LAHORE: In order to promote peace, tolerance and harmony at university campuses, 24 leading public sector universities of the Punjab have prepared concrete action plans at regional and university levels. Under the joint venture of University of Education and Punjab Higher Education Commission, these plans were prepared by the Director Student Affairs (DSAs) who are considered the direct points of contact to deal various issues being faced by the universities’ students, reads a press release. According to the three regional plans (Central, North and Southern) based on detailed group deliberations by the DSAs, the universities have agreed to undertake collaborative efforts through organising inter-university cultural, sports, literary, co-curricular competitions and festivals among the university students, strengthening student societies, organising workshops for students to provide them proper perspectives for the promotion of peace, tolerance and conflict resolution, provision of various facilities such counseling through students service centers, organising seminars, peace walks , social media summit, training of office-bearers of all societies of the region on structure, functions and resources, open mind student forum for general students, appointment of peace proctors at departmental level. They have also agreed to avail one another’s experiences and expertise aimed at safe, peaceful and tolerant university campuses. In this regard, regional forums of the universities would be established. The DSAs also suggested to the Punjab government to allocate a sum of Rs 500 per student in order to engage the enrolled university students in various extra-curricular and healthy activities in meaningful way. The participants were unanimous of the view that strengthening of directorate of student affairs would be quite helpful in addressing the issues of violence and extremism at the university campuses. Appreciating action plans prepared by the public sector universities, Syed Raza Ali Gillani, Punjab Minister for Higher Education, and Prof Dr Muhammad Nizamuddin, Chairperson Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC), assured their utmost cooperation in effective implementation of the plans. Dr Rauf-i-Azam, Vice Chancellor University of Education Lahore, hoped these action plans would prove a great steps towards promoting peace, tolerance, co-existence and harmony at the university campuses.
