Pakistan Dimensions of History

The Present volume comprises the selected papers presented in the 20th Pakistan History Conference held in Karachi on 13-15 April 2005. The three day even became a milestone in the academic life of the country in the sense that after years of lethargy and inaction, the scattered faculty associated with the discipline of History found no only a useful platform to get together but also an opportunity to re-energize itself. As a result of this, a number of subsequent conference were held in different university of the country. Though, the Karachi Conference never claimed nor we, the organizers of the conference, would have ever dared to boast that we had rekindled the spirits of the young historians and teachers of history but we may take pride for being a facilitator in the resurgence of interest in the discipline of history in Pakistan. The 20th History Conference was jointly organized by Pakistan Historical Society and Pakistan Study Centre, University of Karachi. It had the blessings and support of the Hamdard Foundation and its very able and dynamic President, Mohtarma Sadia Rashid who is also the President of Pakistan Historical Society.
Given the nature of the conference the papers presented were diverse both in their themes as well as quality. While deciding for their publication, therefore, it was necessary to set certain standards for their selection. For this purpose, a group of well-qualified and senior editors was appointed. The article in this volume are, therefore, based on the selection made by an Editorial Board comprising professional historians.