By Ashrafuddin Pirzada
LANDIKOTAL: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in collaboration with the National Counter Terrorism Authority(NACTA)and Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS)on Sunday arranged a session to motivate youth to play an important role in promoting peace and tolerance in society.
The day-long session was organized at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Peshawar.
A score of university students, teachers and officials from Pakistan Peace Collective, the National Counter Terrorism Authority and faculty members of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies attended the session. The main aim of the session was to promote peace, tolerance and co-existence.
Professor doctor Babar Shah, NACTA official Mehreen Maqsood, doctor Jamil Chitrali and Khuram Shehzad delivered their worthy presentations.
Mehreen stressed exchange and cooperation programs between universities and seminaries students that would establish ties and promote tolerance and peace among the students. She said universities should expand scholarship opportunities for seminaries which would bring students close to each other.
Doctor Babar Shah welcomed the organizers for bringing up the really important topic and thanked NACTA and the Ministry of Information for arranging a day-long fruitful session for university students. He said if they do not focus on youth sensitization and motivation for peace and tolerance they could not be out of the FATF grey list.
Shah said he was optimistic that the technological experiences of the 20th century and linking seminaries with universities would play a role in durable peace, tolerance and co-existence. He said unfortunately terrorism in different shapes caused destruction around the globe. He said Pakistan and Afghanistan were severely affected. He said both the countries socially, economically and educationally rendered sacrifices.
He said the government recently brought a new law through which charitable money being transferred from abroad could not go into the wrong hands and stop money laundering.
Doctor Jamil Ahmad Chitrali expressed that to come out of the FATF grey list they need to be very careful while donating money to any particular individual or organization within the country. He said it was the right time to support state-sponsored campaigns, policies and legislation rather than showing sympathies to those who did not have any legal ways of interfering in such things.
Khurram Shehzad exercised stress on youth to disseminate the positive message in their circle so that the maximum number of people could be sensitized. He said students were raising various questions about FATF, fake news and safer charity mechanism which he entertained with the help of expert seniors.
The session ended with a vote of thanks from the Director and faculty members of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies University of Peshawar
