LAHORE - Provincial Minister for HR&MA and Interfaith Ijaz Alam Augustine has said that the priority of the Punjab government was to promote peace, religious harmony and tolerance, while the government of PTI is willing to set up a peaceful environment across the country.

He said that campaign to curb the hate mongering and stigmatizing different groups for allegedly spreading COVID 19 in the country has been appreciated at a large scale. In this regard role of welfare institutions being applauded at every level especially role of YDF appreciated CM Punjab regarding launching a media campaign by the ministry with the support of Youth Development Foundation (YDF), an organization working on peace of faith and harmony and comprised messages of peace from religious scholars from different sects and religions.

The Minister said that he had presented spotlight report of this campaign titled “A Campaign to Counter Hate and Discrimination during COVID-19” to the honourable Chief Minister of Punjab, Sardar Usman Buzdar. He expressed these views during a meeting with representatives of different welfare organizations at human rights camp office on Thursday.

CEO YDF Shaid Rehmat briefed that the campaign executed by YDF and the ministry covered Lahore, Okara, Multan, DG Khan and Bahawalpur.

The YDF team collaborated with the ministry and recorded messages of religious leaders from different sects and religions. These messages were aired on TV channels, Radio channels, Cable Television networks and platform of social media. Those interviewed for messages include Allama Raghib Naeemi, Allama Tahir Ashrafi, Allama Muhammad Akbar Hussain, Allama Abdul Khabir Azad, Bishop Sebastian Shaw, Ali Akbar Natiq and others.

The Minister said that CM Punjab told him that he had himself seen billboards, banners and streamers carrying the messages that discouraged blame game regarding spread of COVID-19 in the campaign.