APS martyrs remembered

Lahore: Speakers at a peace seminar and inauguration ceremony of a week-long awareness campaign urged the exigency of peace and harmony in the society. The seminar was organised on Friday at University of the Education, Bank Road Campus in collaboration with Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) to commemorate and pay homage to martyrs of APS Peshawar. Weeklong-activities to create awareness among the youth will be organised across the province at selected universities.

Addressing the occasion, PHEC Director General Dr Shahid Saroya highlighted the importance of universities and youth in promoting peace and tolerance in the society. “The united we stand, the stronger we will be to uproot the menace of terrorism,” he emphasised. He pledged that PHEC would continue its support to various initiatives aimed at promoting values of harmony, co-existence, tolerance among university faculty and students.

University of Education Vice-Chancellor Dr Rauf-e-Azam said sacrifices of students and staff of APS Peshawar would be remembered. He was of the view that effective implementation of National Action Plan could be helpful in bringing up peace and stability in the society. “To ensure peace in society, no laxity be tolerated. Peace requires domination not submission,” he said. He emphasised the students to play their active role in building a peaceful and tolerant society.

A number of faculty members, students and media persons attended the event. The students through various performances paid tribute to the martyrs. On this occasion, a painting exhibition was organized as well. The visitors showed keen interest in the artwork of students.

Conference: Punjab University (PU) Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Zafar Moeen Nasir has called upon the students and faculty members to work on innovative ideas which could serve the nation. According to a press release, he said this while addressing the concluding ceremony of an international conference on solid state physics organised by PU Centre of Excellence in Solid State Physics (CSSP).

Former GCU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Khaleeq ur Rehman, CSSP Director Prof Dr Shahzad Naseem, foreign delegates, researchers from various academic institutions of the country and a large number of students were present.

There were 20 keynote lectures delivered by the experts from UK, Denmark, Brazil, Italy, Turkey, Germany, China, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Around 60 lectures were given by researchers from UK, Germany, Korea, Malaysia and Pakistan.

Dr Zafar Moeen Nasir said this was one of the basic responsibilities of universities to serve the humanity through creation of new knowledge. He said, "We must bring about positive change in society through innovative projects." He appreciated Prof Dr Shahzad Naseem on organising the conference and taking several other initiatives in the centre.

Prof Dr Shahzad Naseem said the conference had provided an excellent opportunity to the researchers and students to interact with each other and share ideas and experiences. He said over 500 papers were presented with around 250 posters, and this was an unprecedented number in any conference in Pakistan. He said selected papers from the conference would be published in the journals associated with the conference. Meanwhile, PU Centre for Clinical Psychology (CCP) organised one-day training workshop on "Mind-Body Techniques to Overcome Trauma, Pain and Illness."