Pakistan has finally decided to honour Nobel laureate and the unsung hero of the Pakistani scientific program, Dr Abdus Salam.
To honour Dr Salam for his numerous achievements, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has approved the renaming of National Centre for Physics at Quaid-i-Azam University as ‘Professor Abdus Salam Center for Physics’.
Sharif has also approved the grant of five fellowships that will be given annually to Pakistani students for PhD in the field of Physics in reputed international universities. The has been named as Professor Abdus Salam Fellowship.
The decision by the Pak PM comes as a delayed acknowledgement of the contributions of by Dr Ahmad in the field of theoretical Physics.
For those of you who don’t know, Dr Abdus Salam was the first Pakistani to receive a Nobel Prize in physics and the second from an Islamic country to receive any Nobel Prize. He was the founding director of the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) and he served as the scientific advisor to the Government of Pakistan from 1960 to 1974 during which he played an important role in the development of scientific infrastructure in the country.
However, he was forced to leave his country in 1974 when the Pakistani parliament passed an amendment declaring Ahmadi, an Islamic religious movement of which he was a part, as non-Muslims.
Grave of Abdus Salam (Photo: Wikimedia)
Despite his numerous achievements and services that he had done for his country, he has often been discriminated against owing to his affiliation with the Ahmadiyya sect.
He died on November 21, 1996, in Oxford, England, following which his body was brought to Pakistan for burial. However, the Pakistani government denied him the honour of a state funeral. He was buried in Bahishti Maqbara at Rabwah, Punjab. The epitaph on his grave initially read ‘First Muslim’ Nobel Laureate’. However, the word ‘Muslim’ was erased following court orders.
Nearly 20 years after his death, Pakistan overcoming its religious inhibitions decided to give the great Pakistani scientist his rightful respect.
