it was earlier named to honour Dr Riaz,” said Sherani, but declined to offer any reason for the opposition. He was also asked if the CII had objections over renaming of other institutions or roads but Sherani declined to offer any comment over the subject. Physicist and Pakistan’s first Nobel laureate Professor Abdus Salam hailed from the country’s Ahmedi community. Pakistan declared Ahmedis non-Muslims in 1974. In 1984, they were banned from calling themselves Muslims. They are banned from preaching and even from travelling to Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage. Their publications are prohibited. In May 2010, suicide bombers killed 80 people at two Ahmedi places of worship.