ISLAMABAD-President Dr Arif Alvi has stressed the need for making all possible efforts in collaboration with the mosques to educate around 28 million out-of-school children in the country.
The president, chairing a meeting to discuss the role of mosques in promotion of education, said the religious platform could be used for promotion of literacy in the country.
Caretaker Minister for Religious Affairs, education ministers of Sindh and Azad Jammu & Kashmir, provincial education secretaries, and representatives of Auqaf and Religious Affairs departments attended the meeting.
The president was briefed about the Accelerated Learning Programme. It was told that over 70,000 out-of-school children in Islamabad were enrolled in the schools.
The meeting was informed that the Accelerated Learning Programme Model envisaged the provision of five-year education within 24 to 30 months and enrollment of the out-of-school children, and the the grown-up children, who were deprived of education, could benefit from it.
It was told that the said programme was flexible, focused and low-cost initiative which could also be implemented at the places provided by the community, religious seminaries and second shifts in schools.
Religious Affairs Minister Aneeq Ahmed said the Federal Government would extend all possible facilities to educate the out-of-school children.
The participants of the meeting agreed to formulate a policy paper to utilise the platform of mosques for the education purpose.
The draft of the policy paper would be presented before the Federal Cabinet for Approval.
Meanwhile, President Dr Arif Alvi has reiterated that the government is fully committed to ensure peace, tranquility and equal rights to all citizens irrespective of caste, creed and religion as enunciated in the Islamic teaching, pronounced by Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and laid down by the Constitution of Pakistan.
He said that being an Islamic welfare state, it was their duty to safeguard the basic rights of all religious minorities and reassured that their rights would be completely protected at all costs as the successive governments had been making strenuous efforts in this regard.
Addressing a ceremony held here on Thursday at the Aiwan-e-Sadr in connection with the celebrations of Christmas, the president said Prophet Isa (AS) was an embodiment of peace and affection and these values were much needed in today’s world shaken by strife, conflicts and wars.
He said that teachings of Islam as well as by almost all religions laid emphasis upon the value of human life and when its value was reduced, it gave rise to conflicts. “Wars and carnage are no solutions. My message to the world is: wars must end,” he stressed.
The ceremony was arranged by the ministry of religious affairs and interfaith harmony was attended by parliamentarians, religious leaders and members from different faiths, members of diplomatic corps and a large number of Christian families.
The president referring to atrocities in Gaza, said contrary to the religious teaching of peace and tolerance, the scenes in the world were topsy-turvy. About 19,000 precious human lives in Gaza had been lost but the human hearts had not melted, he added.
He opined that despite the United Nations’ calling for immediate ceasefire and a denunciation by the Pope himself, the carnage of Palestinians including Christians continued where churches besides, mosques were razed to the ground.
The enlightened world advocating the tenets of democratic values was so oblivious to the humanitarian woes in the conflict, he added.
He said when Pakistan Resolution was passed during 1940, a simultaneous resolution over Palestine was also adopted and reaffirmed that the two-state was the only solution to the issue.
The president said in Pakistan, all communities were enjoying equal rights and living with peace.