ISLAMABAD: The inculcation of nationalism and democratic values in the young people would help harness larger benefits of a peaceful Pakistan, said former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Wednesday.
He shared these views while inaugurating the youth peace conference “Together for Tolerance”. The conference was well represented by the youth representatives from 28 cities to mark the World Peace Day. He asked the leadership of different sectors and segments of society to vigorously take the young people on board for their active role in their respective fields.
“Dynamic youth is our future that is 65 percent of the total population, and we cannot afford to lose their potential and active participation in the development process,” he noted.
Gilani said, “Who knows the importance of peace more than us who have been suffering from terrorism for the last two decades. Only youth with their positive attitude and productive initiatives can dispel the image that Pakistani youth is engaged in negative agenda against anyone.”
He added, “As we are celebrating World Peace Day, peace has many meanings but in our current scenario peace is about co-existence and acceptance. Accepting others for what they are, their backgrounds and thought. One of the reasons the societies flourished in the Islamic era was the peaceful and tolerant governments who supported everyone. In Spain, due to this, arts and other sciences grew and impacted the entire continent of Europe. Therefore, peace is the most fundamental of human needs, without which we are no better than animals.”
“In 2011, I awarded the National Peace Prize for Youth to Malala Yousafzai and later world recognized her efforts and gave her Nobel Prize. I see many potential Edhis and social activists and entrepreneurs amongst the youth,” he concluded.
Team leader of the conference, Zain Baloch, told Daily Times that the more responsibility of promoting peace and tolerance among the youth is on the shoulders of the politicians and clerics. When they start behaving as mature leadership, the youth ultimately would follow in their footsteps. The hostile attitude of the political and religious leadership is damaging the entire fabric of the society, he added.
Baloch urged the government to take steps to engage young people in different productive initiatives, including arts, culture, environmental improvement, gender development and health and ecotourism.
He said the revival of co-curricular activities and sports in the educational institutions would also help improve tolerance and peace in the society.
“In the absence of the national youth policy and action programme for youth, we shall not expect any vibrant change in our society. Let’s work together for a creative and inclusive engagement of our youth in every sphere of life,” Baloch said.
He said further Together for Tolerance is Pakistan’s indigenous youth movement that is out on a mission to build muscles of tolerance across the country.
“As part of this mission, we have travelled to different parts of the county to find the energetic and potential representatives to take the message to their peers.” Mustafa Shahbaz, lead trainer, said Together for Tolerance would be taken to the global level in phase-wise process to showcase the potential of Pakistani youth and dispel the current image of the country.
“We need to have inter-sector, inter-provincial and interfaith harmony to promote peace and tolerance not only in the country, but across the world.
