HYDERABAD, Oct 20: Noted local and foreign scholars and historians have urged the relevant authorities to provide the University of Sindh with the required resources for the establishment of Pir Hussamuddin Rashidi chair to undertake research on various incomplete projects.

They were of the view that the year 2011 should be declared as Pir Hussamuddin Rashidi Year to mark his 100th birth anniversary.

The speakers said that the government, universities and academic organisations should organize events to highlight the contribution of the learned scholar to literature.

These recommendations were made at the concluding session of the two-day Pir Hussamuddin Rashidi international conference on the history of Sindh.

The vice-chancellor of the University of Sindh, Mazharul Haq Siddiqui, presided over the session and Sindh Minister for Culture and Tourism Sassui Palijo was chief guest.

In the working session, noted historian Dr Mubarak Ali read a paper titled “In search of identity: Reconstruction of history of Sindh”. He said that history and identity were closely interlinked. He said that whenever, there was a question of identity of an individual or a society, they had to seek help from history to trace and determine it, because its roots lied in history.

However, there were problems as Pakistan was a relatively new state while its provinces were historically very old and had strong roots of their regional identities, which they were not ready to abandon, he said, adding that the situation created a conflict between these two identities, which led to political and social implications.

Dr Mubarak said that in case of Sindh, its position was that from the very beginning it had its own identity and separate history, which was disrupted from time to time by political upheavals and change of borders.

He said that a significant aspect of the history of Sindh was the excavation of Moenjodaro in 1920s, which dazzled the world on the advancement of its civilization and culture.

He said that historically, Sindh appeared on the map of the world history as the cradle of Indus valley civilization.

Idress Rajput in his a paper “Sindh-Punjab water dispute: Brief history and future options”, said that water distribution issues in Indus River system were not recent but had persisted since the nineteenth century when the British rulers in the subcontinent started developing irrigation system with construction of new barrages with allied canal system and later on dams in support of these canals.

He said that various committees and commissions were formed from time to time, which included Anderson Committee of 1935, Rau Commission of 1941, Sindh-Punjab Agreement of 1945, Akhtar Hussain Committee of 1968, Fazal-i-Akbar Committee of 1970, Anwarul Haq Commission of 1976 and Haleem Commission of 1983 but none managed to resolve the issue completely.

“Water distribution problems have become more acute and critical after the signing of Indus Basin Treaty in 1960,” he said.

He said that while exclusive rights were given to India for the use of waters of Sutlej, Beas and Ravi rivers, Pakistan was given rights to the use of Indus, Jehlum and Chenab rivers with some rights on these rivers to India for irrigation and power development.He said that a unanimous water accord was signed by the four provinces on March 16, 1991 and ratified by the Council of Common Interests on March 21, 1991.

Dr Habibullah Siddiqui presented his paper on “Introduction and evolution of western education system in Sindh: An outline survey and brief study”. The scholar discussed the status of education in Sindh before the British occupation and impediments in introducing a new alien system of education in Sindh.

The scholar also expressed his views on colonial strategies to westernise the education system and its extensive dispensation. He highlighted contribution of the local educators and educationists for laying firm foundations of western education system in Sindh.

Prof Sharfiul Mujahid in his paper on “Haji Abdullah Haroon and Two-Nation Theory” said that of all the Muslim leaders of Sindh, Abdullah Haroon was the foremost to make an impact on the Indian mainstream Muslim politics.

He said that the most remarkable thing about Abdullah Haroon was that he had the vision to see the problems of Sindhi Muslims in the context of all India and to establish linkages between Sindhi components and the pan Indian Muslim community.

In her paper on political movement in 20th century Sindh, Dr Sarah Ansari from the UK said that Sindh during the twentieth century witnessed a range of political movements that at various times and for various lengths of time proved to be extremely active.