ISLAMABAD: Parliamentarians, representatives of the civil society, academicians and policymakers Wednesday unanimously emphasised the need to review the educational policy and ensure training of teachers to eliminate terrorism from the country. Speaking at a seminar titled ‘Promotion of Interfaith Harmony and Coexistence in the light of Paigham-e-Pakistan’, speakers said that Pakistan could become a peaceful country by acting upon the Charter of Madina. They said that no country could progress without granting religious freedom to its citizens. They said that ‘common faith centres’ should be established at various places of the country to enable people to practice their religion there. The seminar was presided over by International Islamic University Rector Professor Dr Masoom Yasinzai. MNAs Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, Asiya Nasir, Robina Khurshid Alam and prominent scholars from Hindu, Christian, Bhai, Sikh community and others attended the seminar. Rubina Khursheed Alam read out a joint declaration saying that the declaration was in continuation of Paigham-e-Pakistan adopted on May 26, 2017, at a national seminar on ‘Reconstruction of Pakistan Society in the light of Mithaq-e-Madinah’ under the chair of the president of Pakistan. The joint declaration said that all citizens, irrespective of their faith should have the freedom and right to practice their religion. “Every citizen has the right to employment sans discrimination. The religious sentiments of all the communities are important and reciprocal for each other. Such social and religious reciprocity requires mutual respect and tolerance in the subjectivity of faith,” the declaration added. It said that all Muslim and non-Muslim citizens should be treated with absolute equality. Places of worship, religious leaders and religious sentiments of all religions should be respected. It went on to say that interfaith religious and theological differences might not be debated without strictly following the ethics of disagreement. Interfaith dialogue is a legitimate tool for advancing harmony and coexistence. It should be promoted as a policy for maintaining peace, harmony and co existence in the society. It called for arranging lectures, seminars, speeches and conferences to promote mutual respect, harmony and cooperation with other religious communities. Moreover, it said that religion-based hate speeches must be discouraged and should be penalised under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997. Heads of local governments should be given ‘Justice of Peace’ powers to mitigate interfaith segregations and polarisations, it said, adding that all institutions of state should discourage faith-based discrimination and persecution. It proposed to introduce a subject of interfaith harmony, tolerance and peaceful co-existence as a compulsory subject in all primary and higher secondary schools of Pakistan. It added that religious scholars of all the faiths must be made obligatory to promote nationalism, humanism, social cohesion and interfaith harmony in their respective religious gatherings on a weekly basis. The declaration said that nobody should be allowed to defame Pakistan and its ideological norms on the basis of differences of faith. It said that a corps of volunteers of peace should be raised by all religious communities to promote and protect social cohesion and added that examples from the life of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) should be included in curricula to symbolise interfaith harmony. Last but not the least, religious leaders and scholars may be invited to visit religious places of other religious communities to develop interfaith harmony, it concluded. Published in Daily Times, October 19th 2017.