PESHAWAR – Speakers at a seminar urged the international community to recognise the courageous efforts of Malala Yousufzai for promotion of education and peace in the country and name her along with her three other fellows for Noble Peace Award.
“It is time to take practical steps to root-up terrorism and militancy from Pakhtuns’ soil and establish sustainable peace in the region, the key note speakers stressed while addressing a seminar titled on “Global Day of Action to Support Malala Yousafzai”. The program was organised by an NGO Citizens’ Rights and Sustainable Development here at Peshawar Pres Club on Saturday.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Information, Mian Iftikhar Hussain while addressing the seminar as the chief guest eulogised the courage of Malala Yousufzai to raise voice for education and peace in restive Malakand. “It is the first and foremost duty of the elected government and security forces to take proactive steps to purge off the menace of terrorism and militancy from this region.”
He added that terrorists did not have any religion or creed, because targeting innocent people including women, children and religious places, were their cowardly acts through which they tried to hide their failure.   
Mian Iftikhar also claimed that after successful military operation in Malakand division, Taliban network had been completely dismantled.
He said now more than 80 per cent people were against Taliban, as most of the innocents were affected in the merciless acts of terrorists.
Reaffirming the ANP-led provincial government’s commitment, he said they were carrying out proactive action to get rid of terrorism. “But unfavorable and imbalanced policies and lack of support both at national and international levels existed.”
The minister stressed the need for adopting a joint strategy by the war-affected Afghanistan, the United States and Pakistan to chalk out a peace initiative mechanism at individual level, as earlier several experiments were remained fruitless in the past.

The States should also initiate a process of negotiation and dialogue with the Taliban real leadership, he maintained and added the individual efforts by the US with Taliban in Qatar had remained meaningless.
Mian Iftikhar also called upon the stakeholders in war against terror to end their opportunistic definitions of ‘good and bad Taliban’ and form a unified approach to deal with the problem of terrorism. He vowed to carry on the fight against Taliban unless the fanatics were rooted out from every corner of the country.
Meanwhile, the constituent institutes of the University of Peshawar (UoP), Jinnah College for Women and Hakim Abdul Jalil University of Peshawar College, observed the United Nations Day for Malala Yousufzai by arranging separate ceremonies.
The day was marked by paying rich tribute to the great girl education activist by the students and staff of the colleges. The students viewed the contribution of Malala Yousufzai towards the enhancement of female literacy rate as commendable, and hoped that her sacrifices would lead to educating, the more than ten million children who are deprived of school education in Pakistan.