‘Peaceful co-existence vital to achieve sustainable development’

GILGIT: Speakers at a series of seminars have stressed that sustainable development and true peace can only be achieved through peaceful co-existence and mutual respect.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in collaboration with Paigham-e-Pakistan and Karakoram International University, Gilgit, organised two separate seminars titled ‘Pakistan Towards Peaceful Co-existence’, held at the Karakoram University and District Hall, Gilgit.

While addressing the audience, the speakers said people from different backgrounds are like flowers coming together to make a bouquet. The underlined the need to ignore differences and play a positive role in promoting peace in the country, adding that ‘Hum Pakistani’ is an important initiative in this regard. Eradicating hatred from society necessitates promotion of positive and progressive thinking which can only be achieved through mutual understanding, tolerance and character building of the nation, they maintained.

Praising the district-level community engagement program, the speakers said that such initiatives are required not only to create awareness on social issues and challenges but also help tackle such issues on a district and national level. They insisted that to achieve peaceful co-existence, it is imperative to combat bigotry in the society by being respectful to people of all colours, religions and backgrounds.

KIU Dean of Social Sciences Dr Muhammad Rizwan elaborated the Paigham-e-Pakistan narrative. He said that Paigham-e-Pakistan is a national narrative which was penned down with the collaboration of Islamic Research Institute, International Islamic University Islamabad. He said the narrative has been reviewed and promoted by 5,000 renowned religious scholars from Pakistan, besides being recognised by many international scholars, including the Imam-e-Ka’bah and leading religious scholars from Egypt. He said the narrative has been drafted in conjunction with the Islamic rules, the life of Holy Prophet (PBUH) and the constitution of Pakistan.He said Hum Pakistani is another initiative to reach out to the people at grassroots level in order to sensitize them on various issues, like promotion of interfaith harmony and religious tolerance, building resilience, female education and women rights, nationalism and respect for diversity within the society to ensure inclusivity in the society.

He informed the audience that Hum Pakistani training initiative has already been launched in collaboration with Allama Iqbal Open University, Pakistan Peace Collective and Sustainable Development Policy Institute in Islamabad. He said the same training will be conducted in other districts to orientate the officials of different government departments, academicians, local government representatives and civil society members to promote harmony and peace in the society.

Representing the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Khurram Shahzad briefed the audience on the District Level Engagement Program (DLEP). The program is working to raise awareness on social issues at the grassroots level in 12 districts and students from all over the country have already been engaged through it.

Ayesha Saeed from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting explained various social issues being faced by the society and briefed the audience about the certification program that has been initiated to deal with such problems. She insisted that the success of the program is linked with active participation of the students.