An upcoming science fair that was to be held in Quaid e Azam University was postponed, after it attracted outrage for including a homage to the late Nobel Prize winning scientist Dr Abdus Salam.
The Abdus Salam Science Festival was to be held between May 27th to 29th, and was to include a talk by Professor Hoodbhoy on the Nobel Prize winner’s work on elementary particles and physics. Several other events included a science fiction story writing competition, science quiz and even a scavenger hunt. Along with Professor Hoodhbouy, other intellectuals like Ramal Raja Mohammad Adnan were invited to take part in the three day festival.
Religious groups like the International Majlis Tahhafuz-e-Khatm-e-Nabuwat and Khatm-e-Nabuwat criticised the event and threatened to storm the event if it took place. Representatives of both groups had visited the Chancellor of the university to urge him to shut down the event.
On 16th May, the university released a statement on their Facebook account announcing that the event was postponed, providing the reason that several students across Pakistan were busy giving their exams, and were rescheduling the event after much requests.
“We regret to inform you that due to the upcoming exams in various Pakistani universities, including Quaid-e-Azam University, we got many requests to postpone the ASSF’24,” the statement read. “In addition to this, due to some unforeseen reasons, the university administration, after having a consultation with different stakeholders, decided to reschedule the ASSF-24.”
Speaking to The Friday Times about the event’s cancellation, Professor Hoodhbouy said there was more that happened behind the scenes than what meets the eye.
