MIRPUR (AJK):(Parliament Times) Seasoned bureaucrats, academicians, jurists, media personnel and students have emphasized for the performance of collective role, through mutual collaboration among universities, media and law enforcement agencies for promoting the spirit of tolerance and discouraging the trend of extremism in the society.
The speakers including chief justice of Azad Jammu & Kashmir Justice (Retd) Muhammad Azam Khan, Vice Chancellor of the state-run Mirpur University of Science & Technology (MUST) Prof. Dr. Habib ur Rehman (Sitara e Imtiaz), Registrar MUST Engr. Prof. Muhammad Waris Jirral, Commissioner Mirpur Division Zaffar Mahmud Khan, DIG Police Mirpur Range Rashid Naeem, Mirpur DC Ansar Yaqoob, SSP Raja Irfan Salim, Director Students Affairs MUST Prof. Shahid Amin, Director MUST Tahir Aslam, senior Kashmiri journalist and Station Head APP Altaf Hamid Rao, Station Director AK Radio Muhammad Shakeel and the varsity’s student Ms. Rubiyaa Zaman expressed these views while addressing a seminar titled ” University – Media – Law Enforcement Agencies Collaboration for Promoting Tolerance and Rejecting Extremism”, hosted by the MUST Varsity at Local Hotel Grad Regency Friday night.
strongly observed that the educational institutions use to change the attitude and approach of the society side by side the character-building of the young generation.
They emphasized for maintaining mutual liaison and collaboration among the institutions for ensuring their vibrant and collective role to successfully meet the challenges which the nation and the country was facing in form of extremism and terrorism since past many years. The varsities, speakers underlined, can primarily perform an affective role to this direction through the mutual cooperation and collaboration of the law enforcement agencies besides both the print and electronic media from local to national level.
Speakers further urged the need to “study, teach, and practice tolerance – and to instill it in our children, both through education and our own example.
Speakers expressed their hope that that such seminars participated by the experts from the law enforcement institutions, students, academicians and media crew will serve to strengthen the Government’s role as an incubator of tolerance, consolidate the role of family in nation-building, promote tolerance, combat fanaticism among youth, enrich scientific and cultural content and lastly, integrate international efforts in the promotion of such a message.
Speakers also emphasized the need of performance of an effective role of the students for maintaining the unity, integrity, progress, prosperity of Pakistan besides the cohesion and brotherhood for ensuring the emergence of healthy society in true perspective. They also called for refraining from the approach of depriving others of their due right for the sake of ending the sense of deprivation among the concerned people.
“High Social values, moral attitude and best character-building are the key to produce healthy societyâ€, speakers observed and added that the society will have to demonstrate the high values and spirit of tolerance for the sake of religious cohesion and harmony.
Addressing the seminar, Vice Chancellor MUST Prof. Dr. Habib ur Rehman said that his varsity was bent upon to deal with the challenges which could lead to overcome the trends of social injustices in the society. He called for promoting the spirit of collectivism instead of individualism.
MUST, Dr. Habib ur Rehman said, was acting upon to produce quality future architects of the nation through the delivery of quality studies harmonious to the need of the modern age the world-over besides special emphasis upon the character building of its students through seasoned faculty in at least two dozens of disciplines in science, engineering, social sciences, arts and others besides the higher general disciplines.
The Vice Chancellor vowed to encourage the due role of his University, faculty and the students for promoting the spirit of tolerance besides discouraging and rejecting all sources of extremism through the due mutual cooperation and collaboration of the law enforcement institutions besides all available means of print and electronic media – in line with the needs of hour.
Expressing his views on the Role of Print Media in Promoting Counter Narrative Kashmiri journalist Altaf Hamid Rao said that the latest reports followed by a survey of the relevant research landscape, presents a corpus of academic and grey literature that has been identified as relevant to the real-world challenges of how media and communications may be used to counter violent extremism.
He said that the question raise that how can media and communications be used to counter identity-based violence or Violent extremism ? He continued that there was growing concern among media stakeholders, governments and NGOs around the world that increasingly successful communication strategies are being deployed by a variety of state and non-state actors that threaten international stability, social cohesion, and human rights in various parts of the world.
This trend shall have to be discouraged through collective efforts, mutual cooperation and collaboration among media, educational institutions, civil society and the law enforcement agencies to discourage extremism for ending terrorism from its roots, he suggested.
The seminar was largely attended by eminent icons of the local civil society including lawyers, senior journalists, faculty members and students of the Mirpur University of Science & Technology, high ranking officials of Mirpur division and district administration, parents and top officials of other law enforcement agencies’
