Nuaman Ishfaq Mughal,
Islamabad: Federal Minister for Defence Production, Zubaida Jalal said that Pakistan’s national narrative was based on religious and cultural independence. She said this while speaking as a chief guest at National Conference on, “Actualization of National Narrative” organised by Pakistan House in Islamabad. She added that Pakistan’s cultural diversity was evident from variety of languages, cultures and faiths in its society. She also emphasized the importance of education for actualization of our national narrative, by highlighting its role in development, peace, justice and equality. Giving her opinion on nationalism, she said that nationalism was one’s willingness to do something for a positive change for his nation.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Qibla Ayaz, Chairman Council of Islamic Ideology, said that the beauty of the 1973 constitution was that all different religious school of thoughts, and secular leaders had signed it. “After 1980s, the regional and international situation blurred our narrative and we were being projected as a nation with violence,” he added.
The conference was also addressed by Barrister Zafarullah Khan, former Minister for Law and Justice. He told the participants that there were three major determining factors of our national narrative; geography, history and religion. He added, the relationship between religion and culture was widely debated in Pakistan, but it was important to understand that when religion coincided with culture, it enriched, but when it conflicted with culture, it distorted.
Aamir Ghouri, Resident Editor, The News said that societies were build on rules not morality, and these rules were ought to be based on the aspirations of the people.
Anchorperson, Capital TV, Aniqa Nisar also spoke to the conference participants. She said that in order to effectively present Pakistani national narrative, it was essential to increase lobbying in other countries. “It is unfortunate, that many of our news channel are in Urdu, whereas India has a comparative advantage as it has many English channels,” she added. While, Sabookh Syed, Blogger and Social Media Activist said that the role of social media had increased substantially during this epoch. Speaking of its main advantage he said that it gave a platform to the unheard people of our society and there were many instances in which the mainstream media had covered a story that originated from social media.
Rana Athar Javed, Director General, Pakistan House said in his concluding remarks that the gap between perception and reality had increased, and hence, it was the responsibility of national media and civil society to play its due part in highlighting the contributions of Pakistan in regional peace and stability.
