ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Interfaith Harmony and Middle East Tahir Ashrafi on Saturday said that dialogue did not mean to change others’ views but to tolerate each other to bring peace and harmony in the society.
“We need to change our behaviour and discourage violence,” he said, addressing the launching ceremony of “Charter of Peace” during one-day event “Dialogue Pakistan 2022” organised by Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS).
Ashrafi advised the participants to own minorities living in their specific areas and learn to tolerate each other’s point of view rather than imposing their own thoughts on others.
He said that the biggest question was how to change the violent behaviours prevalent in the society?
The SAPM urged the need to adopt soft approaches to address rampant violent behaviours in the society.
SAPM on Information and Broadcasting Raoof Hasan in his remarks said that they were constantly focusing on external peace but the element of internal peace was missing from the dialogue. “We cannot attain peace by fighting but by bringing people together and by sharing ideas,” he said and added, “We should gather people for peace and not guns and ammunition.”
Political leader and member Balochistan Assembly Sana Ullah Baloch taking part in the session on “The future of parliament, constitution, and democracy” said that Parliament should be responsible, true representative and responsive to all crises including that of governance and economy and deplored that the present parliament didn’t fulfil all three criteria.
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Qamar Zaman Kaira urged that masses and civil society would have to play their role, and public pressure needs to be built on the institutions to ensure that the same could function properly and deliver. Former National Security Advisor Lt Gen Nasser Khan Janjua (retd) taking part in the session on “Taliban’s Afghanistan, and challenges for Pakistan” said that the future of the region lies in connectivity and Pakistan can become a trade corridor of Asia by getting access to Central Asian States through Afghanistan. “Afghanistan is our partner for the future.”
Ambassador of Netherlands to Pakistan Wouter Plomp said that youth was part of the solution given they were provided opportunities to think rationally. The concerns about Single National Curriculum (SNC) must be addressed to make the syllabus inclusive, he added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022