Speakers at a conference here on Thursday stressed the need for collective efforts through a holistic approach to achieve the goals of reconstruction of society in Pakistan.
The conference organized as part of a two-day training session under the ‘Hum Pakistani’ initiative was held at Kohat University of Science and Technology (KUST). At least 70 persons from police, revenue department, and members of local government participated in the training session.
The opening session was attended by Federal Minister for Narcotics Shehryar Afridi, AIOU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Ziaul Qayyum, Center for Social Reconstruction AIOU Director Prof Dr Nasir Mahmood and deans and members of different faculties of the university.
Hum Pakistani has been recently launched by the Allama Iqbal Open University. The initiative has been designed to sensitize the locally influential people about their role in the reconstruction of the society. The team of the trainers at the session consisted of nominees from AIOU, SDPI and the PPC. The 10 themes of Hum Pakistani were unfolded through different kinds of activities and simulations. The participants hailed the initiative and vowed to help the cause of national rebuilding and revamping of the society.
In their addresses, the speakers said that it is through peaceful co-existence and mutual respect that sustainable development and true peace can be achieved. The opined that 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.
Laying greater focus on reconstruction of the society and national integration through community-based activities, they underlined that the universities should offer a helping hand in policy making at the national level by fostering intellectual discourse. They said the Hum Pakistani is another initiative of Pakistan to reach out to the people at the grass-root level 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. They stressed the need to popularise the ‘Hum Pakistani’ narrative to rebuild society in a positive direction and address the socio-economic challenges faced by the country.
Later, the participants of the training and resource persons were awarded with training certificates and shields.
