Dr. Sir Muhammad Iqbal is legendary philosopher of undivided India during the time period of 1877 to 1938 AD. Pakistan as state claims its origins in the Philosophy of Dr. Sir Muhammad Iqbal and give him the status of national poet, founder of the ideology of Pakistan and the spiritual father of nation. The largest University in Pakistan, Allama Iqbal Open University Islamabad, was founded in memory of Dr. Sir Muhammad Iqbal who is known with the name of Allama Iqbal in Pakistan.
Because Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) has the largest distance learning system of education in the country as well, along with the regular classes, that’s why the total number of the students is 1,121,038 at a time (2016). Thus the revenue generated by the university alone is one of the largest amounts of self-responsible institutes of Pakistan. Moreover the University has the largest school system in country and almost all of the expenditures of primary education in the province of Pakistan is funded by AIOU.
Special Department of AIOU
One of the several departments there is a very unique and special department of AIOU on the name of Allama Iqbal himself, called the department of Iqbal Studies. Dr. Shahid Iqbal Kamran is the chairman of this department. The objectives of this specific department are research, study, understanding, explanation and criticism of the philosophy of legendary Indian, Muslim Philosopher Allama Iqbal.
It is one of the unfortunate facts that the Department of Iqbal Studies of Allama Iqbal Open University is not well serving the objectives instead its creating fake experts of Iqbal Studies. In previous 4 decades not a single thesis of Mphil or PHD has been written under the supervision of this department on the ideologies or philosophies of Allama Iqbal. No real research has been taken seriously and never a single insightful paper has been published from this department in any international general of the world.
It’s because most of the enrolled scholars have a teaching background and they consider it some sort of easier way to obtain a degree of M.Phil. or PHD in order to get some promotion in their teaching jobs. Chairman does not bother to identify the true researcher or thirsty scholars and passionate people to the work and theories of Dr. Sir Muhammad Iqbal. Department simply fills the belly of files and enrolls a great deal of scholars with no especial eligibility criteria for Iqbal Studies.
Most of the students come from the fields of literature and they don’t know a bit of philosophy because of their previous 16 years academic knowledge. 90 percent of the enrolled scholars of Iqbal Studies department are M.A Urdu, 5 percent of M.A Persian and only 5 percent Iqbalian Scholars are from the field of philosophy. This is the basic reason that no real thesis could contribute something new, stunning and interesting in Iqbal Studies.
Article is a Simple Prompt Response
This article is a simple prompt response to those who want to get admission in Iqbal Studies at AIOU and they should be careful about the behavior and attitude of professors and the rest of personnel there. They should be prepared to be humiliated again and again, long waits for little things, useless workshops and great deal of wastage of time.
Also they should be prepared for not a single proper guidance in research methodology, directions of study, citations and any little assistance ever in research. They should be prepared for being ignored and neglected and not being recognized as a true, real scholar ever. Also they should be prepared for being treated like some sort of cadets and trainees like in army academies and insulted, exploited, assaulted and harassed all the time.
If any passionate scholars is interested in becoming a researcher of Iqbal Studies he should consider one thousand times before filling the form that he won’t be able to obtain his degree not less than 4 years after a very long useless journey of not studying anything at all.