Daily Times

LAHORE: Speakers at a national peace conference urged that the government to make the National Action Plan (NAP) against terrorism more effective.

They were addressing three-day National “PUR AMN (Peaceful) Pakistan Conference” at a local hotel on Wednesday. According to press release, the Punjab government Umeed Jawan and Bargad Youth Development organization jointly arranged the conference. Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Iqbal Ahmad Khan inaugurated the conference and said that every individual of society has a role in countering extremism and terrorism and only government could not do it.

While, families of victims of terrorism demanded the government to ensure justice and urged the state to protect children of Pakistani nation. They said that do not need any financial help to them but only justice required. One of the mothers of APS victims has said “We don’t know who are terrorists and Taliban and What we know is justice for our killed children added that their killers should be arrested and sentenced in front of us”. They also demanded that government seriousness in countering terrorism and investing more and more on education for a bright future of the country.

They said that KPK was not part of Pakistan and should parents of victims of APS Peshawar forget their children. Parents urged that constituting of judicial commissions to look into investigations of APS Peshawar killings. Addressing with the participants, PML-N MNA Shaista Pervez Malik assured that full support to the parents of victims of APS Peshawar. She said that this war of an ideology and we would have to fight against it collectively. She said only parents could feel the grief of the victims’ parents. Wife of Education Minister Punjab Rana Mashood Ahmed Khan and other parliamentarians gave shields as token of remembrance to the victim families.

The conference session on NAP to counter terrorism urged the government to make this plan more effective and inclusive. They said that a counter narrative is missing in the plan. Speakers of the session senior journalists Arif Nizami, Omer R Qureshi, Faisal Sabzwari of MQM, and Sardar Vickas Mokal of PMLQ addressed the session. The speakers said that countering terrorism was not possible without de-radicalization of society and making it part of the strategy. They said the NAP strategy should be inclusive and role of society was important in countering extremism added that no government could implement it solely.

Sabiha Shaheen of Bargad said that objective of the conference was to promote peace and engage youth in constructive activities. She said that conference would also discuss NAP and its implementation strategy. Sarwat Jahan of Umeed Jawan said that peace and countering extremism was a collective effort and every citizen should play its role. Sidra Iqbal, representing youth said that extremism has spread across the country and could not be addressed as only the issue of a class or related to education. She said now educate youth of well off families were found engaged in extremism and terrorism because of an ideology.

The conference aims to pay tribute to martyrs of terrorists in incidents and discuss National Action Plan implementation to tackle terrorism. Meanwhile, the conference would continue till Friday and discuss role of youth in peace, role of media in tackling extremism, cyber extremism and youth and democracy. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif would be the chief guest on Friday.