that promote equality.
He said Punjab government was treating students from minority sections in a well way offering them scholarships.
He praised government endowment fund to help needy and intelligent students in the studies offering reasonable scholarships.
He said: “Our identity is Pakistan and in the world we are not known as minorities or majority but Pakistanis”. He said Punjab government fully supports such initiatives to safeguard the rights of minority.
Khalil Tahir Sindhu, who was representing Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, said the government has taken many good steps to shun extremism and hate speech that incites to mob violence against minorities and marginalised sections of society.
He said there is need to end root-cause of all such discriminations against minorities.
Ayesha Ghaus, Punjab Finance Minister, offered support to the minority sections for listening to their issues and problems all the time.
Romina Khurshid Alam said the objective of the commemoration is to reassure religious minorities in Pakistan that the majority stands with them as fellow citizens of the country. She urged the need to promote diversity by showing equal acceptance for people of all religions.
Sabiha Shaheen said aim of the campaign is to build public and policy imperatives through youth engagement for freedom of religion and equal citizenship for all and to provide a platform to support the National Action Plan to counter terrorism announced by the government in December 2014.
She also took oath from the participants of the conference to promote the slogan of “Green for White” in their areas so that we can make this society peaceful and tolerant.
Asif Aqeel, an activist, in his presentation, gave historical background how the illiterate Christian community members were inhabited from rural areas to the urban areas for the jobs of sweepers.
He said such advertisements in press from government departments offering the posts of sweepers and cleaners only for non-Muslim further increases discrimination and sense of deprivation. Why not Muslims can do these jobs in government departments, he questioned.
The organisers appealed to the youth to support the campaign to ensure respect and rights of minorities.
The Interactive Resource Centre (IRC) had a theatrical performance on Youhanabad twin blasts in churches last year. While participant students also had a “selfie video campaign”, drum beating by Goonga Sayeen.