It’s time for the youth of Sindh to come forward and play a role to promote peace and social harmony between people of different ethnicities, tribes and religions in the society.
This was observed by speakers at a two-day workshop on Peace and Conflict Management organised by the Sindh Community Foundation (SCF) in collaboration with the Toyota Foundation.
SCF Executive Director Javed Soz, Sindh Hari Porhiat Council’s Punhal Saryo and journalist Nisar Khokhar among others addressed the participants at the event, where they urged upon the younger generation of the province to play their role in peace-building process at community and regional levels.
Saryo said the entire South Asian region is threatened by violence. “Increasing poverty, inequality and absence of rule of law are the main reasons of peace instability in the region,” he added.
He said that extremism and intolerance are increasing in the society and all segments of the society must play their role effectively for the restoration of peace.
Soz was of the view that social injustice and inequality in Sindh is leading to conflicts. Through the information collected by locals, there are more than 300 small and large conflicts among tribes in the five districts of Sindh, he said.
“The people living in these restive districts are living an uncertain life. Their livelihoods are threatened. The process of overall development is very slow due to the worst law and order situation,” the SCF executive director said.
In the entire process, most youth are being pushed into involvement, as tribal chieftains are making them the “fuel to achieve their condemnable targets”, which has caused loss of lives of a large number of innocent people belonging to different tribes.
He said that there is an urgent need to engage and sensitise youth in peace and conflict management.
Senior writer Khokhar said the media can be an effective tool for promotion of peace and conflict management process.
The conference attracted around 70 participants from the five districts hit by tribal conflicts, including Sukkur, Shikarpur, Kandhkot, Ghotki and Jacobabad.
The participants lauded the initiative to educate them for the cause of promoting peace and harmony in their respective areas. The youngsters were educated on conflict management through engaging them in group activities and presenting their opinion on various natures of conflicts in Pakistan and on international level.
At the end, the Youth Peace Network was formed with an objective to take long term activism and advocacy for peace in Sindh.