Pak to Name Varsity after Guru Nanak

June 19, 2007

Source: The Times of India

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Pak_to_name_varsity_after_Guru_Nanak/rssarticleshow/2132401.cms

NEW DELHI: The Pakistan government has cleared a proposal to set up an international university named after Guru Nanak Dev near his birthplace, Nankana Sahib, according to Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) spokesman Diljit Singh Bedi.

The news was conveyed to an SGPC delegation which returned from Nankana Sahib on Saturday. Last year, when SGPC was celebrating the 400th anniversary of the martyrdom of the sixth guru, Arjan Dev, Pakistan prime minister Shaukat Aziz announced there would soon be a university in Pakistan in the name of a Sikh guru.

"The blueprint for the proposed university is being prepared. It will be called Baba Guru Nanak International University. It will be spread across 2,500 acres of the gurdwara land," Bedi said.

Consultative groups from both countries are brainstorming on various aspects of the planned university. SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkad, who was one of the members of the delegation that returned from Pakistan on Saturday, said he has put forward his set of suggestions.

He has asked for a research centre to be set up on university premises, where extensive and authentic studies will be carried out on the life of Guru Nanak Dev. "The university may also introduce studies on the life of Guru Nanak as a separate course," he said.

He has also proposed transliteration of the Gurmat literature from Gurmukhi script to the Shahmukhi script so that Nanak studies are easily adopted by Pakistani students.

Besides, Makkad has suggested that the architecture of the university building be according to the Sikh style, resembling that of Khalsa College in Amritsar.