Shehbaz Sharif says mischievous minds targeting religion are enemies of world peace n Govt decides to observe Yaum-e-Taqaddus-e-Quran on July 7 n Summons joint parliamentary session to formulate national strategy.

ISLAMABAD  -  The federal government Tues­day decided to observe Yaum-e-Taqaddus-e-Quran on Friday (July 7) to hold countrywide protests demonstrations against the desecration of Holy Quran in Sweden and convene a joint par­liamentary session a day earlier.

The decision was made on in a meeting chaired by Prime Minis­ter Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad to discuss the issue of the dese­cration of Holy Quran in Sweden. It was decided that protest rallies would be held on Friday across the country to condemn the act.

The prime minister appealed to the nation, including all the polit­ical parties, to participate in the protest to convey a united mes­sage to the mischievous minds. Besides, the government would also convene a joint session of the parliament on July 6 to for­mulate a national strategy on the issue and represent the nation’s sentiments and feelings through the parliamentary forum.

The joint session would also adopt a resolution to condemn the desecration of the Holy Quran.

The prime minister, also the president of the Pakistan Mus­lim League-Nawaz, instructed the party to participate in the Yaum-e-Taqaddus-e-Quran and hold countrywide rallies.

He told the meeting that the sanctity of the Holy Quran was a part of the Muslims’ belief for which all of them were united. He said that the astray minds were toeing a nefarious agenda of fanning the negative trend of Islamophobia.

Prime Minister Shehbaz said that nations and leadership be­lieving in peace and co-existence should contain the violent forces infested by the Islamophobia and religious biases. He believed that the violent mindset targeting the religion, sacred personalities, be­liefs and ideologies were in fact the enemies of the world peace.

He said that the forces believ­ing in peace and interfaith har­mony should play their role at the international level to get rid of such negative trends.

Meanwhile, Prime Minis­ter Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday stressed on according high pri­ority to the public welfare projects, besides maintaining quality and transparency of the ongoing development projects. He said preference should be given to commencement of those projects which were aimed at development and prosperity of youth and women’s empowerment. 

The prime minister issued these directives while chairing a high- level meeting on uplift projects under the current fiscal year. The meeting was attended by Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar, Minister for Defence Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal, PM’s Adviser Ahad Khan Cheema, PM’s Special Assistants Malik Ahmad Khan and Shaza Fatima Kha­waja, and other relevant authorities, the PM Office Media Wing said in a press release.

The meeting was apprised of the progress on the develop­ment work during the fiscal year 2023-24 and a detailed brief­ing was also given about the steps for the progress and pros­perity of youth and women, and development of agriculture, industries, infrastructure and other sectors.

The prime minister directed for completion of all the projects within the stipulated period of time and the submission of a comprehensive report over the related mechanism. He said the PM’s Merit Scholarship initiative was being launched across the country, including Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir.

The meeting was further briefed that under the PM’s Youth Programme, distribution process of laptops among the talented youth would commence soon.