LAHORE: The concluding ceremony of weeklong campaign to pay tribute to the martyrs of Army Public School (APS) Peshawar was held at University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) Lahore here on Friday. The weeklong campaign was organized by UVAS in collaboration with the Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) and Inter-University Consortium for the Promotion of Social Sciences (IUCPSS). PHEC Chairperson Dr Mohammad Nizam-ud-Din presided over the concluding ceremony, while UVAS Vice Chancellor Prof Dr TalatNaseer Pasha, Vice Chancellor Government College University (GCU) Lahore Hassan Amir Shah, Vice Chacnellor University of Education (UoE) Lahore Dr Rauf-i-Azam, VC GUC Faisalabad Dr M Ali Shah, Acting VC Bahaudin Zakaria BZU Dr Bashir Ahmed, Senior Columnist Salman Abid and a large number of UVAS students, faculty members and representatives from civil society attended the ceremony. The aim of weeklong-activities was to create awareness among the youth to promoting peace and tolerance in the Pakistani society. Various performances including debate, poetry, musical performances, artwork, and poster presentations featured the campaign held in different universities of Punjab to pay a rich tribute to martyrs of APS Peshawar and highlighted the message of peace. Speaking on the occasion, Prof Dr Nizam-ud-Din paying tribute to the martyrs said that the blood of APS martyrs has united us as a nation against the menace of terrorism. He emphasized that we needed to work at the individual, societal and national level to counter this curse. “PHEC is actively promoting the message of peace and tolerance in the society especially in universities and higher education institutions of Punjab through its various initiatives” he added. Dr Nizam said that there is an exigency to bring the structural reforms into the education system and needed to take serious efforts to counter the curse of terrorism from our society. “We need to revive and strengthen the student societies in our higher education institutions. Beside this, we also need to work for minimizing the role of political parties in student politics” Dr. Nizam added. He maintained that students must obtain skill based education “Punjab HEC has taken several steps to inculcate the market driven skills in students” he added. Dr. Nizam also said that peace is not the responsibility of government only, civil society, and our academic institutions are the equal stakeholders. “Peace is not just a desire, it is a way to achieve the socio-economic development of the country” he emphasized. Prof Dr Talat Naseer Pasha said that in order to counter the terrorism, it was direly needed to bring the level of pauperization down in the society. “Through quality education, we can alleviate poverty and bring peace to our society” Dr Pasha added. He reiterated his resolve to defeat such barbaric and coward terror elements through honing the intellectual skills of the students. VC UoE, Dr Rauf-e-Azam while addressing the ceremony emphasized on collaborative efforts towards peaceful and tolerant university campuses. “We must promote the values of co-existence and harmony in the society among the youth”, he said. The vice chancellors also vowed to undertake joint efforts to uproot the menace of terrorism through an active engagement of university students and faculty in various pro-social and co-curricular activities. Published in Daily Times, December 30th 2017.