Daily Times

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Centre of Excellence on Countering Violent Extremism (CoE CVE) in collaboration with Community Resilience Activity – North (CRA-North) on Tuesday organized a two-day scholarly dialogue on countering violent extremism.

Caretaker minister for higher education Justice (retired) Irshad Qaisar and Secretary for higher education Muhammad Daud Khan participated in the dialogues. The experts representing different sectors of society including political figures, religious leaders, media persons, civil society organizations (CSOs), academic researchers, scholars, and legal experts also participated in the event.

Terming this dialogue the first of its kind the Chief Coordination Officer of the Centre of Excellence on Countering Violent Extremism Dr. Ayaz Khan said that this dialogue primarily aims to facilitate the participants’ discussions on the recent legislation forming the ‘Research-Based Centre of Excellence on Countering Violent Extremism in KP’ and related components such as CVE research activities, CVE strategies, and action plans. Secretary for higher education Muhammad Daud Khan in his opening remarks told that in the dialogue discussions on Violent Extremism drivers and causes of extremist trends; counter violent extremism (CVE) policy framework and implementation mechanism including its communications management approaches, countering violent extremism practices in Pakistan, roles of different sectors of KP society for CVE, CVE engagement within educational institutions, and other relevant topics such as peace, inter-faith harmony, social cohesion, and civic engagement was held.

Caretaker Minister Irshad Qaisar in her concluding remarks added that the session assisted the Centre of Excellence on Countering Violent Extremism in gathering baseline information regarding the aforementioned issues and a better understanding of areas of collaboration that it can pursue as a future engagement with these experts. The center will also compile a report by consolidating the experts’ opinions on how the Centre of Excellence on Countering Violent Extremism can plan and develop counter-violent extremism activities in the KP Province, he added.