Rawalpindi - Students at a poster competition on Thursday highlighted the forces disrupting peace.
As many as 113 posters prepared by the students of fifteen secondary schools from the region were put on display at the Rawalpindi Arts Council (RAC) on Thursday.
The poster competition was organised by Islamabad Devcom Centennial Leo Club (IDCLC) and Development Communications Network (Devcom-Pakistan) in collaboration with the Beaconhouse School System (BSS) Northern Region to commemorate the International Day of Peace.
Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) Lubna Rehan Pirzada, Member National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) Chaudrhary Muhammad Shafiq, Chief Marketing Officer Madina Mall Syed Abulhassan Rizvi and the Executive Director Devcom-Pakistan Munir Ahmed were the guests of honour at the prize distribution ceremony hosted by Khadija Akhtar.
Introducing the peace poster competition, Devcom-Pakistan Executive Director, Munir Ahmed said the competition was organised to inculcate passion for peace among the secondary school students through creative pursuits. We believe the emerging youth is the only future hope in maintaining peace and tolerance if educated and groomed on the actual philosophies of living and working together.
Munir Ahmed said: “peace is not the absence of conflicts but the acceptance of difference of opinion, ethnicity and religion. The older generation has segregated the society-based on the conflicting thoughts of the so-called socio-religious leadership for their vested interests instead of integrating different factions on the common discourse. The youth need to understand the realities and connotations of the actual social and religious theories and practices”.
Riffat Ara Baig, coordinator of the peace posters competition, said the students have shown their creative skills and thoughts in meaningful compositions. The strong visuals quite effectively communicate the message of peace and tolerance. The youth have successfully highlighted the peace disrupting elements and forces, which shows their understanding level of the issues in depth.
MPA Lubna Rehan Pirzada said the Punjab government has taken several steps to enhance education and youth grooming through variety of initiatives and programme. Youth cannot be engaged in peace restoring activities until they are taught the actual meaning of peace that may be derived out of our religion. The creative pursuits would certainly lead the youth to well-groomed citizens.
Chaudhary Muhammad Shafiq said without ensuring the fundamental human rights to every citizen, peace cannot be restored and maintained in our society. He said our religion Islam has defined the rights of every citizen and same are reflected in the universal charters, we only need to implement these charters and practice the actual Islamic teachings.
Haares Munir, the president of Islamabad Devcom Centennial Leo Club, said the club was formed to groom the young leadership and engage them in the community services and environmental management.
We had been declared as the best Leo Club in the Lions Clubs International District 305N2 this year based on the activities that our members had organised for the youth.
He said the tradition of engaging youth in different activities would continue in the days to come.
Minahil, first prize winner of the competition and a student of Beaconhouse Harley Street branch, said it was a big opportunity for the students to show their piece of mind for establishment of peace in the society. More such type of activities shall be given to the students across the board to groom them as positive thinking active citizens.