LAHORE: (Monday, December 17, 2012): Punjab University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran has said that psychology has important role to play because the knowledge of engineering of consent is being continuously misused by a small number of people with immense wealth who wanted to control the world. He was addressing the inaugural ceremony of International Conference on Applied Psychology (ICAPP) organized by Department of Applied Psychology in collaboration with Psychology Subcommittee of HEC's Committee for the Development of Social Science and Humanities in Pakistan (CDSSHP) under the theme of “Psychology and Challenges of the Modern World” at Punjab University's Faisal Auditorium here on Monday.

CDSSHP Chairman and Vice Chancellor University of Gujrat Prof Dr Nizam ud Din was the chief guest while Chairperson Department of Applied Psychology Prof Dr Rukhsana Kausar, renowned experts of applied psychology from Pakistan, India, Singapore, United Kingdom and USA, senior faculty members and a large number of students were present on the occasion. Addressing the conference, Dr Kamran said that man had emerged as a dominant creature on the globe and was highly precious product of nature and each individual life was precious. He said that an Australian Jewish scientist Gideon Polya had written in his book “Body Count” that there had been 1.3 billion avoidable deaths during the period 1950-2005 of which 600 million were Muslims. He said that the globe had become a vast battlefield and there was no end insight to the conflict. He said that it had become dangerous because weapons of mass destruction were now available in many places and mankind could kill itself many times.

He lauded the efforts of Prof Dr Rukhsana Kausar and said that she was one of the most outstanding heads of departments of the university. He hoped that students would benefit from the conference. In his address, Prof Dr Nizam ud Din said that social sciences were being neglected in our country and we had not focused on real life issues of Pakistani society including extremism, violence, crime, corruption etc which required studies to be resolved. He appealed to Pakistan government and Higher Education Commission to establish National Commission for Social Sciences to study our social problems. He urged the social scientists to work together for establishment of the commission. He said that we needed to establish counseling centers at community level and hospitals to cope with our problems like extremism, violence, crime, corruption etc. He hoped that the conference would cover various topics of important nature and students would benefit from it. He lauded the efforts of Prof Dr Najma Najam, Vice Chancellor Karakoram International University, for rendering extra-ordinary services as the first chairperson of CDSSHP for highlighting the importance of social sciences in the country. Prof Dr Rukhsana Kausar said that the conference theme encompassed a wide range of applied areas of Psychology. She said that conference coincided with the golden jubilee celebrations of PU Department of Applied Psychology. She said that the scientific programme offered a range of oral presentation, poster presentations, symposiums, keynote speeches, special lectures and panel discussions. In the inaugural session, Prof Daniel Christie from USA spoke on peace psychology, Prof Dr Cecilia A Essau from UK spoke on Development Psychology, Prof Dr Jitendra Mohan from India spoke on Positive Psychology, Prof Dr Jorg W Huber from UK spoke on Health Psychology and Prof Dr Jahanzeb Khan from Pakistan addressed the participants. Later, various sessions of the conference were held at Al Raazi Hall of Undergraduate Study Centre.